BET YOU CAN’T do this writing prompt. Take the 10 random words below and, in the comments, crush writer’s block by creating a cohesive, creative short story tying all of them together! And remember: after (if) you finish, highlight your words and click the bold button to make them stand out and help you determine if you forgot any words. (If you’ve missed previous writing prompts, we BET YOU CAN’T do those, either.)
- Agony
- Double
- Frozen
- Instant
- Motion
- Oval
- Royal
- Rule
- Sorry
- Track
NOTE: Don’t copy and paste from MS Word. Use a program like notepad that removes formatting or just type in the comment field itself. Also, finish your submission, THEN bold the words. Thanks. (And don’t forget to tweet this and share it with your friends.)
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Resources you should check out:
Thesis: Best Damn Theme on the Web
Collective Ink Well: Personalize Your Thesis Theme
Third Tribe Marketing: Marketing done the right way
Story Structure Demystified: Best damn writing book out there
{ 58 comments… read them below or add one }
My life lay frozen in an instant.
I doubled-over in agony.
The motion of the ovals (or were they circles) approached my head.
Pain of royal proportions blackened my eyes and strangled my breath.
My mother had a rule, and I broke it.
“Don’t play in the street,” she’d say.
But this truck ran over my back and left me like roadkill.
“I’m sorry,” I yelled to my family as they rushed like track stars to my side, not knowing if I was dead or alive under the crowd of people hovering over my body.
Getting flattened by a truck is tough.
Hearing the panicked pleas of family is tougher.
OUCH-Y!!!!!
@Ma: It was. I was sledding on the iced streets of winter. I looked back saw the front tire coming at my head and at the last second turned my head. The tire scraped my head as it went by, turning me sideways for the back tired. Had I not flinched, the front tire with most of the truck’s weight would have rolled right over my neck. I’m extremely lucky to be here.
Glad your angel was with you! Can’t even imagine what that would have been like for a mother to witness!!
@Ma: My buddy that was with me when it happened called my family. We lived in a condo complex, so it only took them a few minutes to get there. I remember my mother, brother and sister running up shouting. I remember being afraid I was going to get in trouble. Funny the thoughts that go through a kid’s mind.
That make me shutter just hearing it. Glad you are still with us.
I couldn’t believe that after reading this I find out it was a true story!!! You are a very, very lucky guy. And so are we all, just for having you.
@Shane-that angel saved you for CCC-priceless!
@Cathy: Must be an angel near me. I’ve seen people shot, stabbed, and burned to death in front of me. Could have easily been someone else watching this happen to me so I’m happy it wasn’t.
Oh, the agony of a double-double cheeseburger dripping with mayonnaisic goodness, followed by the frozen decadence of a sinful, strawberry shake! An instant on the lips….a lifetime on the hips!
Gotta keep in motion to keep my body from being a perfect oval! Royal pain to have to exercise, but it’s nature’s rule of over indulging and having to burn it off to keep your sorry ass from being as big as a buick!
Sigh!!!! Guess I’ll just have to run around the track a few times!
NOTE: in order and wistful…am entering a local “biggest loser” type 12-week weight loss challenge starting next week! No more double-doubles for me! (for those of you non-Californians…double-doubles are our In-and-Out Burger commodity)
@Ma: Fantastic, on both fronts (literally and figuratively, huh!)
Margart; You’re too much. (Literary not physical and that‘s good) However, I know of a sure fire weight loss program for you.
Go to a 711 convenience store and get a six pack of Bud from the cooler. Take it to the counter and then throw it through the front plate glass window, turn over the display near the counter and then tell the Pakistani to loan you a hundred dollars or you’ll rip the store apart. You’ll be surprised how much weight you can lose in solitary confinement for three months.
uh, no thank you A…..think I’ll pass on that one! I take it you’ve tried it with success?
I’m actually a really good cook and like healthy yet tasty food. What I lack is discipline and I’m also a procrastinator. I must make myself have food already prepared in the fridge so that I don’t come home late at night from teaching and choose to get fast food in lieu of cooking that late!! The “F word” for me is FOCUS!!
Nice writing!
Try this for the other: no candy, no snacks between meals, no seconds, small portions. If you do get hungry between meals and you feel you must eat, have a hard-boiled egg, eaten very slowly. Have been following this since mid-May and lost 13 lb. already. And late at night, have a big batch of some homemade soup ready(not creamy!), that’ll be the best for when you come home. Just a smallish bowl will do.
Good luck!
Thanks, Sylvia…congrats on the weight loss…when I’ve concentrated before I have managed about 3-4 lbs per week. I love to make a big crockpot of homemade soup and it was on my list of strategies! The other is pre-cut veggies and fruit in baggies that I sprinkle with lime juice and chile powder. Very satisfying. My goal is about 35-40 lbs to start!
@Margaret-another great one is walking in the 3-Day, 60-mile Walk for Breast Cancer. I will be doing my 7th in November in San Diego-I have to-the lost weight is a passing thing
@A–LOL!!! I hope that’s not a personal experience.
@Margaret-it was so vivid, I am drooling – not a pretty sight!
“So are you in or are you out?”
She wondered how he could be so calm, so friendly. James had leaned on the rail of the ferry and put his face to the sun, his hair ruffling in the wind as he talked. And then he’d turned to her, smiled, and asked the question.
“Well?”
“I’m thinking,” she snapped back, annoyed in an instant at his casual friendliness, sick of the boat’s motion, frozen from the damned wind. She should’ve been afraid. But she wasn’t. Wasn’t even sorry.
He chuckled and turned back to gaze at the approaching shore, which only made her furious. A burst of brief rage made her want to hurt him. She wanted to push her thumb fiercely into the oval of his eye. Seeing his face twist in agony would feel good.
Or at least, it would make her feel more in control.
“Here, let me help you.” He turned and set his back against the rail, resting his elbows along its length. “The answer is yes. Because frankly, you don’t have a choice. Better you go to them now before they track you down. You know the rule they live by; they’re probably already hunting you down now.”
He checked his watch. She fantasized gutting him.
But she broke first. “Fine.” The word came out through gritted teeth. “Double fine. You happy?”
And James shrugged. “Not really. You’re a royal pain in the ass. But you have spunk,” he added, examining his nails nonchalantly. “And you have 24 hours. Better get busy.”
@James: Man, do I love this tale. I’ll pester you on Thursday so I can get my next fix. Thanks.
James: Again, you make the CCC words invisible. excelent
This is perfect writing, as I can see it all in my mind’s eye. Including his manicured fingernails.
@James-I envy your immense talent-pure genius!
In numeric order this time:
Oh, the agony of the double whammy of having the intranet and the internet access both frozen, at the very instant both are needed.
The motion of the techs running the oval of the cubical area was frenetic. The pace was enough to almost send me into an epileptic fit, and it was a royal PITA to have to sit around with nothing to do but watch.
When all was said and done, with everything back working again, a tech told me “It was an errant rule in the firewall setup.” He also said he was sorry but, they were unable to track the source of the error.
I told him it was alright because, it was time for me to punch out for the day and go home.
It only took them the last four hours of my workday to resolve the problem but, I get paid anyway. But, if they had listened to my suggestions at the beginning of all this the problem would probably have been found and fixed in fifteen or twenty minutes.
Moral:
Sometimes it is not so bad to be locked out of administrative rights, let them run around, as they get paid more than I, while I get paid to wait.
@Steve: G.A.G.O. right? Let them stew in their own doings.
G.A.G.O?
G.A.G.O? That’s todays world for ya. All that high tech stuff and you still have to punch out at a time clock. (just kidding, I know it’s jusst a figure of speech. Nice writting.
Only certain people have to punch a time clock, but I actually like it as I worked for years as a supervisor putting in 13-14 hour days but, now that I am hourly and they won’t pay overtime, I put in my hours, go home, and forget about work until the next morning.
Still trying to figure out what G.A.G.O. means.
@Steve: I meant G.I.G.O. as in Garbage In Garbage Out. It appears your company is shortchanging people and are suffering the consequences of their decisions. Sounds like you should be running the show.
I used to do it on an overtime basis years ago, but now they have a foreman and three techs (about twenty times the money). They have blocked me from even doing a defrag or anything else.
Oh well, I didn’t want the extra hours anymore anyway.
I did know GIGO, but thought you had come up with something else.
@sefeug @Shane @A – all this geek speak is titillating.
What the hell?
One minute, Stacy was driving to school to pick up her son, the next instant the forward motion of her car slowed to a stop, her engine having quit. Frantically, she looked around trying to figure out how to get to the side without hitting another car when she realized that the other cars surrounding her had stopped as well. She gaped around, her expression frozen in shock, her mouth a perfect oval.
What the hell? No one was moving; well, no car at least. “This can’t be happening,” she muttered to herself. “I have to go get Logan! What the hell?”
Slowly, she opened her door. As she moved from her car, she looked around and saw other drivers and some passengers doing the same. A young man with his hat on backwards. A matronly lady with a pretty royal blue dress. A middle aged man in a track suit. A businessman with the air of impatience trying to make a call on his cell. Another woman, about Stacy’s age, also attempting to use her cell. Stacy narrowed her eyes, scanning the people around her on the street. At least half of them were trying calls on their phones but…
In an instant, Stacy turned and reached into her car, grabbing for her phone, the agony of panic almost causing her to double over in pain. As a general rule, she kept it in her console, but it wasn’t there today. Her hands were shaking as she dug it out of her purse. It was off. Stacy pressed the power button but nothing happened.
“Shit!” Stacy looked around, trying to quell the panic rising in her throat. She reached back into her car and grabbed her purse, throwing it over her shoulder. She slammed the door shut, locked her car and started moving in the direction of Logan’s school. Others around her were also slowly moving from their cars towards the roadside. Stacy weaved in and out of the stalled vehicles, making her way down the road. She was so preoccupied with getting to the school, still a couple of miles away, that she missed seeing the truck door in front of her open. She bumped into the man climbing out of the cab and stumbled back.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She sputtered.
“Not at all, ma’am. No worries,” he returned. She turned to move past him when he asked, “Excuse me, miss, but does your phone work?” She stopped and looked up at him, confusion dancing on her features.
“Uh, no, it’s not. Yours?” she asked.
“No… How strange,” he pondered. “No one’s phone is working, the cars aren’t working, even the radios have quit.”
“I’m sorry,” Stacy said, “I have to go get my son.” She turned and walked on.
O O Sounds sort of UFOish. You got me hooked and that’s hard to do to a non-reader.
Kool Aid: I can’t believe you left it like that!!! Sounds like and impending nuclear war! Nice write. I want more of this.
@A. & Shane – I’m actually going to attempt to run this as a series. We’ll see how it goes…
ok, fess up, Kool Aid….do you have Stephen King stashed in your closet? I’m intrigued for the next installment.
@margaret – no, but I do love his writing
@Kool Aid-I love this-queue up the Twilight Zone music
Short, but stupid
As a rule, you’ll become a sorry son-of-a-bitch with royal blue lips, in instant, double agony if you don’t make track, in a running motion, when being forced to drink frozen Ovaltine.
@A: Okay A. That was your funniest one to date. Short and stupid have a huge welcome mat here at the CCC.
ha ha…..frozen ovaltine….Genius!!! haven’t even heard of ovaltine in years! you must be an old fart like me! I remember my mom used to buy it, but can’t even remember what it tasted like.
You’re right. Ovaltine tasted just like me – an old fart. (I assume)
@A-Short & Stupid hysterical!
“…….”
“Honey, I don’t care about that. You have to get out of here this instant and forget about the whole sorry mess.”
“…….”
“Hah, you don’t know the agony you’re gonna be in when he finds out.”
“…….”
“Well, you know what happened to the last gal who tried to play the double-crossing game with him. Frozen meat in a downtown locker.”
“…….”
“The farther, the better, but they’ll still track you down in the end. A good rule to follow would have been ‘don’t cheat on the boss.’”
“…….”
“Yeah??? What did you expect! You thought it would be cool to date somebody who’s like mob royalty in his own oval office.”
“…….”
“Nobody’s gonna make a motion to save your lying ass. The only reason I’m still talking to you is because I’m your brother, so I have to care.”
“…….”
“Goodbye, honey. And good luck.”
Sylvia; Sounds like a lot is about to happen in this piece.
@sylvia r-great piece of writing- we want more!
Thanks a bunch!
Mr. Macmillan #2
In agony that he could not decipher the present situation, Mr. Macmillan took a double-take of his surroundings. He became frozen by the grandness of what he saw and in that instant as his eyes made motion upwards he found sight of the sky. Somehow Mr. Macmillan had not noticed what surrounded him due to the soft reflective surfaces on both sides of the road in front of his alleged home. The road was merely a facade and somehow contained a content capable of suspending objects on and within it, but also had the appearance as one could fall right through it, somewhat transparent. As he looked through it there was no apparent end downward, neither when he looked up could he find anything to understand where he was in relation to anything else, no bearings. The oval shaped interactive display suddenly announced “5 minutes till lockdown, all who are outside will be inside.” Although startled by the message Mr. Macmillan found people around looking at him a special way as they drifted by him in some form of a hovering chair. They made these curious circle like gestures somehow giving him the feeling that there was something royal about himself. For if there was anything Mr. Macmillan knows it would be that he had never had rule over any person, place or thing. So it came as quite a shock that anyone would look at him with due respect, “sorry to inform you that I am not who you think I am, s..s..sir” he voiced to the interactive display, hesitant to speak to a machine with such a human term. As he voiced his opinion on the matter the interactive display began to emit some form of communication Mr. Macmillan was not familiar with but yet was supremely comforted by. Unfortunately the information was proceeding at a speed much to quick for Mr. Macmillan to track. He could sense an overall feeling of peace and protection and began to sink inside of his alleged home, not through a door, but perhaps through the substance that made up it’s walls. Once again Mr. Macmillan fell into a deep deep sleep.
-DR JUMP
.
nice write. I’d like to see the special effects to this one.
@Devin-it does paint a picture-well done!
@Devin: That’s one, unique, creative story. Carry on, sir.
Death & the Detective Series
===============
Brett could only imagine the agony this poor girl had gone through. The double binding had sliced through her wrists from a last, desperate struggle for freedom.
Her eyes, frozen in a sightless stare, brought an instant chill, no matter how many times Brett saw that same lifeless look. The eyes of the dead haunted him in his 25-years as a homicide detective. They all asked the same soundless question – why?
The waves from Mission Bay stretched long ocean fingers closer to where the body was half-buried.
“Hey Johnson, you’d best get your butt in motion before the Pacific swallows your evidence,” Brett chided.
“Genius doesn’t let a little thing like an ocean get in the way,” the technician smirked.
“Well, Genius, unless your middle name is Moses, kick it up a notch.”
Slipping under the oval confinement of the roped-off area, Brett walked over to the young man, shivering on the boardwalk’s wall. It was more than the early morning chill that had his body shaking in an uncontrollable dance.
A blanket of fog hid the royal blue of the ocean, covering it in shades of mourning. Brett waited as the early morning runner shifted his troubled gaze to his.
“Who could do such a thing?” His voice choked by a sense of horror.
“As a rule, I’d say far too many. I’m sorry, but I need to ask you some questions.”
The runner shifted his gaze to track the slow progress of the body, now wrapped in its plastic tomb.
“Catch the bastard,” he whispered.
“That’s the plan.”
@Cathy: I could read this story all day. Carry on.
WRECKED
The agony of seeing her body double, frozen for an instant in the motion she’d practiced so many times, an oval loop in reverse around the royal blue pace car, was tremendous. The rule of the shoot was don’t watch it if you can’t handle it, but still she felt sorry when the track was blown up underneath her.
@Kelly: Neat! Loved it.
Shane—short-short and in order. I don’t think I’ve ever tried that before. (Harder than long-short!) Glad you enjoyed it. :)
So I’ve been absent from the internet world for a while and I’m way behind! But I’m going to catch up so here’s what I came up with for this one.
*****************************
I pulled the perforated oval-like piece from the side of the frozen goodness that was a large milkshake from McDonald’s. I was sorry that I was feeding all this fast food to my digestive system, but I was bound and determined to win a prize from the collect and win game. And man, was I on track! I was only missing one piece from most of the sets.
Of course, I’d had some instant winners, but only a double cheeseburger here and a large Coke there. I was going for the BIG MONEY! The million dollars. All I needed was the last and ever elusive royal blue game piece. At this rate, however, I was going to spend a million dollars before I won it. For a game that claims in its rules to be “no purchase necessary” I sure was pouring a lot of money into the quest for the million dollars. That’s the gimmick I suppose.
As I peeled away the piece from the cup, the motion of all things, including my heart, ceased to be. The piece was royal blue. Could it be the one? I was 95% sure that it was, but sometimes the mind does play games of its own.
In the complete insanity of the day that followed, however, I completely forgot about the magical game piece stuffed deep into my pocket. The game piece that I later confirmed as the one I lacked.
That’s when I discovered it during a frantic search for the key to the million, fresh out of the dryer: illegible. One can only imagine the agony…