Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Challenge Accepted!

My colleague and friend Nora Cook Smith posted a challenge to writers on her blog
(noracooksmith.blogspot.com) to do the following:


I went to the dictionary and picked ten words at random. You should be able to tell this just by looking at the list. Here's the challenge. Try writing a one-paragraph short story involving at least 5 of the words on the list. You can pluralize, change tense, etc. as long as the root word remains. Feel free to post

*Morph
Senile
Deport
Thermomotor
*Forage
*Stimulant
Conventional
Apocryphal
*Waiting
*Overwork

OK, here goes and don't say I didn't warn ya:

I grew tired of waiting for the creature to answer my questions and stormed down the basement stairs. As I threw open the cellar door and peered inside, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, I wondered not for the first time if I'd started to overwork the wretched goddam thing. After all, I'd been the one to convince it not to forage for sustenance anymore and to come stay with me so that I could provide its "food." Its glowing yellow eyes stared back at me from the thick darkness of the cellar without blinking, a direct result of the stimulant effect of what it needed to consume for its surival. With a light sigh, I yanked on the string above my head, bathing the cellar in sudden light which caused the creature to instantly morph into something far more acceptable to the human eye...

Well, that was a fun five-minute exercise. Feel free to copy the instructions and try your hand at it!

3 comments:

American Guy said...

I'd have to be senile to believe such a story was true. Surely it's just apocryphal.

I know this response isn't really conventional, and in your rage you may ring immigration to try and get me deported.

Sorry. I'll stop blowing hot air like a thermomotor now.

c nadeau said...

Not bad, not bad. Mine was more realistic though ;)

Who Am I? said...

I like both of them but then I started it and if I want to be diplomatic nobody's gonna stop me.

2 Migraine-inducingly Moronic Posts

 No commentary, no attempts to rationalize. Just gaze, if you dare, on the stupid!