[100 days of 100 words] 17/100

[kitchen_kink]

It’s pathetic. Day seventeen and I’m thinking of giving this project up. Always some excuse or other: it’s getting too easy, or it’s getting too hard. What good are clever little 100-word bits, anyway? Sure it’s making me write, but it’s making me write 100 words a day. Which may be better than no words, but am I doing other writing?

It’s too short. It’s too long. I can’t think of anything profound today. Or funny. And why is it always about somebody dying? Will the shocking endings not eventually become a bore? And what’s with the meta-entries?

Fuck excuses.

Comments

[roy-batty.livejournal.com]

{hugs}

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The entry's ultimately positive, though!

[roy-batty.livejournal.com]

with a project like this, that it's even an entry is enough.

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

Don't give it up! I really love these!

But don't feel that you have to construct an entire scene in that little a space--you give us whole worlds in the 17 you've written so far, with setup, crisis, and climax. That's a lot to put in there. And for cues you could always use the Evil Overlord list...it's a great story starter, or so I'm told.

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

Aaaaand I totally missed that this was a metaentry. I will go and dip my head in a bucket of sleep now.

...I do love these stories...

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I won't give them up; see the last line. :) I just wanted to vent about the things my brain does when things start to get hard.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

I'm really enjoying them. I like short stories that pack a lot of punch, and that often leave me wondering, trying to fill in the rest of the story long after it's finished.

What do you need from us, the audience, to feel compelled to continue? What sort of brainstorming is helpful? Would it help to sit down with a small child and tell them stories...because if nothing else, small ones are open-minded and demanding about their stories: "Tell me a story about [x]!"
...Hey, sometimes on-command performances lead to creativity.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm not actually going to stop, but wanted to take a hundred words to vent my frustrations about my own brain and its stupidities at times.

Thanks for the suggestions, too! I liked your request; more would be great. Perhaps I'll solicit some.

Well...

[tisana.livejournal.com]

- Mundane spell-working: love spells worked into baked goods, binding spells worked into knitting or weaving, protection sewn into clothes...
- A Galatea story--artwork coming to life in some way, or possibly writing coming true.
- Tell me a story about this man. Maybe...describe what those crazy eyes see.
- Walk in the sandals of a vestal virgin, or a sacred whore
- A modern Rapunzel, who learned some tricks from her witch-mother, does some little spells with her red-gold hair, drawing men in by surreptitiously leaving a single strand on them (this is one I've wanted to write for years, I just can't decide how it wants to come out, but short and sweet could do it)
- What does the grass think? What do flowers smell? What does the earth see?
- Scheherezade
- What went through King Solomon's mind when Salome asked for her prize?

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Oh. And...
- Give a new meaning to "Turkish delight"
- Turn "Reduce, reuse, recycle" into something erotic
- A woman wants revenge on the men who raped her lover, and lies in wait for them
- Mermaids (hey, there's a fey one already)

In an odd coincidence, a day or two after you posted the pennies story, I walked into the museum across the street and saw a new installation of multiple macro images of pennies.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to point out...the pennies was an actual request, but these are just ideas to see if something sparks.
No obligation whatsover to act on them.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow think of the ocean,
or the smell of rain right after a storm,
or the pulse of music
or pain
or heat.

It will come.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

This is a beautiful little poem in its own right.

Thank you.

[imvfd.livejournal.com]

Here's my two cents (unasked for as always but the pennies, they keep coming, as you already know)

This clever thing. Ever since working in computers, I've cringed at the word "clever." Usually, because clever is a substitute for good. Although for this project, good isn't even a criteria.

As to all these people dying... donno... UR ISHOOZ, UR SHOWEN DEM 2 US? Not to mention the fact that death is always easier to start out with on creative projects. And what's with the complete lack of meta-meta-entries?

As Bill once said "Exterminate all rational thought."

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever found anything so flattering as the first parenthetical in this comment: quoting me without quotation marks, as if the story is such a cultural phenomenon that there's no need. :) You're good. :)

Which Bill?

What would a meta-meta entry be, I wonder? This comment thread, perhaps.

[imvfd.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you, I do what I can.

I was thinking about Bill in the movie version of "Naked Lunch." The Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac characters are sitting in a dinner and it's what "B" tells "G", who was talking about his recent struggles with writing (or something like that... it's been over a decade since I've seen that movie).

In terms of a meta-meta entry, it would go something like this:

"What was my motivation for writing about my struggles in this particular forum? Why is going meta an automatic escape from the work that I intended for myself? And isn't this really just more of the same, except now I'm not even talking about my writing but about the writing about my writing. And this paragraph, no structure, no style, a step backwards in terms of developing my writing skill"

[jasra]

I'm enjoying the snippets. Maybe change it from 100 words to however many it requires?

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Thanks. 100 words is actually perfect: it's a wonderful limitation that keeps me working hard at it. This was mainly a barbaric yawp about when such things get difficult, and also about how my brain always tries to talk me out of things I've committed to as soon as it gets difficult. :)

Glad you're enjoying!

[jasra]

Ahh. Well, that's good to know (that 100 words is perfect).

Brains can be unhelpful sometimes. I do hope you stick with this, in spite of your brain being silly.

[poly-fi.livejournal.com]

Fuck no! Don't quit! Fuck excuses. Think of what a great thing this would be to bind in hand-made paper and set on a coffee table at its conclusion! I'm sorry not to be replying. I've suffered from some erratic internet access of late.