21 posts tagged “5wordchallenge”
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge words: carpet, jury, pasta, shapeless, whey
Here's my entry:
The pasta provided as our evening meal -- and I'm using that term loosely -- is overcooked and watery. The alleged sauce is nothing more than a reddish liquid pooling like whey and threatening to swamp the paper plates as it drains from the mushy glop of lukewarm noodles. It's an unappetizing and shapeless mess. I'd just as soon skip it. My fellow jury members are tentatively digging in, hunger overcoming disgust for at least a few bites. The so-called chef should be called on the carpet. He's guilty of a greater crime than the defendant in our case.
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge words: original, surf, laughter, intentional, prepared
Here's my entry:
He sits a few yards above the tidemark, feet loosely buried under a cool caress of sand. The longer he stares at the endless cycle of rushing and retreating surf, the more his face relaxes, as if the water is simultaneously ironing away the worry lines as it smoothes out the sand. Getting himself to the water's edge was intentional; beyond that, he'd had no plan. Random meandering along the strand brought him to this particular patch of heaven, with the sound of children's laughter lilting on the breeze from somewhere out of sight. His life will change tonight. He's prepared: the reservations made, the words rehearsed, the ring secretly sparkling within its box, a heart brimming with love and hope. "Will you marry me?" may not be an original question, but he's about to ask it for the first and only time. He concentrates on emptying his mind, submerging himself in the sight, sound, and sensation of waves and sky, finding solace here as he always does.
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge words: meringue, traffic, flowers, social, bill
Here's my entry:
Stuck in traffic. Can't make the office party. Breaks my heart in two.
Missing out on all the niceties of forced social mingling.
Shallow chitchat and nasty gossip, topped with a frothy meringue of feigned goodwill.
Suits and skirts parading 'round the buffet like pretty flowers with gnashing teeth.
Pity I won't be there.
Tabulate lost brownie points and bill me.
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by Ancora Impara.
The words: midnight, sorrow, eyes, stillness, floor
Here's my entry:
Shattered keepsakes on the floor
Mood black as a moonless midnight
Eyes rage-rimmed and dripping sorrow
Deafened by stillness
In the wake of your departure
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by Wavecritter.
The words: beautiful, adventurous, willow, brilliant, question
Here's my entry:
My beautiful, unpredictable little sister was sitting cross-legged near the edge of the garden when a pressing question popped into her five-year-old head.
"I wonder what it would feel like if I put this pussy willow bud in my nose?"
"Kara. No. It's not a good..."
"Ooooooh, it's soft. It tickles!" she giggled. "Uh oh."
Nanny extracted Kara's "bloody brilliant idea" with an eyebrow tweezer then shooed us back outside, annoyed at having to tend to our "foolishness" while her favorite soap opera was on.
Kara was always the more adventurous of the two of us, although I like to believe I was better at foreseeing consequences.
How it works: Write
an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by formance.
The words: table, cheese, bootie, crinkle, hold
Here's my entry:
Hi.
How are you doing today? Sorry for the wait. The holidays, you know.
C'mon over. Alright, Mom. Just put the little angel right there on the
platform in front of the camera. Yes, right there. Uh huh.
{Okay, hovering mommy, just put the kid down on the table, and get the hell out of the way already. Today if possible.}
Well, hello there cutie pie. Are you ready to have some fun? Look up here at squeaky ducky. Say "cheese!" and give me a biiiiiiiig smile.
{Yeah, that's fine. Don't smile. I wouldn't smile either if I looked like you. Just crinkle
up your ugly little mug in something approximating happiness so mommy
and daddy can hang your new photo over the fireplace and I can move on
to the next little brat.}
Oops! Looks like we lost a bootie. Mom, do you want to pop over there real quick and put that back on?
{God forbid we photograph that horrid, fat little hobbit foot of yours in the raw. Scary.}
Okey-doke, sweetie. Look over here. Perfect. Hold it right there. Say "cheerios!" Ah, isn't that precious?! You are sooooooo cute. All done. Thanks. Bye-bye now.
{Ugh, I hate little kids. What on earth possessed me to take this job?}
How it works: Write
an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by ancora impara.
The words: refuse, desert, tear, wound, minute
Here's my entry:
Susan waits by the window, peering out through a tear in the curtain. She's wound up and ill at ease. The minute, nagging worry of an hour ago has burgeoned to all-out panic. Will he simply desert her? Was she merely a pawn all along? In hindsight, the flaws in his story are plain as day. If the police show up before he does, all bets are off. The asshole probably thinks she'll refuse to testify against him. He's got another think coming.
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by Bookmole.
The words: gondola, coke, kinks, menu, injunction
Here's my entry:
As the gondola docked at the top of the peak, the kids fidgeted and edged toward the door. "Whoa, slow down," their mother intoned. "I know you're antsy, but just be patient for a moment. Let's hold hands." Walking out into the chill air, glad to have solid ground under her feet, she shepherded the children toward the rustic bistro located to the right of the tram station. A heavenly aroma of spiced cider beckoned. The hostess seated them near a window with an inspiring, if dizzying view of the valley below. Despite the oft-repeated injunction against sodas, her oldest immediately ordered a coke, flashing her a cajoling smile as he did so. She nodded imperceptibly at the hostess, then ruffled his hair. "Just one. And only because it's a special occasion." The menu was worn, with kinks in the protective plastic, and it was clear the fare would be nothing special, but no matter. This getaway from the daily grind had been a good idea. She settled back against the wood-backed booth and with a small sigh of contentment.
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by BULLETPROOFsoul.
The words: fortitude, misinterpretation, congruency, raillery, turpitude
Here's my entry:
"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Or so they say. At the heel-end of a lifetime of fortitude in the classroom, after tedious days-without-end spent dealing with miscreants, dullards, and vapid socialites, I am to retire. I'll be feted by my peers, subjected to raillery and overweening admiration, then shuffled off, stage right.
As I stand at this crossroads, I can't help but wonder: has my work made a difference? In choosing to teach (despite the aforementioned cautionary injunction and stilted income) have I fostered at least a few good souls who now stride through life with the confident armor of reason and a balanced world view? Are there warriors of the pen who fight more fervently and successfully due to my tutelage in word craft and the power of logic? Have I encouraged anyone to stand against tyranny and turpitude, to speak out for the disenfranchised, to live and act with a generosity of spirit? Or, on a simpler note, to ponder and question and grow as a person?
My earlier gruff characterization and dismissal of the uninterested and uninteresting majority is certainly subject to misinterpretation; it masks my true admiration for the many promising individuals who have graced my lectures and classrooms over the years. Gems amid the riffraff. These are the people I'll miss as I depart academia. If one should happen to pursue a life of teaching, I'll smile at the congruency and impart the following sage advice: "Those who can, teach."
How it works: Write an entry of any length or style using five assigned words. Bold the five words. Tag your post with 5wordchallenge and any other tags you wish to add.
This week's challenge is hosted by Lorin.
The words: coax, feral, euphony, strawberry, abnegate
Here's my entry:
I've neglected the 5 word challenge of late. All it takes is the promise of another lovely summer day to coax me from my lair. But in succumbing to the lure of the outdoors, I abnegate my opportunity to strive for euphony and order, to tame and cultivate the list of five feral words crying out to be put to good use. To this end, I've chosen to spend a short time at the keyboard this fine afternoon, savoring each juicy word like a ripe strawberry freshly plucked from the vine. Verbal exercise complete, I'm heading back out into the sun.
