roina_arwen

Just got the round two assignment in my email. We have a bit under three days to submit a rhyming story, using a maximum of 500 words. There are 22 groups with 32 writers in each.

I’m in group 9, and my assignment is:
Genre: Drama
Theme: Independence
Emotion: Regretful

Per instructions: “If the assigned theme is not easily apparent and/or does not play an important role in the plot, the writer will run the risk of being disqualified.”

The emotion has to be expressed at least once in the piece; I don’t have to use that specific word as long as the emotion of regret is apparent. To quote the email: “the emotion must be expressed in the story somehow through narration, a character's actions, dialogue, or another way. If the emotion is not clearly expressed in the story, it will run the risk of being disqualified.”

Now to come up with a basic plot to base my rhyme upon. I’m considering also trying to make it an acrostic, in addition to the rhyming couplets, but I’ll have to see how that goes. Fingers crossed!!

Luke sat at his desk, swiveling the comfy chair slowly left and right. His long legs were stretched all the way out, sneakered feet touching the wall, and his arms were loosely crossed behind his head.

He was always early to the Ten-Gallon Club, since the clubhouse was in his parent’s backyard. With a last name like Stetson, the name was a perfect fit.

Heavy footsteps sounded outside, thumping up the ladder.

Beau - code name Bowler, partly for his rounded physique - strode into the room and plopped his bulk onto the sturdy couch. “Hey, Stetson! How goes it? Any more info on the missing livestock?”

“Not yet, but the twins should be here soon, and they’ve been following up on a promising lead,” Luke said.

He rose and got the six-pack of Dr Pepper out of the mini fridge, and offered a can to Bowler, who took one and immediately popped it open.

“Nothing quite like fizzy prune juice,” Beau quipped with a smile, taking a satisfying sip.

Luke just shook his head as always. There was no prune juice in Dr Pepper - it was an old wives tale; everybody knew that.

He opened his own can just as the twins came up the steps, herded in by a stubborn black and white Border Collie.
( Read more... )

This is my final draft, which I officially submitted. Thanks to those who assisted with editing ideas! ❤️ It’s going to be a while before we find out who gets into round 2, which kicks off June 17th.

Surrender

Eva had finally exhausted herself.

She sprawled on the bathroom floor in her pajamas. Eyes red and puffy, she had cried herself dry. Crumpled tissues littered the tiles like a minefield of dandelion blowballs, and the box was empty.

She was empty.

Every month, the wait was the hardest. Again and again, their results were negative.

They had failed.

The doctors had failed.

Her body had failed.

Eva’s bruised and bloated stomach attested to their efforts. Maybe she wasn’t meant to be pregnant.

Why was it so difficult for them?

She took a shaky breath, and stood.

Ava copped a squat in her dry little hidey-hole and squinted out into the bright, sunlit desert. She kept a wary eye on her environs, scanning the brush for any signs of her pursuer.

No doubt, he was searching every shrub and behind every cacti for signs of her.

Fortunately, Ava was small and hid herself very well. Her streaky brown and white attire blended in with the rocks, brush, and sand. She preened when he strode within twenty feet of her cave, not even slowing down as his keen eyes looked for any proof that she had indeed passed this way.

He was a well trained tracker, and she almost admired his ingenious traps, but although Ava seemed like the perfect prey, her ability to deceive was far better than most.

In the rare instance that her stalker found any evidence of her passage, the X marks her feet left behind didn’t give him any clues as to which direction she had come or gone.

She was extra sneaky that way.

He must have guessed her hiding spot, because he soon returned, this time approaching from the other direction. Ava wondered what sort of overly complicated attempt to catch her he’d try this time. Would he tempt her with food? Try to block her escape path with a boulder and sticks of defective dynamite? Paint a fake road that led nowhere? Try to drop an Acme anvil on her?

He was wily, but she was quicker on her feet.

One day, maybe Ava would let him win - but today was not that day.

She poked her head out of the cave, and smiled broadly at him before running off once again.

“Meep meep!”

I’m eager to get started on the Microfiction challenge, and round one opens this Friday at 11:59 pm ET.

But, I’d like to run a few practice rounds, just for me.

So if you’re interested in helping me out, please provide a comment containing the following:

A) One Genre, from the following: Action and/or Adventure; Comedy; Drama; Fairy Tale and/or Fantasy; Ghost Story; Historical Fiction; Horror; Romance; Romantic Comedy; Sci-Fi; Suspense and/or Thriller.
B) An action that must be done (Details below)
C) One word to use somewhere in the story. As an fyi, the word must be used as spelled, but a word which contains that word is acceptable. In their FAQ, the assigned word is “courage,” but encouragement or courageous are also acceptable, as both contain the exact word inside it.

=#=#=#=#=
Action Info, from the FAQ: The assigned action must happen within the story. For example, if the assigned action is “building a sandcastle”, then the action of building a sandcastle must happen in the story. Referencing the action through dialogue only is not acceptable. For example, a character that says to a friend “Want to build a sandcastle?”, is not acceptable without the actual action of building a sandcastle taking place. The action does not have to be written exactly as it is assigned, as long as it is being described in the story.

The action can be physically performed by the characters, but it can also take place in other ways such as a flashback or flash-forward, a memory, a hallucination, a dream, or in a character’s imagination, as long as it happens within the story.

The action can also be implied rather than shown, as long as it is clear that it happens within the story. For example, if a character says "Want to build a sandcastle?" to a friend, and then they are washing their tools off in the ocean in front of a newly built sandcastle, it is very clear to the reader that the action of building a sandcastle took place within the story even if we didn't see it happen.