Writing Challenge 2 courtesy of SH

"Two people who know each other bump into each other out of the blue. They haven't seen each other in over ten years. What happens next?"

Unfortunately I have no idea at the moment. I fear this may be an off-blog thing until it's finished. Yay for the edit function.

Writing Challenge 1 ('You're just mad 'cause you can't knit.')

'You're just mad 'cause you can't knit.'

'Knitting's stupid anyway. I keep dropping stitches, this has got massive holes in and this... it's just crap. Plus, k7, p7, b.. o.. what the hell?' Pip pulled the half finished scarf off the needle and threw it across the room. It was supposed to be dramatic but, as it was still attached to the ball of wool, it didn't go as far as she intended.

'Yet another thing you can do better than me. Just one more thing that makes you the girl in this relationship.'

'You throw like a girl.'

'Not helping.'

'Sorry.' Sam tried his best sad puppy-dog eye face. It didn't work. Nothing had worked over the past few days.

'Okay, you're not going to like this,' Sam started. 'Just remember, I am totally on your side on this. She was completely in the wrong. But.... You could just try saying sorry. Even if you don't mean it. Maybe if you're nice she'll end up in some sort of shame spiral and apologise to you.' Evil eye. Abort. Abort. 'Or you could just... punch me in the arm?'

'And what, exactly, would that achieve, Sam?'

'I'd have a bruise and you'd feel better?'

Pip eyed Sam's arm. 'Tempting though it is, you know I didn't mean that. Even if I took a tub of Ben and Jerry's over and we both apologised. We might chat and laugh and have a brilliant afternoon but it doesn't make things better. She's still with that prick.'

'Honey, she loves him. Nothing you can do can change that.'

'He's still a prick.'

'Yes, he is. But what would you do if she'd stopped coming round here and hardly spoken to you when we got together?'

'You're not a prick.'

Sam sighed and pushed a strand of Pip's hair back behind her ear.

'You love her, she loves him. You have to try and get on with the guy. You can't just avoid her and hope to get the, "I told you so," moment. That might never come. You either lose her friendship or suck it up.'

'I hate you.'

'No, you don't.' Sam pulled her in close for a hug. "See, you throw like a girl and you sulk like one.'

Challenge(s) accepted

2010 was a rubbish year for my writing. I think I managed half a short story in total and NaNoWriMo was a complete non-starter. The latter wasn't really surprising though as we'd moved just before November started and D was born a week into the month. I barely wrote on here or in my journal though; which, considering how much happened last year, is very strange.

The letter writing is fab for making me want to write again. Each time I sit at my bureau to write, I want to carry on. I don't want to stop after just one letter. So I've been pondering how to go about get myself back into writing fiction. I have, on long-term loan from a friend, two excellent books with writing exercises I could make my way through. I have a novel planner from NaNoWriMo. And, of course, there are a million and one sites on the Internet where I could find inspiration and writing exercises. I know me. I know that I have access to all these things yet I could easily still put it off. Let's face it, despite the urge to carry on writing after I've wrote a letter, that urge hasn't got me to hunt down either of those books and begin working through the exercises, nor has it made me pull open the top drawer of the bureau open to grab more paper to get writing.

What I need is pressure. What I need is National Novel Writing Month to be happening right now. I need other people to know what I am attempting and prod me. So... one missive sent to writers I've met through my writing group saying HELP!


So far, three of those lovely people have sent challenges to me. Which are as follows:

Begin a story with - 'You're just mad 'cause you can't knit.'

Two people who know each other bump into each other out of the blue. They haven't seen each other in over ten years. What happens next?

Words to use in a story: skiing, rubber dinghy, splurge (which is a cool word), saucy, chaffing and chaffinch.

And from the same person who sent the words -

"For a plot idea why not borrow from possibly the worst film I've ever seen which was one I watched last week. I think you should rework these plot points into a good story."

Japanese kids find spaceship
Kids fly spaceship to a planet
Kids notice whilst they are flying they also see their favourite monster flying through space next to them
Kids get to planet
Kids meet two women who want to eat their brains
Kids try to escape and a giant monster tries to get them
The monster fights the other monster they saw on the way there
Kids go home

Think that'll be enough to get started with :)