Inspiration Monday VIII

  By
0 Flares Filament.io 0 Flares ×

The work was so brilliant this past week it was almost too much for me. I pity you if you don’t click on all these names.

Jinx and two and three

Drew and two

Screen Scribbla

Otakufool and two

Mike’s shorts, Mike’s dialogue, and one more Mike, plus one

Sonia

Carl

Kay

Indigo Spider and two

Debra

Rashmi

Patti

Char

Anybody I missed, shoot me a comment!

EDIT: Missed Jenna

—

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before6 pm CSTon the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

Before the earth was round*

Thinking is the best way to travel*

I used to be someone else

His revenge was different than I expected

A cat in a dog park

If you want to share your Inspiration Monday piece, post it on your blog and link back to today’s post; I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) balcomagency (dot) com.

Happy writing!

—

Today’s first and second prompts brought to you by OK Go (Of the Blue Colour of the Sky) and The Moody Blues (In Search of the Lost Chord), respectively.

Related reading:

  1. The four days that made me a writer
  2. 5 Tips for Turning Your Short Story Into a Novel
  3. 5 fantastic examples of voice

About Stephanie Orges

Stephanie is an award-winning copywriter, aspiring novelist, and barely passable ukulele player. Here, she offers writing prompts, tips, and moderate-to-deep philosophical discussions. You can also find her on and Pinterest.
Tagged  , , , , , , , .
Bookmark the permalink.

50 Comments

  2. Pingback: Inspiration Monday VIII – Before The Earth Was Round « Drew Lane – Theatre Composer

  4. jenna
    April 19, 2011 at 9:12 am

    I did one last week! 🙂
    http://wp.me/p1cGMh-2M

  5. Pingback: His Revenge Was Different Than I Expected | Kay Camden

  8. Pingback: I Used To Be Someone Else | A New Day Dawns

  9. Pingback: inspiration monday | this unruly life

  10. MARANTHA JENELLE
    April 20, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Since I have received no acknowledgement of my submission via the link I left above, I am putting it here…

    SITTING PRETTY-Marantha Jenelle-INSPIRATION MONDAY VIII-MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2011
    Posted on April 19, 2011 by MARANTHA JENELLE

    i
    Rate This

    Quantcast

    I stretched languidly, flexing my muscles in the warm sunlight seeping through the tree branches, then settle back one more, my thoughts just drifting here and there, no worries, no cares. A butterfly floats by and I half contemplate trying to catch it, but I am too comfortable. My mind drifts…

    I used to be someone else, you know, way back in those days before the earth was round. In those days men thought they would fall off of the edge of the world if they sailed or traveled beyond a certain point, doomed to fall forever.

    My kind knew differently though, for we had seen it from a different perspective…space.

    We had been the cause behind evolution, as a matter of fact, experimenting on this and that when we first discovered this tiny world, even before it began to break apart and become what it is today.

    We could not die for we were not truly “alive” in the frame of human reference, but were rather more a living energy. Oh, we took human form now and then, but there was a price to pay…

    If we stayed in human form for longer than three sunrises, we remained that way forever, although we could alter our forms to any other living breathing creature we wished.

    Or our forms could be altered and forced to stay that way, but it took one of our kind who was extraordinarily powerful to do it.

    My bad luck was that I had just such a one who had pursued me for centuries under the mistaken impression that he was in love with me. We had both been trapped in mortal form within but a short time of landing here. In fact it was because of my infatuated, very persistent pursuer and I, and a handful of others, that our kind knew the consequences of maintaining mortal form past three sunrises.

    You see, we were the first to make that mistake around the regency period. I because I had become fascinated with the fabrics and gowns and wanted to experience wearing them myself, and he…well…there is no telling why he chose to become mortal.

    What matters is the fact that when we both awoke, in separate locations, on that fourth sunrise and tried to take on our natural forms, we found to our horror that we could not.

    He tracked me down and began trying to force me to love him, but I had already fallen in love with someone else in that time period and we were wed.

    To say that my unwanted admirer was not happy would be a massive understatement. He confronted me and vowed revenge.

    But his revenge was different than I expected, knowing his jealous nature as I did. I had had centuries of seeing all of the devious, conniving, underhanded and sometimes downright malicious ways he had devised of keeping others, both our own kind and mortals, away from me.

    But what he did to me topped it all, for on the day that he confronted me, he laid a curse on me.

    One moment I was standing there glaring at him in defiance after just having told him that I would never love him, no matter how long we lived and the next I was shrinking, sprouting fur and whiskers and developing a craving for fish.

    My thoughts are pulled back to the present by a commotion beneath the branch on which I have been basking. Looking down I find myself staring into the eyes of about six dogs of different sizes, all looking straight up at me and growling, howling, baying and barking their pitiful little fool canine heads off.

    Suddenly I feel the urge to have a little fun. Standing and stretching, flexing both my physical and mental muscles, I “think” myself down to the ground and then take a little swipe out of the dog closest to me, catching him right on the hip…and the chase is on!

    The wind from my movements flows through my long, reddish gold fur as I dash here and there, the dogs flat out in pursuit. Then, just when they almost catch up with me, I “think” myself behind them and suddenly I am chasing them, a fact it takes them a moment to catch onto. Oh, the pile-up then as they all try their best to skid to a halt and change direction at the same time!

    Over and over I do this, now and then “thinking” myself into a tree and then vocalizing to taunt them.

    Finally I weary of the game and find a comfortable tree and settle down as the exhausted dogs go off to do whatever it is that dogs do.

    As twilight falls across the land, and across the little piece of it that I have chosen for my home, a rather curious little thought passes through my mind…“thinking” is the best way to travel…

    Especially when you’re a cat in a dog park!

    Marantha Jenelle

    INSPIRATION MONDAY VIII

    MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2011

  11. MARANTHA JENELLE
    April 20, 2011 at 10:10 am

    Post Script…prompts are as follows

    paragraph two/line one: I USED TO BE SOMEONE ELSE

    paragraph two/line two: BEFORE THE EARTH WAS ROUND

    paragraph thirteen/line one: HIS REVENGE WAS DIFFERENT THAN I EXPECTED

    last two paragraphs: THINKING IS THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL and A CAT IN A DOG PARK

  12. Pingback: I Used to be Someone Else (a 50-word story and its evolution) | Sonia G Medeiros is Doing the Write Thing

  14. Pingback: I Used To Be Someone Else (Inspiration Monday) | Short Stories

  15. pattisj
    April 20, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    http://pattisjarrett.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/i-used-to-be-someone-else/

    The previous link was in error, this should take you there, hopefully!

  16. Pingback: I used to be someone else | usaukwoods

  19. Pingback: Revenge Is Sweet (Inspiration Monday) | Short Stories

  21. Pingback: I USED TO BE SOMEONE ELSE « My Words Whisper

  22. Pingback: Some More Very Short Stories | Short Stories

  23. Pingback: Some More Very Short Stories | Short Stories

  25. Pingback: Musikverein, Better Imagined « stillfugue

  26. Carl
    April 24, 2011 at 8:15 am

    This was a good collection of prompts. Thank you for another good Monday. Here is my post:

    http://stillfugue.com/2011/04/24/musikverein-better-imagined/

  27. Pingback: SF: Amnesia | SPEWIT

  28. Pingback: My Name Is Harry « stillfugue

  29. Carl
    April 24, 2011 at 8:40 am

    Okay, last one. I had to do “A cat in the dog park!”

    http://stillfugue.com/2011/04/24/my-name-is-harry/

  31. Pingback: Better than Tuna? | Find an Outlet

  32. MARANTHA JENELLE
    April 25, 2011 at 9:51 am

    Wahhhhhhhhhhhh! Where’s the “inspiration” for THIS monday? I only got to do one this month! Or did I use them all up when I did the one about the cat? (Sniffs while looking sideways from beneath brows with slightly tilted head, face sulky and arms crossed) Life ain’t fair! I “ate all my candy” and now I have to watch the others have all the fun! (Sniff…pout…glare).

    Marantha

  33. MARANTHA JENELLE
    April 25, 2011 at 9:54 am

    oh, oops, nearly forgot! i have a present for you, a little something i made at three thirty this morning when my mind wouldn’t shut up and what it was saying was NOT what i particularly felt like listening to. hope you will like it.

    click on the link, it will open in a new tab or go to my posts and the original is there.

    http://1wordywoman.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/radically-awesome-blogger-award-2.jpg

    marantha

    • bekindrewrite
      April 25, 2011 at 9:39 pm

      I love it!!! You’re so sweet!

      I’ve had those three-thirty brainstorms. But they don’t usually produce art from me – just a few words scribbled in a notebook, that don’t sound half as good the next morning!

      • MARANTHA JENELLE
        April 25, 2011 at 10:00 pm

        dear bekindrewrite…hehehe, i don’t sleep much, maybe two or three hours in twenty four. especially when i am highly manic, which i am right now. and that, weirdly enough, is when i am my most creative!

        highest irony? i can’t draw a straight line, on the computer or “real world” or string two sentence together in a cohesive, comprehensible manner when i am calm…which, depending on how you look at it…is pretty good isn’t often!

        i have taken a temporary hiatus from my new book (former name “child of destiny” now called THE IHMAEERAN CHRONICLES” and am now working on some art projects that i plan on posting just as i did the award. you all will utilize the same methods of saving them. once they are complete, you will be able to save them then put them as watermarks on ms word to use for stationary or use them in conjunction with the windows paint program to frame pictures. i will give instructions when i post them.

        i am also working on the setup for a book i will be calling “creative computing” which will show some of the different ways you can use ms word, open office org, the gimp paint program (i will include the links to the download sites for both the ooo and the gimp),and the adobe reader (i will also give the link to its download site for those that do not already have it). the book, when it is complete, will show, among other things, how to open a pdf file using the gimp paint program and turn individual pages from the pdf into jpg images to insert in other programs, how to copy and paste from a pdf file onto the windows paint program to create jpg images, how to modify the size of an image that is inserted into both the open office org and ms word programs to where it fills the entire page, how to type notes and comments onto a jpg image once it is inserted onto an open office org page and a bunch more. the subtitle to the book will be “computers…not just for work anymore”.

        i use the projects, both writing and art, to help me deal with the mania and depression, they help me to maintain at least a modicum of control.

        i have not seen many of your posts lately and, truth be told, i miss them. you are a very good and talented writer.

        wishing you many blessing and the best of luck always.

        marantha

        • bekindrewrite
          April 25, 2011 at 10:14 pm

          Thanks, Marantha! I’m down to two posts a week now, InMon included – I’m afraid I just don’t have time for more!

          I love the GIMP! All the graphics you see on this blog were created on the GIMP (although I’m a bit paranoid that none of the art directors I work with ever see it. They would probably cringe with horror at the awful design mistakes I made and never noticed).

  34. Pingback: Inspiration Monday VIII « Jinx Writings

    • MARANTHA JENELLE
      April 25, 2011 at 10:21 pm

      gimp is a wonderful and fascinating program, and i have so much to learn about it…once i finish THE IHMAEERAN CHRONICLES…rewrite my first four books…finish the sequel to the fourth one…create the images for the creative computing one and set it up…finally set free the words that are filling the back of my mind for “bedeviled” and finish the setup for the breakdown of “marilla and the mermaid” (the one publish america canceled and then sold for over a year under copyright infringement). after that is done, i will be studying the gimp program or i may just sneak in every now and then and add studying and learning it in with all the rest.

      uh, do you get the feeling i will be staying out of trouble for “a wee tad of time”? (heheheheh!)

      oh, and “staying on my toes” with yours and eric brett’s wonderful propmts!

      blessings sweetie!

      marantha

  36. Rashmi Kamath
    April 26, 2011 at 4:11 am

    hey.. i don’t think you got my link.. i know i “pinged-back”. but something must have gone wrong..

    https://rashmikamath.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/i-used-to-be-someone-else/

Comments are closed