Explorations In Reading, Writing, and Publishing
Back in June, I created a Writing Challenge ~ Use The 1200 Most Common Words To Write A Story…
Looking back at that post, I’m surprised someone figured out how to meet the challenge since I was fairly vague; and, many folks probably thought I meant the 1200 most common words were the only ones people could use :-)
Happily, someone saw through my foggy description and took on the challenge. Gwenette WriterSinclair picked up the gauntlet and has produced chapter one of twelve chapters. As she put it:
Just to keep it interesting . . . Used in order (almost:), each 100 words defining a chapter.
Ch. 1 – Words 1-100:
One wonders where all this comes from . . . and where it will go:)
{ If you want to look for the words as you read, here’s the download link to the 1200 most frequently used words in the English language. }
And, here is her Chapter One:
Currently Untitled
© 2011, Gwenette Writer Sinclair
To the sound of your voice and scent, I am drawn.
A memory in me is you. That it leaves him out – for he was always on the outside . . .
are we surprised? So you are with me here, yes? His eyes closed; they are asleep. See?
Being this far from you, for so long, and now I have you here by me . . .
but in one breath, you are gone.
Had I only stopped breathing . . . but I had not.
What was I thinking when I found you? I have forgotten that, and all the memories that were you, when we were us and he was outside. They are gone again and there is no place where I can find you. You are gone and his eyes – which are open now – each will watch me. Their gaze wanders only when they look for you. “Where is she?” If I listen, I do hear his whisper.
I do wonder how he came to be watching. Out, beyond the walls, up above the trees, every night I do see them. His eyes always open, hiding in the dark with stars all about. Others only see the stars. Many knew him then, but none can see him now. Some pretend, hoping I will stop crying so very many, many tears. I wonder that the water of my tears and the winds of my long sighs do so little to fill my empty heart. These tears would stop if my eyes could look into yours, but no one has found you. “The two were like one.” I do hear them whisper. “More time . . . . . .over it.” Their whispers echo in my dreams.
I would rather die than forget, but the memories flee from my sorrow. At every day’s first light I make new memories from ones captured in poems, captured in pictures . . . captured in people I wake at dawn with the sounds of my breaking heart. I watch and wait for his eyes to close against the new light. The moon sets, the stars fade behind the clouds, the sun rises. Sunlight floods over the hills, down the canyon and onto my sheets, onto my cheeks drying each tear. My tears only slow, but never stop. His eyes stop watching, but only for the day.
I wander each day to find you, to find my way, to find my words. I need just the right words that will call you back to me. You will come running to me, the sounds of your laughter filling the canyon. I look for you in the barns; I wait for you in the gardens. You know the words that will tell me the secret of where you have gone. Where have your words gone? Our story is lost in your silence.
~~~~~~~~~
I’ll post the other chapters as I receive them from Gwenette, or others who may take up this challenge :-)
Plus, here’s Gwenette’s Facebook Page and her Virtual World Development site.
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Stunning work, Gwennette! Looking forward to more.
Thanks Selena. . . the story is like a treasure hunt or a maze in my mind. I have no idea where story will go. i do not allow myself to “read ahead” in the list:) When I see the next words, I can feel myself near the narrating character – and I have never met her before – rather amazing experience really. She leads me, tlels me the story, often with her facial expressions. Try it!
I enjoyed this! And congratulations on stepping up to the challenge. :)
I do like creating with parameters . . the edges, the barriers, the rules are like teammates in a way, their influence inspiring rather than blocking . . . rather like a collaboration.
I will ty to add a photo here . . it is a book cover that evolved the night after i wrote the story from another kind of parameters game: Random Google seaches for title and subtitle. i broke the “rues” and used my own art for illustration. It was so absolutely about not only my own life, but reflective of what I feel this story may be telling us. hahaah it is part of the “responsive, evolutionary creative process” . . sounds good yes?? Cannot insert. Here is link to photo on G+: Please let us know if you can see that pix:)
See it fine, Gwenette :-)
I edited the link so it would open another tab/page…
Thanks Alex:) Never sure if viewing is set correctly on all parts of my G+ account:)
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That is one heck of a challenge. Good luck to Gwenette Sinclair.
Great seeing you here!!
Wondering if Gwenette will ever do more………………………
Here you go Alex: Another mouthfull for your challenge:
1200 Most Used Words in the English Language Challenge
Alex:
Since Gwenette WriterSinclair began from the first 100 words, I started at the other end. So I call it:
Untitled Currently
This is my Chapter One
Barbara Blackcinder
Ch. 1 – Words 1100-1200:
I recommend that you get a license if you are going to open this factory, I don’t care if it is for a social club or not. The idea of doing this without the legal steps is very frightening to me. Before long you will lose the case and the court will attach our house and combine its worth with everything else we don’t own until we don’t have a standard of living to cling to.
And if that doesn’t ruin our standing and identity in the city, think of the daily grief we will endure from all of our friends and relatives. Our effort to avoid them will be like trying to stop from having kids using the rhythm method. We might as well arrange to move into the poor house cause we will not have the ability to balance our budget, as tiny as it will be.
I swear Roger, you will be the instrument of my death if you keep up with these stupid schemes. Remember that terrible plan you had to ruin the quality of your advertising by using foreign language to make your sales sound more exotic? It never occurred to you that no one knew what you were selling. I admire your courage to attempt these schemes, but could we prevent going bankrupt and collect some money from one of them? I swear I get sick to my stomach every time you try to improve our standard of living.
If you would apply your skills to something rational maybe you would have been offered a financial hand for your skills and could pronounce your project worthy of putting some of their money behind.
Perhaps if you’d connect your brain and get it to function like someone rational you could make a couple of people help you and stop wasting both your time and effort. Our assets are frozen, we have no means of transportation, and worse, our apartment has no curtains and we have an audience every time we walk around the living room in our birthday suits. I had to cancel cable television because the neighborhood kids were watching dirty movies by using their own remote while we weren’t home. How is that for a good influence for our environment?
I like being a citizen of this town, but if the police collect any more evidence we will be having a conversation with a judge that will affect where we live, as well as who we live with. We’ll be heating up the motor in the car and be flying past the construction sites on the highway. We’ll by flying down the road like a disease looking for an accident as an excuse for sympathy. Although we may already need to be barbecued to get anyone’s concern with our lives.
I dunno, maybe we should organize some kind of legal papers and author a protest to the city council before they think we are some kind of illegal operation, instead of someone trying to make excellent medicine. That we do have principals, that my husband isn’t selling leather furniture made out of dead camels from the Mideast.
After I went to the college the other day to look for available financial courses, I found some nasty notes in our mailbox. I also listened to a whisper from an excited neighbor. He said he had physical proof that ghosts could account for the recent messages being left there. He didn’t realize that I saw his put them there after dark.
I tried to let his wife know the situation yesterday, but she was driving through traffic while I was telling her, so the success of her hearing me kind of disappeared. I get the feeling though that she has issues with our personal character. It’s like she frequently tries hard to recognize that we aren’t perfect rather than just giving us the benefit of the doubt.
She started saying that we were not healthy for the neighborhood when I tried to discuss it, but we were going by some heavy equipment at the time and she didn’t hear me. Instead she said she had just read an article about people who do activities like we supposedly do in the altogether, so I didn’t make any progress. She said several individuals, including her daughter had witnessed our cavorting in the living room.
We have no political force since her husband is the city councilman, and has the required signatures to vote us right out of the city. There is no educating these people that this is not our style of living, and that we are good parents. I couldn’t talk to her while we picked through the vegetables cause she would lose her temper all over again.
I tried to explain to her that her daughter was with the kids watching television through our window as she drove into the garage, which would explain why she would lie about us running around naked. Finally she said that I had just made an very powerful enemy and stuck me with a title that I didn’t think God-fearing people ever used in polite company. Indeed! What a tongue on that woman!
Barbara Blackcinder
P.S. I hope it lives up to your literary standards. :-)
Oh, I forgot, I’m also including them in inverse order since I started at the wrong end.
Barbara Blackcinder
Dear Barbara,
I will create a special post on Monday to honor your effort :-)
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