Tag: Challenge

Writers: A Challenge

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I am sharing this here as well, just in case some of you are interested in participating:

6-word Story: Where do you want to travel next?

Photo by Annie Gray on Unsplash

Hello, beautiful people! Welcome to the third challenge since A Cornered Gurl’s relaunch. What’s cracking in my brain for everyone now? We will jump into a six-word story about where you would like to travel next. It can be a place you truly foresee yourself going in the near future or a place you would like to mark off your bucket list.

And how will we do this? You guessed it! You will use six words only to tell your story.

6-word story

A six-word story is an entire story told in six words. It is a short narrative that can have all of the emotional themes of longer stories — from funny to dramatic, sad to scary. While these quick stories don’t have the classic beginning, middle, and end of a traditional storyline, they have a subject and verb that give the reader a sense of what’s happened and a bit of conflict.

— MasterClass

The challenge: Writers will share where they’d like to travel next. However, use six words only to tell us about this place. Is cabin fever finally wearing you down? Do you have a place you sincerely want to go that is simply calling your name? Let us know — but come up with your story using only six words.

An example:

Tonga: an island of beauty, awaits.

Let’s get ready to master this challenge, beautiful people!

•Request to be added as a writer by emailing me at acorneredgurl[AT]gmail[DOT]com with “Please Add Me” as the subject line and please include the link to your Medium profile. Don’t want to be a writer in A Cornered Gurl — simply comment with your response in this challenge post, or create your own post to your profile or in another publication, however, please use the tags, “Challenge” and “6WordStory.”

The challenge will run from Sunday, March 26, 2023, until 6:00 PM, Sunday, April 02, 2023 (with publishing days as Friday, Sunday, and Monday based on ACG’s publishing schedule). Please have “6-word Story: Where do you want to travel next?” as the subtitle for your submission. CHALLENGE SUBMISSION BEGINS NOW!

It’s time to get creative and explore what we can do with six words only on where you would like to travel next!

Bring it, you amazing human beings!

A Cornered Gurl Guidelines: Instagram

Originally shared as a newsletter in A Cornered Gurl via Medium.

Writers: A Challenge

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I Am Sharing This Here As Well . . .

Writers: A Challenge

50-word Story: Animate your life

Photo by Donald Wu on Unsplash

Hello, beautiful people! Welcome to the second challenge since A Cornered Gurl’s relaunch. What do I have brewing in my mind for you now? Something I truly hope you can get into. We will tackle the task of animating your life or telling me about your life as it is linked to or related to your favorite animated movie, cartoon, claymation, etc. You get the drift.

And how will we do this? We will do so using the 50-word story (or a minisaga).

50-word story (minisaga)

A minisaga, mini saga or mini-saga is a short story based on a long story. It should contain exactly 50 words, plus a title of up to 15 characters. However, the title requirement is not always enforced and sometimes eliminated altogether. Minisagas are alternately known as microstories, ultra-shorts stories, or fifty-word stories.

— Wikipedia

The challenge: Please tell me about your life, but do so by comparing it or linking it to your favorite animated movie, cartoon, claymation, etc. Are The Flintstones your favorite go-to cartoon? How so? How is it directly related to your life? Dexter’s Laboratory is closely related to who you are and how your life operates — tell us how. The Incredibles directly define you and your family in some sort of way . . . really? Give us the details, but guess what — do so using exactly 50 words.

An example:

I was blessed with a quick wit, nearsightedness, and too much useless information packed into my head. I had an oddball gang of friends who didn’t mind carrying on with me. Sarcasm was my bosom buddy and I wasn’t popular, but I was well-known. Daria should have been my name.

Let’s get our thinking caps on, beautiful people!

•Request to be added as a writer by emailing me at acorneredgurl[AT]gmail[DOT]com with “Please Add Me” as the subject line and please include the link to your Medium profile. Don’t want to be a writer in A Cornered Gurl? Simply comment with your response in this challenge post, or create your own post to your profile or in another publication, however, please use the tags, “Challenge” and “Pandemic.”

The challenge will run from Sunday, January 22, 2023, until 6:00 PM, Sunday, January 29, 2023 (with publishing days as Friday, Sunday, and Monday based on ACG’s publishing schedule). Please have “Animate your life 50-word story” as the subtitle for your submission. CHALLENGE SUBMISSION BEGINS NOW!

Let’s explore what we can do with a fun topic that will allow us to reminisce, and hopefully have a great time while we get creative, too.

Bring it, beautiful people!

A Cornered Gurl Guidelines:Instagram

Originally published as a newsletter via A Cornered Gurl on Medium.



scarlet ~ a haibun — Mindfills

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Scarlet dreams in white silence course through my veins in autumn contemplation. Will it ever be the same? Two years of you and me in our haven of unreality. Us against the virulent, vicious world. And then through the cracks of our front door, a sliver of light of tomorrows whispered, beckoned, lured, you and […]

scarlet ~ a haibun — Mindfills

Many of you have seen my post here about the Pandemic Haibun Challenge that’s currently underway in my publication, A Cornered Gurl via Medium. Above is a response to it from a writer here in our WordPress community, Sangeetha. I follow her for the depth of her words, her strength of brevity, and the creativity she wields that has no end.

This haibun touched me and moved me, and I am thankful for this community.

They Buried Him Under the Old Jane Magnolia Tree

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Springtime. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

Flash Fiction (Challenge Response)

Rufus was the town postman—employed for thirty-six years before he had a heart attack on his route during a blazing hot summer.

Died on the spot.

His manager, Paul Scheltz, had to identify the body, call his wife, and drive the mail truck back to the distribution center. EMS wasted no time hauling his bloated body to the local hospital, where he was officially pronounced dead.

All their potential life-saving efforts stood before them laughing—making fun of the ten minutes they had pumped the man’s chest. He was deader than dead, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Sylvia arrived at the hospital. Her heart weighed a ton. They’d just taken out a second mortgage, and their youngest was about to enter college. All these thoughts raced through her head as she stared at her dead husband—body as stiff as a board.

They buried him underneath the Jane Magnolia tree in their backyard four days later. No other family was there other than her and their three children. No friends except for Paul and his wife. Sylvia sang, “The Old Rugged Cross” while tears waterfall’d upon her face.

“May he rest in peace,” she said afterward.

May he rest in peace.

—
This is in response to a challenge request from fellow Simily contributor Rod Gilley where he challenged me by stating the following on my previous post: “I challenge you to write a Flash Fiction (1,000 words or less) on the subject of that tree (any genre). That is a beautiful tree – eager to see what your imagination can come up with for a story about it.” 

Originally published via Simily.

Writers: A Challenge

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“Family” in Three Words

My baby cousins (Jaidynn & Caison) and me. Two loves of my life. They enjoy making silly faces with me. I mean, what more could a big cousin ask for?

I am blessed to have so many little ones in my life and family members who love, adore, welcome, and enjoy being around me. This pandemic, in its early stages, put a heavy kink into my visiting plans and time spent with those closest to me in distance but now — I venture out just a little bit more. Being around them lifts me up in ways that are almost inexplicable. Many of you are familiar with Caison and Jaidynn and have watched them grow up over the years as I’ve shared stories or poems about them. Jaidynn will be six in August and Caison will be four in October. Time flies by so quickly and on most days, I want to pull it by its ears, settle it in my grasp, and beg it to stop.

So, the challenge? Tell me something about your family or what family means to you or why you rely on your family but do so in just three words.

Here’s mine:

Smiles
that heal.

Writers, it’s your turn . . . Tell me about your family but in just three words. I know you can do this; I’m sure you can do this. I’ll be kicking off this 4th by visiting my mom for a few hours — that’ll be some additional quality “family” time after seeing the little ones yesterday.

Please, bring it!

And of course, there’s music. Sister Sledge, We Are Family (This song makes me feel all the feels. I used to play my mom’s record to death. No regrets.)

YouTube

Originally shared via Medium.