So recently I did my first short story challenge.
The idea is to ask people for suggestions of an
opening sentence and then go on to write a (somewhat coherent) short story from
that. The main point of it, of course, is to get more disciplined with my
writing - but also it allows me to associate ideas and stories from other
people’s random garblings and in turn, to practice my creative writing a little
bit.
Since most of this blog has been non-fiction
writing, it's a welcome change.
So let me outline a couple of rules to help me keep
disciplined:
1) Open to
suggestions for an hour or two and then I have
to choose one. Once chosen I will notify the thread and discount any offerings
made after that.
2) I have
until the next day (the finishing point being when I have to have uploaded it
to my blog before the end of the day) to complete the story. This is to force a
time limit on myself so that will force myself to write as well as practicing
general speed writing.
3) The
story needs to start with the chosen opening sentence with exactly as it is written, with the exception of spelling and
grammar.
4) The
content of the story needs to be adequately connected with the opening line and
not just used as a non-sequitur going in to something else that is totally
unrelated.
5) The
story has to be at least 500 words, but not to exceed too far over that amount.
6) Once
the blog has uploaded (pic optional), I can post the link up on FB along with
the winner and their chosen sentence.
As long as I stick to this way of working it
should be ok. If you want to check my first effort, click HERE. I’m going to try
and aim to do one every week.
Laters ‘gaters!
12 July 2012
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