Round Up: Week 3

LAST WEEK’S PROMPT:

Start your story with "April showers bring May flowers, at least, that's what my ______ used to tell me." Then end your story with story with, "And that, officer, is why I had to murder my ______."

Amanda

As soon as I sat down to write this week, the story came immediately to my head. A story of order, control, and chaos. Don't we all rely on the set order of some things in life to feel like we have some control? When things fall out of cycle, we lose the imaginary idea of control we hold over the universe and anything could happen from there, perhaps even burning down your neighbor's doghouse with a flamethrower attempting to reset the situation.

Of course, our narrator was a little more extreme than most of us are and started to almost channel Dolores Umbridge a bit ("I WILL HAVE ORDER!") but her situation is just a hyperbole of what we face every day. Order and chaos do exist in the universe, but the idea we have any control over... well, anything, really, is entirely in the collective human imagination.

MY VOTE: Jimlock

Korrin

This was by far the most entertaining prompt I found on the internet so I felt it had to happen.  Once again I didn't know where my fingers would lead me as I sat and wrote my story.  I literally sat on my couch and asked my mom random questions when I couldn’t make decisions, such as, “What is the worst subject in school? GO!” She looked at me really confused.  The easiest part was picking the name of the professor. I won’t explain why here, but some of you will know.

I loved how I wrote the point of views for this. I really suck at keeping my tenses correct, I tend to switch between first and second person, so writing this like a person would tell it was easier. I also allowed myself to change the narrator. I hoped that the reader would forget the “ at the beginning and think the story was in first person and then be taken by surprise when it switched towards the end.  It made me happy to not have to worry about if I should use “you” or “one”. That’s what I hate most about English.

MY VOTE: Jimlock

Kylie

This prompt started out with a lot of experimentation. It’s hard to write something that has such a specific beginning and ending. I wrote two drafts about serial killers before deciding to scrap both of them. But I knew I wanted to quote T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” Most people don’t see April as particularly cruel, but I knew somebody in this story thought it was. The story that came out is way different from what I normally write. Usually I have fun elements in a serious environment. This one was more like serious monologue from a serious person in a serious situation. It was enough serious to make Sirius Black jealous. I’m pretty happy with the end result, though. It’s definitely a piece I’d love to take to a workshop one day.

MY VOTE: Jimlock

Wow! What a crazy random happenstance! Our first unanimous vote! This leaves the current score at Amanda, Kylie, and Jimlock at 1.

Next week’s prompt is:

Write about a random mythological/fantasy creature and put them in an average, modern-day situation.

For our creatures and situations, we wrote suggestions down on a Google Doc and relied on a random number generator to choose our creatures and situations. So for those playing at home--you lucky dogs, you--you can choose your own creatures and situations.

Happy writing, everyone!