Rands Writing Prompts #18 (November 10th)
The End
Two prompts:
Write a fictional ending.
Write a non-fictional ending.
FICTION: She looked up from the computer in the coffee shop. It was just after 9am, and she recognized the faces of the morning people. She did not know their names, but she had themes for them. Feelings. Mrs. Very Busy. Mr. Cough. Little Sally Angry. They stood in line, nameless. And she watched. And felt.
A time check. 30 seconds. It had to happen soon, or it would never happen.
She straightened her spine and typed another paragraph for the document that didn’t matter. This was easy. The words were already there. What she wanted, what was paramount, was a new set of words, and if they didn’t show up soon, there would be no more words.
30 seconds more. Two more paragraphs. Now forgotten.
“Fine.” She stood up, closed her computer, and picked it up. Under the computer, the napkin she’d written on last night read, in large block letters, “YOU BLEW IT.”
And she walked out of the coffee shop.
NON-FICTION: This is Prompt #18. I started this when a good friend asked me how to be a better writer, and my usual snark wouldn’t help, “Write 100 words a day. No matter what.” Slightly more? Ok.
“I will give you three prompts” every week until you say stop.
The idea has sugar. Energy, Vim, and Va-va-voom. Since I already use Substack, I fired up another Substack for writing prompts. I would do 100 of them. And I will then publish a book. Sugar.
And now, here you and I are. Hello. How are you? How much did you write?
I don’t know. While are 800+ folks here, I fear one of my least favorite Internet developments has occurred. Humans grab the idea of the idea and think that any work has occurred.
Entry #19 is the last update for these prompts. I enjoyed their development, but I don’t like the silence. I hope you write more because every good thing that has happened to me is because I wrote.
For shame, I wrote nothing. I read every one. I started at the beginning with good intentions, and then life took over. As it has a tendency to do.
Then the 2nd week of prompts followed with much of a hurry, and, well, it became a thing to peek at it. A curiosity.
Now I find myself at the end of the road, and felt compelled to thank you for your time with them.
Exactly one hundred words, and a start. Perhaps some day I’ll start. When life pauses, and I make room to focus on writing. Until then, silence.