Writing Sample: "Celebrity"

For this edition of a writing sample, how about another prompt from the Creative Copy Challenge? 

When I did this one, the words somehow led me to a tongue-in-cheek riff on celebrity.  The ten words for this writing prompt were:

1. Serendipity
2. Indigo
3. Motorboat
4. Scold
5. Entity
6. Delicious
7. Alabaster
8. Hiding
9. Fluctuate
10. Cartoon

In this prompt, I even managed to use all the words in order, something I'd never tried before. 

This version is slightly edited, but the original off-the-cuff version is HERE if you'd like to read it.

I hope you enjoy this, and – as always, any thoughts or comments you might like to make are greatly appreciated!

Writing Journal: Guides and Inspiration

I still consider myself new to being a writer, but the truth is, I've been dabbling with it in a half-assed way for a few years, and have thought about becoming a writer for ages before that.  It's only recently that I decided to become serious enough about being a writer that I began to...you know, actually write.

But as I was building up to my commitment, I spent time trying to get input on the best ways to go about becoming a writer.  I'm an engineer by trade -- I rely on being able to find facts, data, and information to help me do my job, and also have a good piece of book learnin' under my belt, too. So it was only natural that as my thoughts of becoming a writer began percolating, I started nosing around for guides and instruction manuals and sources of helpful inspiration.

Writing Sample: "The Return"

It’s time for another sample of my writing, I think.

This story was another submission to the Creative Copy Challenge.  It’s a little different for me – evidently I’m a bit of a romantic.  ;^)

This one is also unedited – it’s exactly as it turned out as a rough draft, and as it originally posted HERE.

The ten words for this writing prompt were:

1.         Vaudevillian

2.         Snapping turtle 

3.         Spork

4.         Wielding

5.         Ninja

6.         Monkey

7.         Yard

8.         Belly button

9.         Lint

10.       Festival

I hope you enjoy this, and – as always, your thoughts and comments are always welcome.  

Thank you for reading!

Thoughts at Large: I'm a Thief

I realized something the other day as I was working on a story -- a scene I was writing seemed a little familiar.  Not anything blatant, but enough to kind of gnaw at me.  Then I suddenly realized that there had been a similar situation in a Robert Crais book that I'd read months ago.  

Again, it was nothing glaringly obvious.  It wasn't the exact characters doing the exact same things, but man, I could definitely tell where the influence had come from, at least in the setup for that scene.

At first it bothered me.  Here I was trying to create something original, and something I'd read long before had filtered in and come out onto the page.  How could I ever be a decent writer if I couldn't come up with only my own unique, totally original ideas?

Writing Sample: 50-Word Stories

Sorry for the delay in updating this blog – I was out of town the past week and had limited Internet access.

For this version of Writing Samples, I’m offering something a little different -- some Fifty-Word Stories.   

I stumbled upon this website, 50-Word Stories, which is a blog of a new fifty-word story offered every day.  The concept is simple – each story should be exactly fifty words.  Not 49, not 51 – 50 words exactly.  It sounded fun, so I thought I’d give it a try.  As I experimented, I discovered that the word length requirement is kind of a neat restriction, and makes for some entertaining snippets.  I toyed around with it a bit, and I have three samples to post here – “She Left,” “A Nightmare Realized,” and “A Trashy Story.”  Each one was fun to do, and I think allows for some interesting quirkiness to come through.  

By the way, the author of the 50-Word Story site also allows submissions for a guest writer every Monday, so I’ve e-mailed him “She Left” to see if he’d be interested.  His web site says that there is no exclusivity required for posting on his website, so there should be no problem with me posting the stories on my own blog.  So far I’ve heard nothing back yet, but we’ll see what happens.

I hope you enjoy these, and -- as always -- any comments are welcome.

Writing Journal: Current Projects in the Pot

So far, all the writing I’ve shared on this blog has been samples I’ve done with the Creative Copy Challenge.  These are fun, off-the-cuff pieces that I put together as practice and to stir my creative juices.  Although what I post here are slightly edited versions, I generally try to make them as close to rough drafts as possible, because I like to treat them as a form of improvisation – jamming with my writing, so to speak.

I have no problem sharing them on this blog because I treat them as in-the-moment pieces that won’t have much of a life past the point where they’re originally created. 

But is this the only writing I do?  

Nope, not at all, and the purpose of this journal entry is to fill you in on what else I have cooking in the pot

Writing Sample: "Movie Night at the Diner"

How about another writing sample?

This one is another story originally created for the Creative Copy Challenge, a site of writing prompts based on a given set of ten words.  The ten prompt words for this one were:

 1.  Neutrino

 2.  Invigorate 

 3.  Macabre

 4.  Explode

 5.  Hemp

 6.  Satiate

 7.  Incendiary

 8.  Flip

 9.  Cacophony

10.  Recollection

Like "Treasure", this one's a little dark, but slightly more tongue-in-cheek.  I like how it came together, and I got a laugh or two out of it.

As usual, what you see below has been edited a bit from the original.  If you'd like to see the piece as it was first done, visit HERE.

I hope you enjoy this late-night lark, and -- as always -- your comments are more than welcome, and thank you very much for reading!

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Writing Journal: Why Write?

A big part of what I want to do with this blog is to track my writing development, to make a bit of a journal about where I am as a writer, discuss things I’ve written, and highlight my evolution from wannabe-writer to ‘successful’ writer.

So this is the first entry, and it starts with the most basic question:  Why Write?

Do I do it only to become that 'successful' writer?  Then what do I measure success by?  Whether or not I get published?

But... What if I never get published? 

Does that mean that this blog is pointless?  That my writing is unsuccessful?  That I’m a failure?

Writing Sample: "Supplier Training"

A new month, and another post to start it out.  

But no April's Fool jokes -- as much as I enjoy being a smart-ass, today is both my wife's birthday and our wedding anniversary, so that always takes priority for me.  So here's a "Happy Birthday" and "Happy Anniversary" to my wonderful wife!!

This is another sample of my writing, and this piece below was one I enjoyed.  I think it's quirky with a twist.  As with my previous two samples, this one came from a ten-word writing prompt at the Creative Copy Challenge. 

The prompt words for this one were:

 1.  Dug

 2.  Broke 

 3.  Fake

 4.  Steal

 5.  Flush

 6.  Open

 7.  Bought

 8.  Mumble

 9.  Muscle

10.  Common

As usual, what you see below has been edited a bit from the original post.  If you'd like to see the original post, visit HERE:

I hope you enjoy this, and I thank you very much for reading!

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