I had a lot of fun with the first week of 15 Minute Tweet Tales. It’s a rush trying to create such small stories in a short time frame. I think some of them are pretty good, while others… well, at least they use the assigned word. 🙂
I ran into my first stumbling block on the 4th with the word flack. In the rules for the NYCM contests, you have to use the word exactly as it’s assigned – no changing tenses or making it plural. But trying to use flack without changes was leading to some really awkward attempts at first person present tense. So as my precious time dribbled away, I made the executive decision that since this is a challenge I’m doing for myself, I can make up any rules I want! With only fifteen minutes to write a story using an uncommon word, I think it’s fair to tweak the tense/part of speech/whatever as long as the word is used according to its definition.
There are a few extra tweet tales this time, since the New Year started before Tuesday, so without further ado, here they are:
1/1 – Tina jokingly used fortune cookies as her lodestar until the night one led her to a tall, dark stranger… with a proclivity for knives.
1/2 – Locked inside the CDC, they watched the news in horror, wishing they’d explained how the virus spread in a more exoteric way.
1/3 – Dad was an unreconstructed under-er, while Mom believed in over. The divorce lawyers rolled their eyes @ the toilet paper shenanigans.
1/4 – Weary of flacking for talentless reality bimbos, the publicist bought implants, released a sex tape, and vaulted herself to stardom.
1/5 – The dirt permanently etched into his agrarian hands: a badge of honor for him; a promise broken for his wife who longed for the city.
1/6 – The way the dog looked at me gave me the jimjams, so I gave him his owner’s femur to keep him happy while I cleaned up the blood.
1/7 – “One road bifurcates in a green forest…” Robert Frost crumples up the page and starts again. And that has made all the difference.
1/8 – He plucked a mint from the kickshaw on the hospice counter. Stale, just like his grandmother. So weary of waiting for his inheritance.
1/9 – “Yo, oldster, you got the time?” Al opened his pocket watch to find the hands had finally stopped. A smile of relief. “Not anymore.”
1/10 – Janice felt shame that she needed subvention to help feed her children, but watching soaps was so addicting she couldn’t go to work.
Two other people contributed tweet tales this past week, which was fun to see, and I hope more people play along in the future. You don’t have to commit to every day, just jump in on days you need a creative jolt. And you can still craft tweet tales for the above words – if you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments so I get the chance to read them.
So do you think it’s fair to tweak the assigned words or is that cheating? Do you think you might try your hand at some tweet tales? Should I post the definitions for the words in the weekly Tweet Tales Tuesday roundup?
I had a lot of fun with the first week of 15 Minute Tweet Tales. It’s a rush trying to create such small stories in a short time frame. I think some of them are pretty good, while others… well, at least they use the assigned word. 🙂
I ran into my first stumbling block on the 4th with the word flack. In the rules for the NYCM contests, you have to use the word exactly as it’s assigned – no changing tenses or making it plural. But trying to use flack without changes was leading to some really awkward attempts at first person present tense. So as my precious time dribbled away, I made the executive decision that since this is a challenge I’m doing for myself, I can make up any rules I want! With only fifteen minutes to write a story using an uncommon word, I think it’s fair to tweak the tense/part of speech/whatever as long as the word is used according to its definition.
There are a few extra tweet tales this time, since the New Year started before Tuesday, so without further ado, here they are:
1/1 – Tina jokingly used fortune cookies as her lodestar until the night one led her to a tall, dark stranger… with a proclivity for knives.
1/2 – Locked inside the CDC, they watched the news in horror, wishing they’d explained how the virus spread in a more exoteric way.
1/3 – Dad was an unreconstructed under-er, while Mom believed in over. The divorce lawyers rolled their eyes @ the toilet paper shenanigans.
1/4 – Weary of flacking for talentless reality bimbos, the publicist bought implants, released a sex tape, and vaulted herself to stardom.
1/5 – The dirt permanently etched into his agrarian hands: a badge of honor for him; a promise broken for his wife who longed for the city.
1/6 – The way the dog looked at me gave me the jimjams, so I gave him his owner’s femur to keep him happy while I cleaned up the blood.
1/7 – “One road bifurcates in a green forest…” Robert Frost crumples up the page and starts again. And that has made all the difference.
1/8 – He plucked a mint from the kickshaw on the hospice counter. Stale, just like his grandmother. So weary of waiting for his inheritance.
1/9 – “Yo, oldster, you got the time?” Al opened his pocket watch to find the hands had finally stopped. A smile of relief. “Not anymore.”
1/10 – Janice felt shame that she needed subvention to help feed her children, but watching soaps was so addicting she couldn’t go to work.
Two other people contributed tweet tales this past week, which was fun to see, and I hope more people play along in the future. You don’t have to commit to every day, just jump in on days you need a creative jolt. And you can still craft tweet tales for the above words – if you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments so I get the chance to read them.
So do you think it’s fair to tweak the assigned words or is that cheating? Do you think you might try your hand at some tweet tales? Should I post the definitions for the words in the weekly Tweet Tales Tuesday roundup?