Well a deadline caught up with him this time. He submitted one of his weird stories to a blog that hosts writing contests-- 250 words with this picture as the prompt. Well he was too late, but here's the story.
Cross Words
He folded the gray paper in half and then in half again, took out a pencil and scanned the clues.
“Are you going to do that now?” she asked. He shrugged his shoulders at her, looked back at the puzzle and gave his mechanical pencil a pair of clicks.
“Hey, I’m trying to tell you something.”
“Uhhm,” he replied around the pencil in his mouth. Then he removed it and asked, “What’s a four letter word for barrier?”
“I don’t know, wall? I’m trying to talk to you.”
“I know, I’m listening.”
“No you’re not. You’re doing the crossword puzzle,” She looked at the paper, and added, “yesterdays.”
“Yeah, that’s so I have the answers if I get stuck.” He pointed to indicate today’s paper on a pile under the table.
“Two across is waver,” she said. He gave her a quick glare, and she folded her arms as he penciled in the letters and continued reading the clues.
“How about a five letter word for gray?”
“Does dingy fit?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied as if he’d known that himself.
“Seven letters for electrified,” he thought out loud.
“Charged?” she said, again he glared, but wrote the letters.
“Blank dreams,” thinking out loud again.
“Four letters? Pipe?”
“Why don’t you do this yourself,” he said holding out the pencil to her.
“No, I’m going to sleep,” and she walked down the hallway.
He nodded and looked back at the puzzle and thought one down and filled in the letters s-l-e-e-p.
Weird... Anyway, I wonder what would happen if he was on time once in a while.
You can see the winning stories, by writers that kept to the deadline.
7 comments:
That was cute. A lot of fun. Even if you didn't get it done on time.
Deadlines can be a bitch, don't you think? When I worked for the newspaper and the magazine, I would always wait until deadline, run around like an idiot, working myself into a frenzy. Then, I would promise myself that I would be proactive from then on. Until the next deadline when I was running around like a fool, working myself into a frenzy.
You guys sound like me. I write lovely essays on many topics, all at the last minute. Nobody knows that, judging by the calls I get for help from people before I've even started the project.
Many people seem to think that deadlines are optional guidelines. Much like the speed limit or noise ordinances.
Chelle
Hi Guys thanks for reading.
Stewart, know I said I didn't have time for your contest, but really 700 words is like a novel compared to 250.
As for deadlines: I think I just got talked into a regular column in the Michigan Mountain Bike Association's Bent Rim Bugle. Ok quarterly is not regular, and it may only be a newsletter but it goes to about 2000 members four times a year. It's a start. I wonder what the new editor thinks of deadlines?
Perhaps you've read my ThumbShifter pieces.
So SourDad gets a regular byline? Cool. Although the nature of the writing gig is making me chuckle mightily. Course, that's good for productivity tonight.
I think the BRB would prefer ThumbShifter to SourDad. Gotta know your audience.
I meant, does the wonderkid behind the crazy pseudonyms get a byline?
Yes M, that guy does occasionally run a piece sans the nom de plume.
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