The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

[Big Rick Cook]

So I found this website,

The Almost Totally Random Writing Exercise Generator

and I thought it would be great fun for those of us here inclined to write anything at all to get a randomly generated writing prompt and just wing it. I don't have time tonight, as I have to get ready for work in the next few minutes, but I'll be giving it a shot come morning, and it would be awesome if other people tried it out, too.

The site gives you the basic rundown of how it works, but just in case: You get three prompts. Point of view or time/page limit, a character or style, and an action or emotion/idea to give you something to work with. Given three things, you have to just write something while staying within those parameters.

So for instance, given the parameters "500-1000 words * A Mythical Creature or Idea * the smell of smoke" I'd probably start with a dragon and work out something fun or unique as I'm going along, so long as it's between 500-1000 words.

The space/time constraint or Point of View (POV) constraint is wonderful because you're supposed to work something out in very little space or in very little time, or with a very limited perspective you might not be wanting to use. Makes you think outside your own comfort zone of writing, to which you might discover interesting results. And if you get POV - second person, don't panic if you aren't familiar with it. It's basically where you're telling a story to someone else. This site helps in that regard.

If you land a parameter called "Drabble (100 words)" and don't know what a Drabble is, check out the Wiki article and choose a variation of the Drabble that works best for you.

The idea here is to get you thinking creatively and to just get you writing on anything at all if you feel so inclined but never have the patience or virtue to follow through.

One more example, and then I'm done. "POV - inanimate object * A Spiritual Advisor * paper drink umbrella" Weird choices. Given these selections, my very first thoughts were of using the paper drink umbrella as my inanimate object, and having A Spiritual Advisor be one of those scamming fortune-tellers, like Miss Cleo, on a beach somewhere sipping fruity drinks and living it up off all their scam money. And the inanimate object - the drink umbrella at this point - embodies karma as it has a cheap-labor feel to it. The dye in the paper umbrella would turn out to be toxic as it mixes with the drinks and does this scam-artist spiritual advisor in. Go inanimate object.


So there you go. I'd make it an actual game or contest of some sort, but I lack the desire to go about judging these things and I have no prizes to offer.

So just participate if you care about writing, or not. Whatever. But I'm gonna do it in the morning.

[Ωbright]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Awesome! I can't wait to see what you do with this, and everybody else also. I might even try my hand myself at some point soon.

[Stormy]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

This sounds really cool. I might have time to do this tommorow or tuesday, depends on if I have initiative. At the very least I'm going to keep an eye on this thread.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Okay, here's my first Almost Totally Random Writing Exercise (parameters after the prose):

_____

It’s so cold and dark in here, but outside it’s even worse. When I sleep tonight is only for a while, but I’ll have a new sky to watch when next my feet hit ground. I only hope that when this stops, the guy who checks the compartments isn’t carrying that spray, that blinding **** that some yuppie paid me once to spray on my food and watch me eat it.

I did it, too, but I tell you now, it ain’t worth it. Not one little bit.

I think tonight I’ll die in my sleep. It keeps me up for too long and I suffocate with the cloistering dark. I think we’re on a bridge as I swing open the door and become drunk with the draught of clean, cool air whipping past my head. The sky is clouded over as I plummet into black, and reaching for Orion’s belt my hands grasp only wind.

My guides of the night, why forsake me now?

_____

Pretty bizarre and short, but you'll see why as I post my parameters:

(write for) 10 minutes * A Homeless Person * can't see the stars


Okay, people. I've done one. Your turn.

[Vanilla Iced Tea]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

This story is sort of stupid, but I don't exactly feel like putting a tremendous amount of effort into it.

*****

“It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I was suffocating all alone with no one around to help me. I tried to cry out for help, hoping that someone in the building would hear and save me, but I couldn’t get the words past my throat. I was just writhing on the floor – flailing and banging my limbs about as I completely lost control of my body. After a while, everything turned fuzzy: the world around me just blurred into a muddled and confusing mess. I guess I-“

“Um, excuse me, could you-“

“I guess at that point I lost all sense of myself and my surroundings. Later on, I found that I’d wrecked most of the area around me. I don’t really remember doing that, though. There were holes in the walls and the table was overturned and stuff like that. I’d just felt this sort of darkness closing in on my mind and my senses. I saw flashes of my life, you know? There were just these quick pictures of important moments in my life – stuff with my friends and family and such. I thought that I was dying, but apparently my body just thrashed around for a bit before I lost consciousness.”

“Umm, ah- well- how did you survive?”

The grocery store cashier, having finished his story, scratched his chin and replied, “I guess the candy melted in my throat or worked its way into my esophagus or something, but that's why I don't eat hard candy anymore. In any case, these Jolly Ranchers’ll run you ninety-nine cents.”

The somewhat baffled customer blinked rapidly and looked down at her purchase as her mind wrapped itself around the absurdity of the situation.

“On second thought," she started as she pulled back the bag of hard candy and replaced it with another product, "I'll have some Starbursts."

*****

It was "250-300 words * dialogue * hard candy." The general idea was to have a somewhat serious account of a guy talking about a near-death experience, then revealing at the end that it was just him choking on a piece of candy. I don't know if it really worked.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

I thought it worked. And from just "hard candy" you created a great little snippet that not many people would think up at all. And apparently an ad for Starburst. =P

Thanks for participating! Now if only others would JOIN THE FUN.

[Vanilla Iced Tea]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Ha, well, I thought that Jolly Ranchers and Starburst were examples of hard and soft candy that everyone would recognize.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

I like the literal thinking behind it, but I'm hoping, as we get into these things (I R maybePLANNING MOAR), that people start thinking outside the box of their prompts and trying to be as open-ended with them as possible.

Mine was a homeless person and "can't see the stars." Neither homeless or stars are mentioned in the snippet, but because I'm on this vagabond/riding the rails kick lately, I had my homeless guy freak out on board a train when remembering a bad experience, and disorientingly falling out of the car and wondering where his "night guides" have gone. I thought it was neat, especially considering I had 10 ****ing minutes to do it. That's no time at all when you're concocting ideas and writing. =/

[Stormy]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Here is my go at it. My parameters are:

100 words * original male character * buried treasure.

Jack continued the search, sifting through layer upon layer of boxes, desperate to find his prize. The previous owner of the mound of "stuff", Jack's brother Mark, had left it behind when he went to the dorms. Now jack wished to claim a very specific box as his own.

After twenty minutes and over a dozen boxes Jack began to loose hope. But then he saw the note. On one box deep in the back of the mountain of corrugated cardboard there was a note.

"Figured you'd look for these, here's a few mags to get your collection started."


There most be something seriously wrong with me. I end up at this subject wwwaaaayyyy to often...

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Perhaps. But I appreciate the effort nonetheless. Use of "Jack" to get people thinking about pirates?

I'm gonna do another one of these in the morning, simply to keep the thread alive in hopes that other people will give it a shot.

[Stormy]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

The use of Jack was not intended to have any meaning. Didn't think that far into it.

I was limited by the 100 words thing, with more time I could do better, I promise.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Probably a subconscious thing.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

For some reason I forgot I was going to add to this again. Here we go:

*****

“I don’t get it.”

“What don’t you get?”

“Neither do you. Nobody in this place does.”

“We’re the only two here….”

“If anybody else was here, they wouldn’t get it, either.”

“I don’t get you.”

“Of course you don’t. You’re here.”

“What?”

“That guy out there? He gets it. He stops here for a drink, he loses it. Just like we’ve lost it.”

“What did we lose?”

“Whatever that guy’s got.”

“What does he have?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here, now would I?”

“Whatever…”

“Just keep ‘em coming and shut up before I get it and leave.”

*****

drabble (100 words) * dialogue * a run-down bar at the edge of town

[Chad]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Because Big Rick keeps crying about this:

She sat there; lifeless. Her shirt clung to her chest, revealing her frail body. Ribs shown through her pale white skin. To say she was as skinny as a twig was almost literal. She lay sprawled on the couch, her arms twisted in an awkard knot above her head and her legs stretching as far they could. Her long, chimpanzee-esque toes were curled; one underneath a sock and one bare.

"Halle!" Tracy yelled. "Halle, get up!"

Halle remained on the couch unmoving.

"Halle!" Tracy shouted with a hard push. "Halle, get the **** up! You have to get to work, damn it."

Tracy shook her head. She grabbed Halle by the shoulders and began to shake. Halle could not ignore this and shifted right off the couch. With a hard thump gravity dragged Halle to the hardwood floor. She fell directly on her hip, which protruded in a sickly manner from her side. She no longer had a waistline, she had a hipline.

"Ow!" Halle screamed. "**** you! The hell was that for?"

"You're late for work, again," Tracy reminded her.

"**** off," Halle replied with a glare. Her face conveyed a look of deep scorn. She crumpled her eye brows and flared her nostrils. "They can fire me for all I care."

"Ugh," Tracy mumbled under her breath. She was started to say something, but instead bit her lip and turned around. Her head hung low as she said, "Fine." The floor creaked beneath her as she shuffled away slowly. She put her hand to her face.

Halle didn't even watch her mom walk away. She opened the small silver case on the table. After a small amount of preparation, Halle pulled out her straw and inhaled. She got back on the couch and sat there; lifeless.



POV - third person (omniscient) * female character * pretending not to care



Edit: P.S. Oh, sobriety!

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The [Almost] Random Writing Exercise GAME (JOIN THE FUN)

Thanks for allowing me to hector you into participating! =D

I'm assuming she's snorting cocaine, but for her to be so laid-back about it before and afterwards would seem to suggest she's been addicted for a very long time and merely wants it to stay level rather than to "get high" anymore.