Monday, July 27, 2009

Three little words

Today I had a little window of complete down-time at work, about twenty minutes where--for complicated and boring reasons--I truly had nothing more to do than sit at a desk in a quiet room, waiting for one person to finish a test.

Of course I never ever do any writing at work. But this was a unique situation, and my brain was bored. So I grabbed a few pieces of scratch paper and a pencil, and the battered old dictionary that I knew was in the drawer. And I picked three words at random.

My three words? They were awesome words, so awesome I couldn't believe my luck: equinox, purgatory, and megaphone. Fifteen minutes later I had written a fun 450-word story using all three words. I polished it a bit this evening and sent it off.

I enjoyed writing that little story so much I think I'll try the prompt again tomorrow over lunch with three new words.

10 comments:

Danielle Birch said...

KC, what a great idea. Inspiration is everywhere and certainly no better place than with words. I only wish I could polish as quickly as you can. Oh, and I love the word purgatory. So many possibilities.

Alan W. Davidson said...

I can't imagine how you tied those together...and in only 450 words. Danielle is right: that's a really fast turn-around time.

Aaron Polson said...

Funny how "spark words" can get the mind moving. I like to do a similar exercise myself, but I've never tried three words.

Cate Gardner said...

Prompt words rule. You've given me an idea for later today. :D

K.C. Shaw said...

Danielle--Oddly enough, the word purgatory was the hardest to work in. Megaphone was the easiest.

Alan--It's probably not as good a story as I think, but it certainly has an unusual plot. :)

Aaron--I don't know if it'll work for me again, but yesterday's words were perfect.

Cate--When I was starting the exercise, I kept thinking, "Cate would so go to town with these words." :)

Carrie Harris said...

Those ARE three awesome words. Can't wait for the opportunity to read that story.

K.C. Shaw said...

Hopefully it will be coming to a magazine/website near you soon!

Anne Spollen said...

Fun stuff; I like the words you picked. How did you stop at 450 (especially with "purgatory" in there)?

Jamie Eyberg said...

cool exercise.

K.C. Shaw said...

Anne--Really, it was the megaphone that suggested the entire story, with help from equinox. Poor purgatory only got a mention.

Jamie--anything that gets me to write is a good thing.