Saturday Prompts 01 08:06

A murder of crows

A widow stands at a window

All my lovers, in alphabetical order

Anger does not arouse a chair, grief, a table

Boys with bread-pudding in the hands, kicking a can

But not the kitchen sink

Driving along the motorway

Grant me good rest tonight, Lord

How d'you get down off an elephant?

Is the soul solid, like iron?

Late afternoon shines through chinks in the barn

Laura sleeping without pants

Marie drives back and forth

The evenings dazzle

The smell of boiling jam

There will be talking of lovely things

Things will be different

What is a room if not its memories?

What we call a beginning is often an end

When a lover dies

Why do they call it ashes?

als on still warming up

last night i got home to discover i hadn;' placed in the top four of the UH competition (top prize £1000) so i have to make do with a top twenty place and anthology publication (which is great, actually, but hey, a grand's a grand)

also got a reject from liar's league, which i had high hopes for.

so not in the greatest of moods.

as part of the warm up for the july blast, i'd written two flashes, both over 1000 words, and a poem i was realtively pleased with. so last night - primaries deadline looming - i got straight down to a story.

two thousand words later, there we go - just finished re-reading it now, a day after writing it. i'm too close to judge the quality, i always need a couple of days, but it feels good to have basically done my primaries story a day before deadline.

also, the warm up pushed me over 12000 words for the month, for only the third time this year, and has produced maybe three subbable pieces.

now we've got the real thing starting this weekend.

bring it on...

Stats Update

28 June

A string of final places in a number of comps (results TBA)

and another half-dozen publications

two budding poets get into Poetic Hours, TomC appears at Defenestration, Cally has a story dramatised in London at "Liars League", "Rupert"'s stoy "Kicking" and RVJ's story "Soccer, Cake" appear at Flashquake, each earning $25


Reported Publications this year 54

Hits for the year now total 106, earning $3,473



The warm-up to the Jluy Blast has profuced 15 pieces to date

Friday Prompts 01 06:30

REMEMBER WE HAVE A PRIMARY (STORY) DEADLINE TONIGHT

FOR STORIES, NOT FLASHES.



PROMPTS

Only the porter could open the lock

I am the bastard William Williams

The hotel manager read it

Well, Bethan, looks like I went and did it after all

He cut through the canvas

She paused and added, 1913

Tents like white commas, as far as the eye could see

I can't seem to find my feet

To understand, you must lose things

Your life is like a house that unbuilds itself

The pellets we are fed

Time explodes like a nail-bomb

My old man said follow the van

Last Orders

Fortress Singapore

Snow is falling again

The woman opposite is dozing, thinking of murders

Thursday Prompts at 22:30

Barking

One man went to mow

Half-way up the stairs is the stair where I sit

Monopoly Wars

Catchphrase

Eating Bush Meat

The man with rubber arms

Conspiracy Fairies

Memories of granny's kitchen

Big Game

In the mouth of the cave

Manflu

Adventures of a Wheelie Bin on a Green island

Cell Block X

The essential uselessness of an uncharged mouse

Thursday Prompts for 6PM & 8PM

Chairs move by themselves, and books

The ferryman lay drunk in his boat

When the heart stumbles

He is conscious only at brief intervals

I did not imagine being bald

Each night eating a little further

An enamel bath

Window frames, pictures

I didn't doubt for a moment you were dead

You could always bring me flowers

Tomcat

What can moonlight do?

An old woman with heavy breasts

A thing to look away from

Immaculate Conception

And wheeled him off

Joe Smith, eight-six-and-a-half

My face catches the wind

Imagine, snapshots of our deaths

I remember the last red rose

The murderer has been patient with his poisons

Their little house has forty rooms

Seventy-nine years in a small box

A groundsheet, a pool of human blood

The trees are careful

Thursday 02 12:04

PROMPTS

Give me the strongest cheese, one that stinks

From the window I see horses

By afternoon there were cars everywhere

I was in Berlin

I walked on the tops of trees

A cow is giving birth

What is the smell of being human?

The purple mist of trees upon a mountain

The neighbours heard it

Once, I caught a tremendous fish

When despair climbs into my bed

Coffee, condensed milk, brandy

I can hear humming

Dull, hungry, like a damp dish-cloth

Take another look

Apple

Tell me this is not why you came

What is fucked-up, suffocating

Nothing is known for sure

Thursday 01 07:07

PROMPTS

A crow fished from a blocked chimney

Bud

Hoofprints in sand

Down by the nets

What comes in through a cat-flap

Without oars we rowed for hours

What if a road decided to go somewhere else?

As a dog with two dicks

Karthoum

You might hear, second, third, fourth hand, that I am unwell

He who lives by the sword. Is scary

That night, blind corners could suddenly see

Dream Kitchen

McDonalds as a War Crime

With nothing left I phone you

Concentrate on her various attributes

Behind Blockbuster Video

When they told me I was dead I said, not funny

Omnibus

univented blades of grass

The earth still moves

Prompts, Wednesday, 22:30

Caravans and Cream Soda

When the Waters Cover the Sea

Bribery, Bilberries

A good laugh and a couple of beers

A million words escape me

Bringing her down to size

What do you eat when the chips are down

The Ten-second Rule

Exterminate! Exterminate!

Behind the Sofa

Smiling Happy Places

Foster's Lair

Death of a Jam-maker

als- more on the pre blast blast

last night was a difficult one

lots of real life stuff to contend with, but determined to crank out a flash or at least a poem...

some great prompts floating around, and i managed just over a thousand words flash, but it happened in two sittings. first thirty minutesor so just took off based on three or four of the prompts, and i didn;t really stop to think about what the hell i was writing.

then real life interrupted and i had to leave the thing for a couple of hours.

not ideal.

came back to it and realised that it was a million miles from what i usually like to write/read.

it's weird where these things come from when you're flashing - if i'd thought about it at all, i can't see me ever writing those characters, pl0t events, that voice.

but that's what was there, and i managed to finish it off in about another twenty minutes.

also managed to crit four other flashes, but only managed tto post one before real life got in the way again.

still, two nights, two passable if not publishable flashes, over two thousand words written.

as a start, it'll do...

but there's subs to think about, there's primaries on friday, then the blast proper starts at the weekend.

but that's the secret, i think.

never stop.

Prompts for 1800 and 2000 Wednesday

They are dancing in Tescos

VW

By now I bet he'd dead, which suits me fine

ABC

He wanted to make us take notice

VC

They are dancing on the tops of cars

XYZ

Two fat girls in tight pants

BBC

The fourth oldest profession

The father gets a bullet in the eye

Sweet Earth

VD

I look at you sleeping

Our trust in art

The moon, bright orange

STD

A man eats a chicken

PARTY!

The green way to cook a pig

White thighs like slabs of lard

He was depressed, so built a bomb

When all the leaves are old

Tread softly, softly

The Man Who Knew Too Much

In order to forgive we must first know

On emerging from a dark tunnel

India, Iraq, Indonesia, Idaho

Wednesday 02 11:00 prompts

Two trees

I watch with my daughter

Hard, heavy, slow, dark

It's snowing down south

It's hard to believe these guys

Must Have TV

Like in a trick mirror

Allesandro the Grape

You see them in bars, eating ice-cream

Blue Sky to the North

Once more I think of you

How to inflate a rock

The boy waits on the top step

A chunk of brown bread

Being Alive

Chicken sandwich with mayonaisse

Wednesday 01 08:00

Four men in orange uniforms, a suit

In the back of a garbage truck

Six blind women

Brutal lips, a slash across the face

It's not a fancy restaurant

Last night I dreamt I was in Vladivostok

That act of love lies somewhere between the belly and the mind

My friends Howie and Francine

In a past life I believed in reincarnation, but now I don't

Woman in a red, red dress

Knock at the door

He was big alongside me, like a ship in dock

Pickpocket

There is no sky today

One morning my father went down the icy stairs

Flowers, red lilies, roses, scarlet petunia

Love is apart from all things else

Prompts for Ten PM

Dressed for death, and smiling

There is no greater crime than leaving

The Unit

Plastic Coffins, Perspex Windows

You've been a long time making up your mind

As the evening light congeals

I have learned about dying from looking at pictures

HAMMER

The Hostage Reunion

DRILL

I wait in a dive on 52nd street

Pretend You Love

The smell of dead children

SCREW

All I have is my voice

NAIL

I am standing here inside my skin

Picking though debris

Fox, gravel, stink

We are now at peace

Hate them all, hate is good

Down to the seventh level

Night beasts in a winter field

eight o clock prompts

shine so bright

i'd like that million dollars

my love lives in the balance

early days, late nights

she fills the spaces

it's not the liquor i miss

a history of lovers who have been here before

cat's eyes trance

silence, and the kettle

hand-picked here and now

Tuesday Afternoon/Evening Prompt Set

Posted at 16:25 but for the 6PM slot.

Whenever you look, you get a max of 90 minutes to flash

No, that's a special connection

Where an honest river runs

Behind a dirty window

I am grass

Who sold you this, then?

Of stone and harsh wind

If you didn't come from your country

Pile the bodies high, paint them white

The janitor disturbed some wasps

She rubbed her legs together as she sat on a disembowelled horse

The lovers disappeared

And voices, lifting

I love Gerry Adams, Saddam Hussein

A Squad of Mothers, prams

I sometimes lie, or bend the truth

I did not choose to be (Welsh)

Slow Start

I's just as well we chose to "warm-up" for a week before the July Blast

Two weeks away for me and Boot Camp got quiet.

Now getting it going again is like trying to move an oil tanker with oars.

3 Flashes and two poems so far.

Let's hope it gets a little better.


alx

Tuesday Prompts 02

11:25


Here they are. The soft eyes open.

The man on the bench in the barn

The Ghost Road

Ambiguity

All the flowers, black

The Sixpenny Show

Wow, I said, I'd love a Big Mac

253

Haunted

Before I knew there were men

24

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota

19

Strange Lolayties

Zanzibar

For all the horses butcherd on the battlefield

Skunk

A cool small evening, shrinking with rain

A snail on my window

Suddenly he is at the centre of a cone of white light

Ideas of Home

PARIS

Tuesday Prompts 01

and sang the sun in flight

we should have been galloping on horses

are you dreaming of what is lost?

sunflowers outside the window

hauling in lobsters pots, sun gleaming

my brother is here, my sister

stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

The stars are not wanted now

things move

pity the drunks, the old, the dead

the art of blood on snow

she wrote her notes, then blocked the door

Moondust

Little Children

als on the pre-blast blast

thought i'd put down a few words each night (or most nights) as we go through the balst (and the pre blast)

a few people are up for flashes and poems in preparation for July's blast.

good.

i was determined to get something done, and managed to fit somethign in around various life things tonight. 1000+ words of a flash - used the prompts posted, but in the end only included maybe two of them. i usually prefer it when the story starts to eat up all the prompts on the page, almost without me trying. that didn;t happen tonight.

the story isn;t great. ,it's probably not even subbable. but that's not the point. not for this pre-blast, anyway.

the point is to get used to forcing myself to sit down, write something - anything - every night.

and i managed that, at least.

i even started another piece, a poem. didn;t finish because life got in the way again, but i got a couple of stanzas down, and i'll come back to it.

managed to crit the other flash that someone had managed today as well.

it was much better than mine.

so, a partial, limited, tenuous success.

but that's ok.

i wrote one and a half pieces, over a thousand words. and i wouldn't have done that otherwise.

more flash prompts

in case you need any more!

crumbliest, flakiest

brother's on his way

no one wants the job

informed and anxious

controlled and crying

escher block

the corner of helium and green

sandals, size nine

where's the duck when you need it?

one day in, too many to go

Flash Prompts 04

at 20:00



Life Support
Out of the Silent Planet
Enter the Dragon
The Kleenex Monopoly
Woman with pitchfork
Potato Digging
Mother Theresa versus Father Brown
The long, slow ache of living with you
The Pride of Lions
Mutual Backscratching


Flashes can be sent by Blasters to me or to Alex for anon posting.

Flash Prompts 03

18:30 prompts posted on Boot Camp by MP

Panzerman, the valley of ashes
The Hotel
White Van Man Returns From the Dead
My Brother is Out of Bed Today
Seventeen Ways to Advertise
The man who fixed the World Series
The Four Till Ten Shift
The Black Cloud
Gently, Gently Down the Stream
Simply not good enough
The Invoice
Bluetooth and Other Bastards
Swimming to the Azores

Flash Prompts 02

Midday Prompts

A catastrophic kiss
A drum taps
A week without a moon
All catches alight
and again by the Saturday boat.
and boarding in rooms.
Flags
My wife shook the hand of the pickpocket
She let him tie the black silk over her eyes
Small cheap mirrors with MADE IN TUNISIA written on the back
Driving to the airport along a glittering highway
South of
Number Twenty-One
and I have calculated that absolutely nothing would be saved
as it may become very difficult and precarious
At present I am particularly concerned
by sub-letting the flat (furnished)
For the heart to be loveless
for the Wednesday boat
from America to England.
I am sick for want of sleep
Breaking and Entering
Against
Refreshment
Red Nose
Please Can I Have a Chicken?
A day like any other day
In the corner of the kitchen
My brother's room
My father carries me across a field
Why I Don't Live at the post office

Flash Prompts 01

Use one or more of the prompts below, either directly, or indirectly (as inspiration) to produce a flash. Ideal time-to-write is 45-75 minutes, but if a longer story evolves, then write it. record your time for first draft and add it (and prompts) after the story, below word-count


PROMPTS


Carnevale

Every day I am new

The Unit

Jump off, stand there and gaze

Six Feet Under

and newspapers from vacant lots

The West Wing

the frozen daquiris, talk, smoke

It's not that I'm saying

lay your warm and gentle body next to mine

Who cares what they say of you? You're dead!

Parting is all we know of Heaven

I like you more than I would like; to have a cigarette

Somwhere in clouds

My little pony must think me queer

A Khan or two, a traveller

Axe

When I am even older, I will wear Lycra

An onion, hello?

Does the road wind uphill all the way?

Something stinks in the car

Sad, Dad and hopeless to know

A Few Days to Warm-Up for the July Blast

News on the Blast


The excellent Eclectica Magazine will be taking a selection of Blast stories.

This week we are warming up with regular flash prompts and a writing-subs blast.



alx

als on a bad month, and keeping going

in terms of writing, this has been a bad month.

i've managed a story a week for primaries, weird range of scores as well, totally not what i expected - some 80s and some (well, one) 110s.

all three of these stories have been forced out with a deadline looming, and in all three cases i thought they were awful.

i've managed a couple of poems as well, and i'm starting to enjoy the process of writing a poem. but again, i'm far from happy with the finished things. at thirty-six, i still don;t know how to write a poem like i didn;t know how to write a poem at sixteen.

subs are down too. i've managed three subs. that's poor. i had a target of ten, and i've got a target of twenty for the july blast. so three, that's just not going to cut it.

i had a hit early on this month, low level ezine. buoyed me up for a few days. it got published straight off, then i had a poem published in a small print mag, so again - a little feel good factor. but they're low level things. just enough to keep things ticking over, but nothing more than that.

also, i've got some stuff out there that i'm starting to fret about - waiting on the results, hoping for a biggish hit. i hate that. i want to just send stuff out and forget about it, let the hit be a surprise.

worst of all is the word count. i'm at less than 7000 for the month i think. rubbish.

so ,blah blah blah, the point of my miserable little rant is this:

keep going.

a bad month's a bad month, and I can feel sorry for myself all i want. but there's a blast coming up. i can either give up, or get my head down, squeeze out some words, get the juices going by DOING not by wondering why i'm uninspired.

managed a poem today. also, read quite a bit. critted three stories.

keeping going...

the story i forced out for primaries, which i came so close to not posting 'cos i thought it was so awful is actually not being totally trashed.

keeping going...

i've got almost twenty pieces floating around, subbed here and there, one of them is bound to hit.

keeping going...

i'm thinking about doing the 'page a day' thing on a novel, just to see.

keeping going...

so if there's anyone else reading this who's having a bad month writing wise, i sympathise, empathise.

but keep going.

a really bad month is the one where you stop writing for good.

The BC July Blast

We had a "blast" in July 2006 where most of the members went on a writing spree, flashes, stories, a few poems, and a greta effort to submit asap.

The productivity during blasts is amazing, and the quantity is not at the expense of quality. Hit rates RISE. There's something about the energy, the pressure, the community drive that seems to inspire everybody.

We will be posting a set of flash prompts Weekdays at

06:00
07:55
13:00
18:00
20:00
22:00

On the weekends we will post prompts at

08:00
11:00
14:00
17:00
20:00

Each of us will set himself a personal target for the month, word-coun, number of flashes, number of stories, subs.

We will tie up with a good-quality ezine : in the past this has been Eclectica Magazine and all flashes will get brief feedback in BC.

In the past these "blasts" have been joined by a few non-Boot Campers.

If you are interested post a comment here (they go via moderation)



alx

Wednesday Prompts

That's why the warning light comes on

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition

Once again I have missed you by moments

The sound of one hand slapping

Which reminds me

General Studies, Upper Sixth, a Doddle

White-faced soldiers

Playing leapfrog

But he did for them all with his plan of attack

Driving Back

Re-inventing the telescope

How wind will always find the cracks

Time, Water

Tommy won't eat his broccoli

Or you may wish to read more widely

This examination may be terminal

I am waiting in the shadows at the dark end of a lonely street

100

And the 100th is reached.

BB gets 99, and AK himself makes the hit that takes us into three figures for 2007.

Roll on 200, some time in late October, I'd guess...

98! 99? 100?

TomC records our 98th hit of the year with an acceptance at Defenestration.

Roll on Numbers 99 and 100

Monday Prompts

From somewhere, the sound of dancing

No blood is flowing, just red birds

Hitler was a British Agent

As if a fire was flickering gently

They bring us crushed fingers

Pigeons

A thousand years ago, the angels say

She climbed to the third floor

Her last words wandered across the ceiling

She glanced up from her creaking rocking-chair

The children work hard

Your return is overdue

Day has cast anchor in the shadows

I have heard the sobbing of angels

Two thousand cigarettes

Now I will change water into wine

A lady lonely as a rat

Birdcages flew open

No fiery writing on the wall

Mad New Zealanders

Above the fields the wires hissed like iguanas

In the name of the father, the son and the holy bank.

Sunday prompts

They had made love earlier, in the big high bed

Paris from my window

Looking over the polaroids

Once upon a time there was sex and death

About New York

Two for the price of three

In the spaces between the parrots and the fruit trees

I open my skull to your gaze

In my dream my brother gave away a screenplay

The Life & Death of a Pork Chop

Maybe one day I'll have three children, one of each

I said, "Look, this is my house."

The Empire of Child

Your body, I remember, stained my big cream bed

What My Dad Thought of Church

Grey on Grey, Black Upon Black

My mother is downstairs with a saxophone player

Back? Well, sort of...

I got ahead wordcount-wise last month, and boy do I need that start.

I need to find 25,500 words this month and my brain is mush. I have the head-sensation of a hangover (but not drinking) and I'm completely out of ideas (and not in the mood.) A ton of paperwork, too and a fair few rejections were in the post. Joy!

My head is simply not right, so in all probability I'll crack on with all the domestic, non-writing stuff today and Sunday, then hope to hit the writing hard come Monday.

Trouble is that will be 11th, leaving 19 days (if I don't miss 1-2) to write that 25,500. Plus I have a 4K Open University Essay to write by the 21st and then another due around July 20th

But there again that's just 1,500 words a day. is that so hard?




Looking at Boot Camp hits this year it's interesting how we have stepped up the paper/web ratio to almost exactly 50%. There are a few exceptions, (both ways) but generally paper is a tougher market. I know 2-3 BCers are aiming higher this year and the higher you aim the slower the hits come, but that's a necessary part of upping your game.


Anyway, right now getting that 30K this month looks and feels like a toughie. If I miss out, it's good to remember that I have already written 93K in 3 months



alx

Catch Up 2 - Some Prompts

Break, Blow, Burn

We left before I had time

A Life in Litters

Spineless and eyeless we spend our days

In Defence of the Bastards

A wooden table, a vase of flowers

Number One in Heaven

It seemed the obvious place to go

The Odd Tunnel in Paris

Too pale for these cloud-breached days

Panning for Gold

You ask what I think of your new acquisition?

A Viking Writes Home

From the Direktor Domestic & General Functions

Tell me I'm beautiful, bring me flowers

I came at night to the dark house

The same scene fifty times

Toute-suite or Double-Quick?

Starting to Catch Up

08 BC Stories while I was away

10-25 (Crits-Discussion Posts)
09-10
08-63
08-37
08-19
08-13
08-10
08-09

67 Full Critiques (08.38 Average)
186 Discussion Posts (23.25 Average)



05 Stories in today's primaries (14-21 so far)

=======================================


Up to 97 Hits for the year.

Most recent

JUNE

091 TomC story in Ballista (Print)
092 Alex places collection at Salt (Print)
093 Jason Jackson places at six sentences
094 NW places at six sentences
095 Tom places at Underground Voices $30
096 Amy places at six sentences
097 Jason Jackson places at Smokelong

14 Members placed in 2007
02 Members unplaced
05 New members (unplaced)


2007 Publications Update


2007 PUBLICATIONS

January

001 Alex - The Internet Writing Journal - "The Long & the Short Of It"
002 Cedric - Eclectica - "Killing Bulls"
003 MJH - Eclectica - "Geoff Says Farewell"
004 Kenneth Shand - Eclectica - "Ramirez"
005 Cedric - Eclectica - "The Year of the Card Player"
006 MJH - Eclectica - "The Undressing of Ursula"
007 Caroline - Poetry Monthly "Snowdrops" paper
008 Alex - Poetry Monthly "On Greenham III" Paper
009 Alex - Southern Ocean Review "The Ghost in the Latrine" Paper/Web
010 Tom - article at Johnny America
011 Lexie - lead story in Earlyworks paper anthology
012 Chrissie - "Mummy Says" in QWF (Print Journal)
013 Jason Jackson in Scottish Print Mag "Raw"
014 TomC in American Drivel (Paper Mag)
015 Caroline in February Poetry Monthly (Print)
016 Cally published by Espresso Fiction ($30)
017 Lee published at Sussuruss
018 Cally in Slingink Anthology (paper
019 TomC in Sligink Anthology (paper)
020 TomC at Peccary (webzine)
021 Colin First Prize-Winner published at Cadenza (Paper)
022 Caroline, two poems in "Seventh Quarry" ("one pub")
023 TomC article at Johnny America (web)
024 Nightwriter at Flashquake
025 Tom C at Laughter Loaf
026 Colin at Heavyglow
027 Alex in Poetry Monthly
028 Caroline in Poetry Monthly
029 Cally at Chick Flicks
030 CLT at Smokebox
031 Tom at Glass Fire
032 TomC podcast at Bound Off
033 Alex at LitBits
034 TomC at LitBits
035 Alex in Gold Dust
036 JJ in Pen Pusher
037 Caroline, two poems in Southern Ocean Review
038 Jason Jackson in Poetry Monthly
039 Lexie in H E Bates Anthology (1)
040 Lexie in H E Bates Anthology (2)
041 CLT in Word Riot
042 Alex in Espresso Fiction ($30)
043 Tom in Transmission (Print)
044 JPM in Thieves Jargon

Individual Totals (Web-Paper-Total)


007-003-010 Tom
003-004-007 Alex
001-005-006 Caroline
001-004-005 Colin
002-001-003 Cally
003-000-003 MJH
002-000-002 Cedric
001-000-001 Kenneth
000-002-003 Lexie
000-001-001 Chrissie
001-000-001 Lee
002-000-001 Claire

023-021-044 TOTAL

Three More Hits for Boot Camp!

A few hits to record:



"Angharad Honeybill" at Six Sentences

TomC accepted at at Underground Voices and gets $30

Jason Jackson accepted at Smokelong, somewhere I've never cracked


BC now on 97 Hits for the year

Another Hit

Jason Jackson places a six-sentence flash

details to follow

Monday Morning Prompts

Failed Electrics

The Night of Execution

How to be a Domestic God

The Last Roman

Chalk Circles

Free my fingers

Smashing Butternut Squash

The Wasting Game

Moth Kisses

Understanding Melissa

A glass of water from my well

Death is within

'als' on the imperative of words, every day

i just spent saturday to thursday away from home, away from the computer, away from the 'net.

away from writing

i took my notebook, but i was with the family, parents, my wife, my son, friends i haven't seen in a while...

i didn't write a thing

i got back on late thursday, logged on to bc, set my usual targets for the coming month, and thought - right, tomorrow, back to it

i still haven't written a word

you see, i've fallen out of the habit

already, after less than a week, that blank screen looks more impossible to fill than it has in months

i've tried a few times

i've typed words, phrases, sentences - and i've deleted everything

awful

i've fallen out of the habit of thinking - ok the first words might be god awful, but keep going, keep going, keep going, because something, eventually, will stick

so i did my usual putting-off-writing exercises. i flicked around ezines looking for somewhere to sub to. i did other life-things.

i was fine while i was away, because i knew i was 'on a break' but now, these last three days, i've been miserable

i know i have to write, and i can't seem to do it

and i also know that it'll pass, because i've been here before, and i've finally put some words down, got that story out, or that poem, or that flash, and it's usually rubbish, but then the next one is ok, then the next better...

so, what i have to do is stop waiting for that moment when the words come back, and just sit down and write

this is a start. posting here. getting it out. typing words.

but the whole point is i think that i'm in this mess to start with cos i had some days off, where i fell out of the habit, and now i can't get back

i know this doesn't work for everyone, but i still think that 'words every day' is the way to go. because then it just becomes a habit. it becomes natural. at the minute, sitting down and writing a story, a poem, whatever, feels like the most unnatural thing in the world. but once i've done it again, it won't.

i know that 'words every day' is difficult, at times impossible. but so is writing. and at least to try to write every day, that feels like something worthwhile to me.

Prompts From the Sun

Me and Cilla

The Life & Death of a Wind-Surfer

The Many Differences Between 96 and 116

The God Delusion

Forth Degree Burns

Adrienne! I've Told You Before; If You Must Use a Broom, Use it on the floor

Why Margaret Didn't

It Came from the Lagoon

Life of Galileo

In a Window, a Television

Green Shorts, Cold Tea

Aloe Vera

Listening to Old Beatles Songs

Google "Two masks"

A train is out of control heading for ten children. You can divert the train and save the children but will kill two nice old men. Yes, No?

Subs Targets Met Again

I knew I'd be away for the last 8 days of May and we were a long way short of our monthly subs target when i left, but I'm happy to note that for the third month in succession the subs target has been met and exceded.

It takes 6-20 weeks for the effect of this subbing to show, but it will show!


Well done gang.



Alex

Prompts for June 1st

City Slackers

When I woke up I was in a forest

Touched by an Angel

Stares on the Bus

Windburn

Muscles I didn't know I had

The Mystery of the Poisoned Wedding Cake

Guts for Garters

Go away until your bones are clean

Bells on Her Toes

Don't let's talk about being in love, OK?

My mother's old leather handbag

Ronaldinho's Ponytail