Wednesday Works: Pick a Word and Google It, Write about the Seventh Image

For those of you keeping track, this is day 9 of the May Blog Challenge.

I chose the word “Melts” and I honestly didn’t expect food to come up.

It looks so good, but so bad for you

He was so hungry he would eat anything at that point. Anything that had salt, and flavor and made him feel like he was eating anything other than the cardboard shit his doctor had been feeding him. He missed real food, and he couldn’t believe that he could no longer have it.

It had started just over a year ago, when he had gone to the doctor for a routine check up. The doctor had found high blood pressure and had urged him to correct his diet, exercise more and to not stress as much. He was told that six months after that, they would check his progress again and see how his blood pressure was doing.

Six months later, his blood pressure was even higher and he was complaining of chest pain. So the doctor scheduled an EKG and found cause for alarm. His heart valves were failing and he had an enlarged left side of his heart. So the doctor sent him to a diet specialist who taught him about Cardiac restrictions in his diet. That meant no salt, limited fats, and even less flavor. His wife made sure of that and he was really starting to hate his new, not very satisfying nutrition regimen.

And then, one day when he was out around town without his wife, he saw it, or at least a picture of it in the window of the local deli. Free Melt with the Purchase of a Large Drink touted the sign in the window and he knew it was wrong, but it felt so right.

So he looked around for anyone who would see him duck into the deli and stepped in in just a few steps. He felt as though he was committing a crime, but he was sure the reward would be so worth it. If the actual melt looked anything like the sign, the bread perfectly toasted, the cheese melted just perfectly and the meat grilled to perfection, it would all be worth the supposed jail time his wife would inflict on him if she knew. But as far as he knew, no one would tell her if he bribed them with enough cash.

So he ordered, and watched it get made and put together right before his eyes, and he waited for them to call his pseudonym, Mr. Jones. Then when he went to pay for his drink and receive his free melt, he slipped them a 20 with a wink and slinked to the farthest corner of the deli, where no one could see him through the window. Then he took his first bite.

The taste was better than any other melt he had ever had. Screw his doctors and his wife, he was either going to die from eating what he wanted, or live a shorter life because he could not give up the foods he liked. He refused to be tortured by the blandest diet known to man. So he enjoyed the melt all the way until the last bite, and even sucked the cheese off of the yellow paper beneath the sandwich. He refused to let a drop go to waste. If he fell to the floor and had a heart attack right there in the deli, then so be it, but he was going to die happy.

Later that evening, sitting over a plate of steamed and boiled whatever vegetables, his wife asked him about his day. And he lied, thinking he could get away with what he had done.Only she knew better.

“I can see the cheese on your shirt, Harold”

He would have preferred the heart attack to what ire was to come from her.

Wednesday Works

There are even more changes around here on the blog besides How To Tuesdays! I am very pleased to introduce Wednesday Works. Every Wednesday I will post a piece that I have been working on.

First up, the rest of the May Blog Challenge.

Enjoy!

Tuesday How To: Finding Ideas

The first portion of Tuesday How To is the first step of the writing process: Ideas.

Without ideas, there is no direction in your writing, no way to continue and no way to know if you’re going in the right direction. So let’s stsrt to talk about ideas.

Let me start by saying this: Ideas are Everywhere.

Ideas are everywhere and sometimes we don’t always see them, or understand them. Sometimes they come in a quick flash and sometimes they grow over time. The first step is learning how to find them and keep them. Writing them down is a great start, and adding to them is even better.

Most of the time, ideas come when we least expect them to. We can be scrolling the internet, or watching tv, or even reading a book or a magazine and BAM! An idea strikes. Sometimes it seems like it’s been done before or that it’s too outlandish. Or maybe you don’t have enough information to make it a really great idea. Sometimes, several ideas turn into one, or one idea turns into several.

There are ways to make sure you keep your ideas and make them stronger, but the first step is to find them.

Here are some of the several ways that ideas have come to me:

1. Television
Television is great for ideas. I know how weird that sounds, but there are so many shows and so many ideas on so many channels that ideas are everywhere. In the plots, the dialogue, the action. There are ideas on the television, but with television you have to use a bit of caution. You can take ideas from tv, but you have to change them a little bit. Unless you are writing fanfiction, but that is a completely different field. I have taken several ideas from television, but I have been careful with what I borrow and what I use.

2. The Internet
The Internet is a great tool, for writers and artists. Anyone can use the internet. With the ever increasing use of smart phones and tablets and the thousands of apps coming out every day, ideas are right at our fingertips. I have a lot of accounts on a lot of websites and almost every website has ideas hiding somewhere. From Amazon to Youtube, ideas are all over the web. I have found many ideas on Tumblr, and the NaNoWriMo forums, and even a few from my friends’ posts on Facebook. Even google, and research for some current ideas has given me more ideas. The internet is a wonderful tool.

3. Everyday Life
Everyday life is an excellent source for ideas. Although, like with television you should be careful what you take. If someone tells you something in confidence, you shouldn’t exploit it because it will make a good idea for your book. Private things should stay private. But if you can change things, make it far enough from the truth that that someone could be anyone else, you should be alright. You can always ask, if you are comfortable doing that, but I would tread with caution. Even everyday things like doing laundry and vacuuming can give you ideas, as well as friends and family.

4. Music
Music is super important in my life and for a long time it was just that, music. I have been in choirs and musicals, I have listened to all different types of music and it wasn’t until recently that I realized music can give ideas too. Music was actually how I started writing short stories. At first it was difficult, trying to add all of the lyrics and make it make total sense, but once I let that go and focused on the idea that I thought was most important it began to work a lot better. Sometimes, the only thing that remains from the song is the song title. Try music for ideas if you’re stuck.

5. Books
Books are just as common as television and music, but they have been around for much longer. There are several kinds of books, ranging from fiction and its many facets, to non fiction, self help, encyclopedias and many more. Ideas are all through books, and sometimes they might surprise you. My ever growing series started from a book of prompts that I bought on a whim. Even more ideas can come from fairytales and children’s books.

Ideas are everywhere, but we have to be careful how we use them. Stay tuned next week for more information on ideas.

Where do you find most of your ideas?

Tuesday How To

Welcome to Tuesday How To!

Here is your crash course of how to write from the beginning to the end, finding ideas to finding publishers. As I learn things, so will you. I will share my wisdom, and help you understand and learn some things about writing that you don’t know, or remember some thing that you do.

The first section is all about writing, so let’s get started, shall we?

Writer Life Lesson #15: Write by the Seat of Your Pants

There are as many types of writing as there are writers. No two writers will write the same way and that is a great thing. You could give two writers the same general idea, like say “Pancakes” and one writer could give you a recipe, while another will give you a ten page short story on why they hate pancakes. There are no two writers that write exactly the same, and there are no two writers that plan exactly the same either.

This week’s lesson is about planning, or rather the opposite of planning. Write by the Seat of Your Pants.

Anyone who knows about NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo knows that it is a crazy experience and sometimes your novel does not go as planned. Part of that is the plan I think. Since the goal is to write a novel in a month, and there are things like distractions, and life that get in the way, I think part of the goal is not to plan. I used to be what is called a “pantser”, which means you write by the seat of your pants and even you as the author are surprised at what comes next. A lot of my novels in high school were written like that, and some of them might actually be decent.

So this lesson comes for nearly perfect timing during Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s day 10, which means that the month is a third over, and that also means that if you have been writing for 10 days straight you might be hitting a wall right about now. That’s ok! It’s totally fine to hit a wall, or take a break.

If you haven’t started yet, and still want to work on a novel this month, that’s good too, you still have 3 weeks to get down as many words as you can.

Oh, but what about plot? What about an idea to write for the rest of the month?

Here’s where the lesson truly comes in. Pick an idea, or a character, or a setting and just run with it. No planning, no outlining, no concrete structure. Just a single idea to guide you through the month, or what’s left of it.

A lot of good can come from writing by the seat of your pants. You can find out  things about your characters that make your book completely different, they can excite you like real people do and develop like a real friendship would. They can also be little shits and not want to do a single thing you say, but writing without an outline, without fitting them into a tiny little box of actions, is freeing both for you as the author, and them as your characters.

Writing by the seat of your pants also allows for easier changes, if you hate your plot and your outline. I don’t outline very much, very often, because it ends up changing anyway most of the time. When I first started outlining, I would deviate even a little bit and feel so bad because I felt like I wasn’t living up to my own expectations. When I would just write, I would be so surprised, so excited as my characters develop. Or in the case of 2010 NaNoWriMo, a lot of laughing at names and dialogue. (That is what happens when you write 7K in one day to finish on time).

So try writing without an outline, try pantsing and see what happens. And if you absolutely hate it, there will be a post on outlines next week.

Happy Writing!

Writer Life Lesson #14: Restarting, Rewriting and Picking it up Again.

Writing is not easy. Anyone who has had to write anything will tell you that. It doesn’t matter if it’s an essay, or a short story, or a novel, or even an email. Getting the words and images from your head to the page is sometimes the hardest thing writers do. Sometimes the words on the psge don’t match our vision of our work. So what do we do about that?

If you’ve ever written anything, I’m sure you’ve crossed something out, backspaced, or even torn pages out or deleted the file entirely. This is normal for writers, and it does not make you any less of a writer for doing so. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably just stopped a piece altogether and have never since returned. This is completely normal too.

This week’s lesson has to do with restarting, rewriting, and picking up where you left off.

Life happens. There are things that we writers cannot avoid. You think you have the day to write and then you remember that the house is a mess, the in laws are in town, and the rent is overdue. Life gets in the way of writing. Or if you’re like me, school gets in the way, an essay is due, your finals are sneaking up on you, and you’re three weeks behind on the reading. And all you wanted to do was write. It starts as just one day, then it becomes a week, and then a month, and before you know it you can’t remember the last day you wrote, or blogged, or tweeted.

Sometimes it’s so long that you look at your work and can’t remember where you were going with it, or you hate that you added a scene with vampires because your little cousin wanted to watch all of the Twilight movies. Writing changes as we do. It’s fluid and changing, until it’s published.

My point?

You are not a quitter if you decide to restart or rewrite or let the piece go

This lesson comes to mind since it is pretty personal to me. I have so many pieces that I start and never finish. I have something like 12 or more novels started that I have not finished or even reached the halfway point in. Some of these are products of NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, and Camp NaNoWriMo (Which the July session started on Wednesday). I have been thinking about what I wanted to write for weeks almost. Do I want to start something new, or try and restart or rewrite something else? Am I breaking the rules if I continue a story I’ve already started?

I decided that Camp NaNoWriMo is my catch all. I start too many projects and have lofty writing goals for 2015 and to complete my goals there has to be a few catch up months. Camp NaNo is a way for me to continue my writing goals and be held accountable for my word count. I have decided that for Camp NaNoWriMo, I am going to catch up on the short stories I have yet to write this year, the short stories I started in the April Camp session, and the rest of book two as well. I will have no shortage of opportunities for words, and I hope no shortage of inspiration either.

As long as you keep writing, you can’t be called a quitter. So keep writing and reach your goals!

And if you want to join me in the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo: Here

Camp NaNo Progress

Day One:

Two chapters.

Eleven pages.

4,941 words.

All in all an amazing writing day!

Guess What Time It Is!

It is that time again.

Camp NaNoWriMo starts on Wednesday!

I am participating and would love for all of you lovely people to join me.

Join me?

To Whom I Dedicate My Novels: My Dad

I’m sure my dad’s life would have been a lot easier if I had been born a boy. Now don’t go mistaking this for pity or low self worth, it really would have been easier. Instead of artsy hobbies like writing and knitting, I could have been a boy and been into football and wrestling. I could have gone to a big universiry on a scholarship instead of waiting and spending so much time waiting for nursing school. Instead of chasing the boys and causing my dad more headaches than he can count, I could have been the boy all the girls chased, a boy that my dad could be proud of.

But I am not a boy, nor do I want to be. This is not a pity post.

Why am I telling you about how easy my dad’s life would have been if I were a boy? Because even though I’m sure he wanted a boy to pass on the family name, and to talk sports and girls with, he got my sister and then me. He may have wanted boys instead, but he raised my siser and me the best he could.

Looking back now, I wish I could change a lot of things. I wish I could change how well I did in high school and my priorities the first few semesters of college. I wish I could have done at least a few sports just to give him accomplishments he could boast about to his friends. I wish I could have gotten a better scholarship so he didn’t have to work so hard to make ends meet month after month during nursing school. I wish he and I could have been closer, like we used to be before hormones and boys got in the way.

But wishing won’t change anything now. What’s done is done, and I can’t change any of that. Even though, looking back, I want different things for myself, I wish things had been easier on him. He has always been right behind me, whatever my choices, even if he didn’t always agree with me. He would make suggestions, give me better options and sometimes put down options I was dead set on, but it was only because he cared. I used to think his actions and his tactics were controlling and manipulative, and maybe in some ways they are, but that was because some decisions I was not yet strong enough to make for myself.

I always used to think my writing was a point of shame, something that was embarassing for him, and something to be ashamed of. Instead of going out and living adventures, I was sitting at home writing them, and not even very good ones at the beginning. I felt like writing was something to do in secret and no one should see the process, only the finished product. I used to only write right before bed, by the light of a night light, because I knew I couldn’t be bothered or feel ashamed.

And then 2011 came along and I wrote my first ever “serious” novel. It was the start of a series and the first novel I actually continued and finished even though I didn’t technically win NaNoWriMo that year. Even better, I went on to type it, and then it was printed, and writing no longer became a secret hobby that I only partook in the dark. Spark:The Girl aptly lived up to its name. It was indeed the spark that lit the flame of my passion.

It wasn’t until fairly recently that my Dad found out about NaNoWriMo and all of my accomplishments. I hadn’t told him because November was always a stressful time with the semesters coming to a close, final projects and finals, and some semesters he would stress more than I did. A few weeks ago we were talking about what I was going to do with all my new free time and he said “I know about your writing, and I’m proud of all the progress you’ve made.”

That meant the world to me. It means that he continues to only want the best for me, and that he truly cares about my happiness. It’s time to show him that I am capable, that I can do something with my writing and make him more proud, even though I barely follow football and am not very athletic at all.

Even through all the struggles, my dad is one of my biggest supporters and I wouldn’t change that for anything.

Who are some of your biggest supporters? Have you hugged them today?

Writing Update

Today, I had the undeniable itch to write. After the last few weeks of intense studying for NCLEX and anxiously waiting for results, and applying for jobs, I finally felt like writing again. I started the last third of this year’s novel.

This year’s novel is book two of my series. As of now I’m calling it Little Earthquakes, but the title could still change in editing. It is the continuing story of two friends trying to reconnect and save those in need around them.

The good news is that while I write book two, the first book, Spark is steeping like a great cup of tea. The sooner I complete book two, the sooner I can edit book one. That way, I can look at it with fresh eyes and edit it like a reader. I have already been itching to edit Spark so when I can finally edit it, it shall be amazing. I’ve been having small ideas since I completed it earlier this year, so editing will be spectacular.

But in the meantime, writing!

24 chapters completed.

12 to go!

Writer Life Lesson #13: Follow Your Dreams

We all have dreams, whether we are writers, astronauts, or billionaires, or even all three. Whether your dreams are huge, something your work toward for years, or small, something you want to do tomorrow, you need to follow them. You need to reach for them and do whatever you need to do to achieve them.

This week’s lesson is Follow Your Dreams.

Sometimes, we have dreams and passions that seem so far away, impossible to reach or attain. Sometimes we don’t know how to start or even where to get started. When we do figure it out, all it takes is small steps. Small advances make big leaps forward.

I have several dreams that I have been working toward for several years, and every day or nearly every day I do something to reach those dreams. Whether it’s something small, like studying or something huge like taking a licensing test, or submitting a manuscript to a huge publishing company. Small steps, or big ones, both ways you reach your dreams.

As you all know from my previous posts, I recently took my NCLEX RN. This is the test for my nursing license and it’s something I have been working toward for more than five years. I took it on Tuesday and got my results yesterday (Thank goodness for online licensing boards!).

I passed! Which means I am one step closer to my dream of being a nurse and working. But just because I passed and have my nursing license, does not mean that I have reached my dream. So I continued with the next step today and I made my resume and submitted applications to several hospitals where I would like to work.

Now I enter the terrifying part of my dream, the interviews and agonizing waiting to hear back.

Sometimes, there are terrifying parts to our dreams and they may seem like nightmares, but that just means that we have to try harder to get what we want. In a way, the fear is a way to test if we are really serious about our dreams. In order to advance, we have to grow and face some uncomfortable situations, but no one has ever died from the stress of a job interview, or from submitting a manuscript.

Small steps make big advancements. So don’t give up and keep believing that you can reach your dreams. Never give up because things get too hard.

YOU CAN DO IT!

What are some of your dreams?

Yet Another Update on the May Blog Challenge

Alright, this is the last time I mention it.

I have decided to discontinue the May Blog Challenge. It’s just not happening, and it’s nearly halfway through June. What I am going to do is keep the prompts and post them occasionally.

Keep your eye out for the rest of them!

I Take the NCLEX in an Hour and a Half

Your prayers and positive vibes are much appreciated!

I’m going to be a nurse!

You Know You’re a Writer When…

You write the wrong word and suddenly your work becomes a laughable parody in your head.

I accidently wrote “They were no strangers to love” instead of “They were no strangers to smoke” and then my evil villain went from murderous to Rick Astley.

What a weird spin off that would be.

Writer Life Lesson #12: Keep Moving Forward!

How often does it happen that we decide to take breaks and then never return to the project we started? Quite often actually. We, as writers, decide that the project will never meet our expectations, or that there is a better, more urgent idea that needs to come first. This is a pretty common occurance and it can happen for several reasons, but it can be reversed.

This week’s lesson is: Keep Moving Forward.

The Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons had it right. As writers and creators we need to keep moving forward. This isn’t to say that we need to abandon those unfinished projects, or stay tied to them if we feel they are going nowhere. There are several ways to move forward, and whatever works best for you is the best way to move forward.

Sometimes moving forward with your project means going back to the beginning stages of writing. I can’t tell you the number of times I have returned to my very first outline and reoutlined or added several scenes. When you reach the end of one stage, it is often the beginning of the next stage. Just because you return to an old project, or restart another project does not mean you are moving backwards. Sometimes moving backwards is moving forward in terms of creation.

The opposite is true too. Sometimes moving forward is deciding to not continue a project, or idea. Still, last week’s lesson rings true. You can decide to stop working on a project, and decide that it isn’t working in the present time, but don’t throw it away. Years or decades later you could read through it and find a solution. There are several projects of mine that I have put on hiatus throughout my high school and early college years that only now, as I am working on a different project, I realize how they can all connect and how I need to finish several of them to make sense.

This lesson applies more to just writing too. To advance, we need to keep moving forward and keep learning and growing as individuals. Personally, I think about this a lot. This week especially, I considered deleting the entire blog challenge for this month and pretending like it never even existed. I decided that would not be honest of me. It is a blog challenge and though it was supposed to be in May, some of it might expand into June.

This lesson also rings true to me because I finally continued writing my novel this week. It’s the first words I have written for that novel since mid March. The story of that is long and complicated, with a lot of excuses to avoid it and work on other projects, but I came back to it. I know I have to keep moving forward with its progress. All throughout April and the beginning of this month, I have been distracted by other things, finals, essays and studying for my NCLEX to name a few, and I have had the urge to return to the first book in the series to edit, because that is the most comfortable option.

Sometimes, leaving a project is moving forward. In the case of my series, which is fluctuating between seven and nine books, if I continue to focus on the first book (which I have rewritten 3 times already), I will remain stagnant and it will take me decades to just publish one book. So, I am letting it sit and working on the rest of the series (more specifically book 2) to make it feel new again.

Moving Forward can mean several different things to several different people. To keep moving forward, just do what works best for you. Whether it’s going back to a previous project, or leaving a project to marinate.

Keep Moving Forward and making progress!

Writer Life Lesson #11: Keep All Your Work

A lot of the time, we, as writers, cringe at some of our past works. We look back at the simple plot lines, the horrible dialogue, and the stupidest names and just want to chuck it in the nearest garbage can and kill it with fire. I have been there many times, first drafts and unfinished projects are the worst.

This weeks lesson is: Keep All Your Work

Sure, you may think it was the worst piece ever and that no one will ever want to lay eyes on it, especially if even you cringe at the piece you once loved, but trust me on this one. One day you will look back, maybe it will be tomorrow, or maybe it will be decades from now, and you will wish that you had kept that work, if not to look back on with fondness, then to see how far you have come as a writer.

I have several experiences with this. I have purposely thrown old work away and I have lost work unintentionally. Both of these scenarios are unfavorable, and when I purposely threw away my work I honestly wasn’t thinking.

The first instance, the time I threw my work away on purpose, was one of the last times I reset my desktop. I had limited space to put documents on an external hard drive and one of my stories, which I hadn’t backed up, or even worked on in years didn’t make the cut. To be honest, the story started out as a fanfiction, and I was in the process of augmenting it to be an original story, with original characters. The first chapter was awesome, the next chapter was hell. So in my haste, I decided to delete it.

Now, years later, I still think about that story and it’s potential. I wish I could go back and tell myself to keep it, no matter what anyone else wanted. I can rewrite it, sure, but it won’t  be the original, it won’t have that same feeling it did when I wrote it at the tender age of 18.

The second example is unfortunately more common. I have lost a lot of work over the years because I didn’t back it up properly. The stories I’ve lost from computer error, or crashing or any other technical problem are impossible to count. This is part of the reason why I prefer handwriting first drafts, but more on that later.

The story I remember most, that was lost to computer errors was one I wrote my freshman year of high school. It was a simple plot, and probably had attrocious grammar, but it had potential, just like everything else I never finished. It was on my old computer, and somehow (after surviving an earthquake) it overheated. All of my progress and work was gone.

Unfortunately, even handwritten drafts are not immune to being lost or tossed. Currently, the first novel I ever finished is missing. I doubt I tossed it, but it is not in any of the places where I remember putting it. I’m hoping it will show up eventually (while it is still readable- pencil does not age well).

So the lesson is Keep Your Work but how is that possible against accidental clicks and misplacing things? It’s quite simple actually.

If you handwrite: Buy a plastic tote. When you are finished with a piece, or a notebook or whatever you write on, put it in the plastic tote. Repeat until full. Then buy another one.

If you type: Subscribe to a site that keeps a copy of your work online. I suggest Google Drive, but there are countless others. Evernote, DropBox, etc. Anything that saves your work online and lets you edit it, is wonderful.

Good luck and may all of your work stay where you want it to!

Day 8

You are now unable to leave the room you are in for the next week. Write about your experiences day by day.

DAY ONE
My first thoughts as they shut the door and lock it are “Well, I suppose it could be worse”. My next thought is “It could be cleaner”. It is only hours later that I think of food. By then, it is too late to escape my confinement. The next few hours are spent shouting for someone to “grill me a cheese”. No one hears me.

DAY TWO
This room is cruel without food and water. If I had known there was no chance for food I would have planned accordingly, or at least cut a hole in the door for food to be delivered. I did not think ahead and I might starve here, in this room of many colors. In other news, the paint is not edible, neither are book pages. Still no one hears my shouts of “Grill me a cheese!”

DAY THREE
Surprisingly, I feel a bit better. I cleaned up the messy areas and found a dime and three pennies. It does not seem like much, but once out of this room I only need 87 more to make a dollar and buy me something from the dollar menu. Dang it! Now I’m hungry again. I must not think of food and water. I can survive this!

DAY FOUR
I continued to clean up and found a bag of half eaten trail mix. The nuts are stale and the raisins are beyond eating, but the chocolate is edible. Now if only I had something to quench my insatiable thirst! In other news, there were more books in here than I thought.

DAY FIVE
It is only now, after four abd a half days in confinement, that I realize those stains are not coming out of the carpet. I tried to make most of it into the trashcan, but the carpet will have to be replaced. The smell is also unbearable. I am forced to wipe myself with binder paper, which has now become my food source. The fiber does wonders for my colon, but is not as palatable as a steak. Mmmmmm, food. Dang it, not again! Two more days in this hell and then I am free.

DAY SIX
I have read all the books there are to read, eaten most of the paper, and used up all of the yarn to knit and crochet people for me to talk to. I need a life outside this room, and desperately soon. Mr. Yarny Bob says I might need therapy after this, but I tell him to shut his trap before I tear him apart and build a new yarn person. At least it’s better than talking to the voices in my head. They’re scary!

DAY SEVEN
Only a few hours remain before my freedom, and I anticipate my release. I require a shower and real food and water. For now I sit and twiddle my thumbs. The room is clean (with the exception of a few spots), and I got all of my reading done and my yarn all knitted and crocheted. Next time, if there is a next time, I will definitely stock up better.
The door opens and I smile. They grilled me a cheese.

Day 7

Write about your reaction when the object on your left turns into the object on  your right.

The object on my left is the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The object on my right is a binder.

My raction would definitely not be too spectacular. It is finals after all, and at this point, I would probably just think:

So That’s where I put that!

May Blog Challenge Update

WOW! Look how behind I am!

It’s no excuse, but I have been busy with finals and working on other writing projects.

Let’s see how fast I can catch up!

Day 6

Write a rhyming poem about getting increasingly drunk

The first drink goes down with more pain than gain,
The sticky sweet alcohol burning like acid rain.
The next few more, easier still,
The taste beginning to resemble more than swill.

By drink four or perhaps five,
My skin starts to tingle and I feel alive.
I drink and drink and drink again,
Then the spinning starts to begin.

Still with more drinks, I fill my belly.
I try to stand to drink more, but my legs are jelly.
I stumble forward, grasping the countertop,
I challenge any man to tell me stop.

If they want to fight and tell me no more,
I shall kick their sober asses out my door.
Forget these glasses, and the ice,
I shall chug from the bottle, and more drunk by twice!

More and more, the room it spins,
If I throw up, I shall have to begin again.
I fight off the blackness and the shadows,
I find another bottle and down it goes.

More drinking and drinking on and on,
How many more drinks until my brain cells are gone?
I start to mumble, call for more,
Are we out? Send someone to the store!

I drown myself in the drink,
Prevent myself from trying to think.
The day I’ve had was one I wish to forget,
I need more drink, it hasn’t happened yet.

More and more drink, down I throw.
Where did the last five minutes go?
At the corners of my vision, the blackness appears
I haven’t been this drunk, guess I’m sleeping here.

I curse quite loudly as the floor hits my face,
I spilt my fucking drink all over the place.
The carpet is soft, and I lay there numbly,
Deep in my stomach, I feel something grumbling.

I yell at the others, my eyes closed so tight,
Bring me another drink, let me forget this night.
They fight me, and tell me that I’m already too drunk,
I yell back, but from my mouth only comes funk.

The carpet before me, though spinning and blurry,
Soon becomes yellow and greeen in a hurry.
The smell of the devil and alcohol past,
Hits my face with a powerful blast.

I try to stand up, but the churning keeps on,
My stomach a war zone, the bile never gone.
The last thing I remember, is trying to stand,
I blackout again, and stay where I land.

….

When I wake in the morning, my head it does ache,
Perhaps drinking the whole bar last night was a huge mistake…