This is week 79 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. All I can say is Agggghhhhh! and I'm sorry. I meant no harm. I just put the words down as they come into my head. I try not to edit them. I hate that rule.
The words for this week's ten word challenge were: Spam, perpetual motion, sprinkle, telephone pole, stains, alphabetical, surgery, flattery, liberty, preservation For the mini challenge: shadows, singularity, Florida, caterpillars, copy
My 10-word:
Martha Jane thought that maybe if she remained in perpetual motion, she could outrun her fear of the surgery that was about to come her way. So far this morning she had done the laundry three times and still not succeeded in getting the stains out of John's work clothes, dusted, and rearranged her furniture. She had even put all the books on the shelf in alphabetical order by the name of the author, not an easy task. Time to try distracting herself at the computer. Lord, how did she wind up with 80 emails? She deleted an annoying number of spam messages and then found something from amusing from someone named Amanda Cooper, had, in her own words, "taken the liberty" of sending her a message sprinkled with flattery about her virtue, trustworthiness, and goodness as a human being and her hope that Martha could help with the preservation of her late father's fortune. I can't believe anyone falls for this crap, she mutter to herself. Guess a house and a telephone pole have to fall on some people before they wake up... and given all the people running around saying that the President wants to euthanize grandmothers, maybe it really wasn't surprising that people fell for such foolishness. The world seemed to be full of crazy people these days and much of what passed for news was... She stopped herself. Breathe, Martha. Breathe. Mystery Cousin Amanda and the $20 million bequest had made her laugh and she was relaxed for the first time in days. She didn't want to blow it thinking about politics. She didn't know why she was so nervous anyway. They weren't amputating her leg, they were just going to pull a tooth. Tomorrow it would be behind her and she could relax and enjoy life again.
The mini:
Good names for his paintings didn't always spring quickly to Jerome's mind, but for some reason it felt like this painting had named itself. Singularity, it was called. Maybe he had named it that because he loved it. He didn't feel his usual insecurity about it. Nope, he loved everything about this painting. The colors, the sense of light and shadow even though it was an abstraction. Moving to Florida seemed to have done him good. He felt incredibly creative and energized. Ideas seemed to be flowing out of him faster than he could manifest them. Looking at the canvas he was working on now, he thought maybe he'd call it Caterpillars. That was a cool name. Now where, he wondered, looking around, was his copy of today's newspaper. There was a page he wanted to use for a collage idea he had. He would call it Sunset over the Everglades.... It was good to be working again. He felt hopeful and excited and happy for the first time in ages. Life was good.
The mega:
What lunatic came up with this bizarre collection of words, Raven wondered, reusing a gimmick she had used before when she had no idea what to do. Not only am I cheating, but I'm using a copy cheat of a way I cheated before. But these words are SO bad. I mean... telephone pole? How am I supposed to use telephone pole and stains and spam in the same paragraph? Impossible. And singularity? What was I thinking? I knew when I wrote that one down that it was a mistake, but would I break my rule and eliminate it? No... if it comes to your head you use it. What a jerk. I guess I could name someone Florida Sprinkle. She could head the society for the Preservation of Spam (the food, not the email stuff). Or maybe Caterpillars. Or maybe she could be a boss angry that none of her underlings have engaged in officious flattery about her plastic surgery, especially when she had taken the liberty of dropping numerous and not at all subtle hints. She thought she looked at least 20 years younger with the wrinkles and baggy under-eye shadows all but gone. She would fire them in alphabetical order, she thought. Those were ideas she had no idea how to weave them together since they were pretty lame to begin with. Then there was the problem of perpetual motion. How the hell could she fit that in? It was all impossible and impossibly annoying. Well, that does it, I quit, Raven muttered testily both humiliated and pleased with herself for getting something done even if it was a hodge-podge bungled mess. At least it was something and as it was almost 6:30 and she had to put the post up, it would have to do. And that's how a desperate, uninspired Raven finished her mega. Sigh. She apologizes and looks forward to seeing what wonderful creative solutions her fellow wordzzlers have come up with this week.
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Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: Charitable, alligator, tribute, drunk, slave, preparation, carrots, mountainside, propeller, lark
For the mini challenge: chisel, worship, suicide, organic, plus
Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.
Enjoy! See you next week.
DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!
14 comments:
I don't know how you continue to come up with a credible story line. Nicely done.
I loved the build-up in your 10-worder. We're sort of led to believe that Martha Jane's surgery is a big operation when it wasn't really. Nicely pitched. I wish Martha Jane could have come to my house that day, I could use some help tidying up!
I love have you disponsed of singularity (which was a tricky word for me) in your mini - and caterpillars.
Your mega had me laughing out loud. I am actually up at 05:00 here in the UK as I have just dealt with a callout for our computer system. My eyes have shadows under them too now so I thought I'd reward myself by looking in and I'm glad I did!
Just put mine up (apologies for the length of them this week)
Raven , every week I come and I stare at the words and I get nothing. This week you're complaining about how hard they are and a story just unfolds inside my head. Go figure.
I liked your mega. That was very sneaky and clever!
I liked the first one best. It was very creative.
The last one -well it was funny.
So in tribute :I hope a drunk ,charitable, alligator on a lark leaves you some mountainside, slave harvested organic carrots untouched by propellers in preparation for next week's words. When those who worship your words and never chisel will again contemplate suicide plus pulling out their hair as they try to write a wordzzlle with those unrelated words.
What a fun way to fight the panic of having to perform on schedule! Since I haven't actually done mine yet, I salute you! I'll put it up later. But Kit's and Charly's are up.
I had big problems with the telephone pole but I managed to squeeze it in at last. Can't say that this week's words really brought my story forward though...
I actually loved your complaining mega...
What have you done with Raven. She who is the Master of words would never be stumped by her words. You must have her in the closet. Shame on you for picking on her. This week's words were the easiest in three weeks. There were only 17 words in the fifteen words not 29 like last week. We would never be critical of her. Well OK! we do complain a bit but it is really hard to write a 55 word story when you start with 29 words that must be included.
When you let her out of the closet tell her how thankful we dragons are that she does this every week.
Not cheating, just imagination my dear. Great work.
May I offer a set of words to be used some time? My suggestion for the 10-worder: dangerous, engine, sullenly, bespoke, evergreen, bauble, medicine, freight, destined, tinsel
And for the mini: carbon, feelers, outright, ballet, fizzing
Haha, I'm looking at these words and I'm hating them already!
Argent - thanks for the words. I'll use them next week. It's always a relief to have someone else take a turn.
I've been Martha Jane this week. I hate dentists - always have - and this week I broke a tooth. Had to find a dentist and was silly nervous. Found one, was more at ease than I had ever been in a DDS office and it's going to be fixed quite easily.
I always love reading your gimmick ones. So wonderfully tongue and cheek at yourself. It takes just as much talent to do it this way!
I thought the mega story went rather well. It flowed along nicely and had a unifying theme, and a dynamic, happening-right-now feeling. The other two stories, about the woman who kept busy trying not to think about the upcoming [dental] surgery, and the painter who found that living in Florida helped his creativity, were also good.
I have my own stories up now.
Stephen from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
http://stephen-has-spoken.blogspot.com/
I understand your frustration at the words sometimes. That's why I've never attempted more than one, let alone three, Wordzzles in one week. There are almost always three or four words that I can't imagine fitting into a story, but then, somehow, I almost always manage to find a way to use them. But if I had to do three, that would never happen.
My favorite this week, Raven, is the ten-word. It opens to that rant very nicely.
RANT ON!!!!!
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