One thing about the Internet is the amazing speed at which it is possible to throw up a site and build a community.
Toward the end of December, Shane Arthur, an acquaintance who I’d met in the comment section of Copyblogger, approached me with what I thought was a good idea. Shane wanted to spark the creativity of writers by starting something he referred to as the Creative Copy Challenge.
The idea, and beauty, behind the Creative Copy Challenge is simple. Each new post is a list of ten randomly generated words. The challenge is to then take those words and craft them into a compelling story. This story can be as short or as long as you’d like it.
For example, here are the 10 words, plus my entry from Creative Challenge #6, posted last Friday:
- Doughnut
- Philosophy
- No-Brainer
- Apartment
- Heaven
- Premiums
- Trucker
- Freedom
- Every other Friday
- Scaffolding
Ah, the doughnut; Heaven in my mouth, but Hades in my tummy.
I used to stop at TGIFri-dough, on the corner of Western and Santa Fe, every other Friday on my way to work. I’d slap the alarm and leap from bed, do the happy dance and fly from the apartment. I was practically willing to run red lights on the way to my fix!
“Can I help you, sir?” the dude with the stretchy thing in his ear and the metal crap in his face would always ask, even though it was a no-brainer. “One apple fritter and one French crueler, please.”
My philosophy was simple – the best days were built on a scaffolding of dietary freedom. Namely donuts. And I could afford to live this way every other Friday.
But it wasn’t long before every other Friday wasn’t enough.
Soon it was every Friday. Then, I’m embarrassed to admit, every single day.
On Christmas, I drove around for hours looking for an open shop. Then spent New Years rifling through the dumpster.
The premiums I’d once felt were no more. While a fritter and a crueler used to be enough, now I needed a sack of donut holes as well.
Every. Single. Day.
My stomach is now as bloated as a trucker.
My wife says it’s either TGIFri-dough or her.
I sure am gonna miss that woman.
______
My mom, frequent commenter at Creative Copy Challenge, dropped this one:
Kristy was new to this city. She had been offered a prestigious position at the university, but was not sure how well she could adapt to the grittiness of urban living. Back home there had been blue skies, clean air, green grass and room to breathe. She hated to leave her little heaven, but given the opportunity for financial premiums that would never be available in her backwoods little home town, the move was a no-brainer! This career choice would give her the financial freedom that would someday allow her to return to her home town and make some changes to the crippled educational system that seemed to be getting worse every day.
She had been a volunteer at the community center and it was her philosophy that if everyone would just contribute a little of their time and their skills, the world would certainly be a better place. She would miss these every-other-Friday visits with the locals. They had become her family.
So here she was, living in a cramped apartment over a doughnut shop, heavy smell of grease eternally in the air. The view consisted of scaffolding, billboards and dilapidated tenaments rising up to meet the sky. Instead of butterflies, puppies and bunnies she would have to live with the mother-trucker roaches that were an everyday greeting to her as she began her day. She had to remind herself that this was very temporary and though it was a personal sacrifice, it would ultimately enable her to make some much needed changes back home.
______
Blogger Dad did his usual awesome job with the Thesis site design and the community has taken off far faster than I ever imagined. There are presently 75 comments on the ten words posted on Friday, a sure indication of the fun to be had.
Drop by and check it out, or click here to get free updates in your inbox.
About Sean Platt
Your mom’s contributions are awesome! You have to get the kids involved, too.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking we should do something like this at Children Write the Future. I’d love for them, and other children to do it, while keeping the content at the Creative Copy Challenge all nice and grown up like.
.-= Sean´s last blog ..Rolling Portfolio #2 =-.
Your mom’s contributions are awesome! You have to get the kids involved, too.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking we should do something like this at Children Write the Future. I’d love for them, and other children to do it, while keeping the content at the Creative Copy Challenge all nice and grown up like.
.-= Sean´s last blog ..Rolling Portfolio #2 =-.
Not for the first time Shane had taken the last doughnut from the plate. This would be the last time though, Javid would make sure of that. Javid wasn’t much into philosophy, indeed, thinking wasn’t his strong point at all. He didn’t care to understand why he felt like he did, he only knew he needed to do something about it. Javid was a slave to his emotions and his emotions were screaming at him to resolve this situation once and for all and gain freedom from this one sided relationship. But it wasn’t just about the doughnuts, this was just the incident that exposed the raw nerve.
He knew what he had to do, it was a no-brainer. As soon as they left the coffee shop Javid would suggest to Shane that they go back to their apartment to discuss content ideas for their website, “Corrective Pink Gel Dot Com”. Shane would surely agree as this had been their routine every other Friday since Shane first barged his way into Javid’s life and began to control it. Shane controlled everything in their lives. He did the interesting and exciting things leaving Javed to do all the paperwork and administration. This wasn’t the way Javid wanted to live his life.
Shane licked the frosting from his fingers and fixed Javid’s eye as he sighed, “Ah, heaven.” This was more than Javid could take. He felt the anger burning inside of him, an anger he could barely contain. But he had to contain it, at least until they got home and then he would unleash it on his unsuspecting partner.
As they entered the apartment Javid began to feel the emotion boil over. Javid closed the door behind them and reached down for the short length of scaffolding pipe they kept behind the door for protection. It felt heavy in his hand as he raised it up to put an end to the misery. Shane turned to see the end of the pipe swing toward his face and felt the full force of Javid’s fury as he shouted through it like a megaphone, “STOP EATING THE LAST DOUGHNUT YOU GREEDY SHIT – AND IT’S YOUR TURN TO DEAL WITH THE INSURANCE PREMIUMS, YOU LAZY MOTHERTRUCKER.”
.-= Selfish´s last blog ..How To Tie Shoelaces: A Forgotten Skill? =-.
Dang dude, that right there is hardcore! :)
Welcome to the club, yo. You’re a natural.
.-= Sean´s last blog ..Rolling Portfolio #2 =-.
BTW, it’s a true story but I changed the names to protect the innocent and even made up a website name to add authenticity.
Wasn’t sure that ‘megaphone’ translates readily to the US, but it was too late to change it by the time it crossed my mind.
ps The real joke is on me. It took me an hour and a half to write that nonsense.
.-= Selfish´s last blog ..How To Tie Shoelaces: A Forgotten Skill? =-.
An hour and half? Seriously? That is sorta funny. But not the ha-ha kind. :)
.-= Sean´s last blog ..10 Words to Kickstart Your Creative Engine =-.
Not for the first time Shane had taken the last doughnut from the plate. This would be the last time though, Javid would make sure of that. Javid wasn’t much into philosophy, indeed, thinking wasn’t his strong point at all. He didn’t care to understand why he felt like he did, he only knew he needed to do something about it. Javid was a slave to his emotions and his emotions were screaming at him to resolve this situation once and for all and gain freedom from this one sided relationship. But it wasn’t just about the doughnuts, this was just the incident that exposed the raw nerve.
He knew what he had to do, it was a no-brainer. As soon as they left the coffee shop Javid would suggest to Shane that they go back to their apartment to discuss content ideas for their website, “Corrective Pink Gel Dot Com”. Shane would surely agree as this had been their routine every other Friday since Shane first barged his way into Javid’s life and began to control it. Shane controlled everything in their lives. He did the interesting and exciting things leaving Javed to do all the paperwork and administration. This wasn’t the way Javid wanted to live his life.
Shane licked the frosting from his fingers and fixed Javid’s eye as he sighed, “Ah, heaven.” This was more than Javid could take. He felt the anger burning inside of him, an anger he could barely contain. But he had to contain it, at least until they got home and then he would unleash it on his unsuspecting partner.
As they entered the apartment Javid began to feel the emotion boil over. Javid closed the door behind them and reached down for the short length of scaffolding pipe they kept behind the door for protection. It felt heavy in his hand as he raised it up to put an end to the misery. Shane turned to see the end of the pipe swing toward his face and felt the full force of Javid’s fury as he shouted through it like a megaphone, “STOP EATING THE LAST DOUGHNUT YOU GREEDY SHIT – AND IT’S YOUR TURN TO DEAL WITH THE INSURANCE PREMIUMS, YOU LAZY MOTHERTRUCKER.”
.-= Selfish´s last blog ..How To Tie Shoelaces: A Forgotten Skill? =-.
Dang dude, that right there is hardcore! :)
Welcome to the club, yo. You’re a natural.
.-= Sean´s last blog ..Rolling Portfolio #2 =-.
BTW, it’s a true story but I changed the names to protect the innocent and even made up a website name to add authenticity.
Wasn’t sure that ‘megaphone’ translates readily to the US, but it was too late to change it by the time it crossed my mind.
ps The real joke is on me. It took me an hour and a half to write that nonsense.
.-= Selfish´s last blog ..How To Tie Shoelaces: A Forgotten Skill? =-.
An hour and half? Seriously? That is sorta funny. But not the ha-ha kind. :)
.-= Sean´s last blog ..10 Words to Kickstart Your Creative Engine =-.
Hi Sean, Hi, Dave, thanks for your comment! This has been so much fun! I forgot how much I enjoyed writing… I had not done any creative writing in a very long time. My writing exercises were usually restricted to writing snarky letters of discontent to companies and such! It wasn’t until I started commenting on Writerdad that I got to flex my creative muscles again. I would say it’s like riding a bike, except I never learned how to ride a bike. Anyway, I encourage everyone to give it a go. You just think of a theme, write the next sentence, and then everything seems to just write itself after that. I can’t really explain it, but the more you write, the easier it gets. Looking at how fast the comments have grown in volume, I am not the only one who feels this way. I think there are many budding writers out there just waiting to bloom. Thanks for the playground.
Hiya Ma. Thanks for playing along over there. It does indeed look like you’re one of the early site favorites. GO MOM!
See ya tonight. :)
.-= Sean´s last blog ..10 Words to Kickstart Your Creative Engine =-.
Hi Sean, Hi, Dave, thanks for your comment! This has been so much fun! I forgot how much I enjoyed writing… I had not done any creative writing in a very long time. My writing exercises were usually restricted to writing snarky letters of discontent to companies and such! It wasn’t until I started commenting on Writerdad that I got to flex my creative muscles again. I would say it’s like riding a bike, except I never learned how to ride a bike. Anyway, I encourage everyone to give it a go. You just think of a theme, write the next sentence, and then everything seems to just write itself after that. I can’t really explain it, but the more you write, the easier it gets. Looking at how fast the comments have grown in volume, I am not the only one who feels this way. I think there are many budding writers out there just waiting to bloom. Thanks for the playground.
Hiya Ma. Thanks for playing along over there. It does indeed look like you’re one of the early site favorites. GO MOM!
See ya tonight. :)
.-= Sean´s last blog ..10 Words to Kickstart Your Creative Engine =-.
C’mon, Sean, this is no-brainer heaven! I have a knack for putting nonsensical words together into a simple philosophy that anyone can understand, whether whenever you want or every other Friday.
The freedom I have in writing such perhaps emanates from my living a doughnut- and carb-free life in an apartment with low health insurance premiums, in an area of a city away from noisy trucker traffic and rackety scaffolding.
What’s next? ;)
Awesome, Ari. That’s a really low word count. I always try to get them as reduced as I can, but I think yours had fewer words than my did.
There’s a new challenge up right now. We do them every three days or so:
http://www.creativecopychallenge.com/creative-copy-challenge-8
.-= Sean´s last blog ..10 Words to Kickstart Your Creative Engine =-.
C’mon, Sean, this is no-brainer heaven! I have a knack for putting nonsensical words together into a simple philosophy that anyone can understand, whether whenever you want or every other Friday.
The freedom I have in writing such perhaps emanates from my living a doughnut- and carb-free life in an apartment with low health insurance premiums, in an area of a city away from noisy trucker traffic and rackety scaffolding.
What’s next? ;)
Awesome, Ari. That’s a really low word count. I always try to get them as reduced as I can, but I think yours had fewer words than my did.
There’s a new challenge up right now. We do them every three days or so:
http://www.creativecopychallenge.com/creative-copy-challenge-8
.-= Sean´s last blog ..10 Words to Kickstart Your Creative Engine =-.