This has been a very tough few days. Yet again I struggled to produce a complete story. Yet again I wrote a lot of words I had to toss. An easy one very soon, please?
Working Title: SAT Question
1st Sentence: Four friends and co-workers, Jenny, Elissa, Michael, and Fran, are due to attend an important conference, which takes place in a town that is roughly a three-hour distance from where they all live.
Favorite Sentence: She says absolutely not but this solution suits Fran and Jenny very well, so they agree with Michael and all three badger and badger Elissa, they just keep on badgering her, and maybe because she was the youngest of five children, she is used to capitulating to a slew of yammering voices, she is used to condescension, she is used to being told.
Word Length: 1,345
Photo: Portion of I-35W Mississippi River bridge after 8/1/2007 collapse, by Kevin Rofidal, U.S. Coast Guard, 8/2007, picture of the day at Wikimedia Commons 9/2/2011.
This one took 5 starts. That seems to be my limit—once I hit 5 my goal is to amuse myself. And I did. Long live Martha B. Kitchen.
Oh, the humble fish stick. When I was a kid fish sticks seemed special because they were so different from the standard dinners we ate all the time—hot dogs, fried chicken, tiny hockey-puck hamburgers, pork chops when we were lucky. My childhood love of crispy, fishy rectangles might have something to do with my adult passion for the grown-up version and a Maine specialty: fish and chips. Mmm, the fried haddock here in Maine. I do love a good lobster roll but I never, ever turn down fish and chips.
I remember when I began to bust out shorties that I had strong affection for but that arrived in unfamiliar shapes and with endings that maybe weren’t endings. That started in July and all those unfamiliar shapes, as much as my busy days, have delayed my Story Facts and favorites pages for July and August. I just don’t know how to judge some of these stories. For now I think that must be a good thing—I have faith that I’m teaching myself something new. Or at least teaching myself how to wander into the tall weeds with less fear. Anyway, today’s shorty is one of these inscrutables, inspired by the photo above. I really like it, partly because two silly rhyming songs from my girlhood made an appearance. But is it good? I have no idea.
So frustrating! Yesterday I got the story like a whole gift dropped in my lap. Today I tried in the morning, then late morning, then early afternoon, then late afternoon, then early evening. I was so desperate from all the trying that when I got to early evening I wrote a half-page of material that I’d decided before wasn’t going to go anywhere but then I did something I occasionally do to kick-start myself: I hit return and wrote an absurd sentence. Then the husband took me to dinner. When we got back I went back to my absurd sentence and wrote the rest of the story in “make myself laugh” mode. The result is a very odd, very silly story that, yes, makes me laugh. Next!
Enjoy with me this cinnamon-hazelnut stick as I say goodbye to Week 20! Yeehaw! My favorite prompt week so far has been the one using poetry. As I did before, today I got my prompt from the site 
When I bought seven songs for my song-prompt week, I actually added an eighth “bonus track.” “Landslide,” by Fleetwood Mac, inspired the day’s shorty.
Remember in grade school, when you had to write your name down the left side of the page, and then make a poem by producing a word or line that starts with each letter? Or you started with “W-I-N-T-E-R” because you had to choose a season, or “P-U-R-P-L-E” because you had to choose a color. When I wrote my shorty yesterday, my prompt was a photo of a hurricane (see the post just below). I was stumped. I came up with multiple first sentences that went nowhere. After 40 minutes of NOTHING, in desperation I wrote “H-U-R-R-I-C-A-N-E” down the left side of my notebook page. Then I wrote a sentence that started with each letter. I edited them to be more interesting, then went back to the top and extended each sentence into a paragraph that made sense as a lead-in to the next starting sentence. After that, I discovered that I really liked my “E” sentence and the couple of sentences I’d written after it. So I crossed out all the preceding work and started over with those last sentences, which quickly led to a complete story that I actually liked. So, thank you Mrs. Moral, my first-grade teacher, for making me write a poem out of “C-L-A-I-R-E,” one that I have blissfully forgotten.
This photo was the “picture of the day” at 
The Bates College outdoor track inspired the day’s shorty. My friend Alicia and I walked for 45 minutes (which was not nearly enough time for a proper girl confab) while I reserved one small part of my brain for taking mental notes. I guess my notes weren’t so great because the resulting story is destined to live its life undisturbed on my hard drive.
Another personal photo as shorty prompt, this one of the outrageous bed in our room in an Ogunquit B&B. I laughed in glee when I saw that thing and snapped my first picture of the trip before de-pillowing. It took a good 20 minutes to find out-of-the-way places to store all the pillows on that bed. As for the shorty, good idea but poor execution, despite much, much time invested. Next.
Well, I’m very sad as I write this. I’m participating in this round of my friend 
I just completed four weeks of using various kinds of prompts to inspire stories, including personal photos, place, poems, songs. This week I’ll do a grab bag of prompts, using a different kind each day. Today I decided to use a headline, something I’ll try for a week soon. I went to my go-to news site, 
Another week of shorties under my belt! New York style cheesecake is one of my all-time favorite treats and this piece is a BEAUTY, yes? Mmm, congrats to me. Today’s story prompt was the song “Anyway You Want It,” by Journey. Now THAT was a blast from the past. I love the idea for the shorty the song inspired but the promising start wound down to a disappointing finish. Maybe a strong revision will save it.
I made FIVE false starts trying to write a shorty in response to the song “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits, one I very much enjoyed way way back in the 1980’s when I was so young and the world was before me… heavy sigh. Sometimes I have to just throw my hands up and write myself a joke story to meet my daily shorty commitment. Next!
The day’s shorty was inspired by “Stuck with You” by Huey Lewis & The News. Not one of my favorites from this band (there was a time in my youth when I had a very strong affection for Huey’s chin dimple) but I have a nostalgic appreciation for the melody and easy lyrics. But I had to push hard to come up with a story for this one. Still, with a strong revision, what I finally got might be a keeper.
I knew well the music and some of the lyrics of “She’s a Beauty” by The Tubes just by virtue of being a kid in the 1980’s. I had never actually listened to the song with any attention, so I was surprised to discover that this is not a love song. Ha! Far from it. The shorty it inspired has the same attitude as the song, I think, making this story the first in my week of prompt songs that feels connected in any way to its inspiration.
Today’s song happens to be one I don’t care for, “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I find it ironic that the singer belts out these lyrics about how important it is to be a simple man to soaring, anthem-like music, and that over-serious, too sincere framing drives me a little nuts. I was hoping that sense of irony might make it to my story, but no. A sad mother-daughter tale with a not-so-simple man at the heart of it. Meh. Next.
At Ogunquit again, this time with the husband and a Jacuzzi, for a long weekend in the last blush of summer. As I write, I’m sipping a “mocha choca,” an espresso-blasted hot cocoa prepared lovingly for me by a very nice young woman with an accent I can’t place at the Cafe Amore, one of my favorite places in the village. I’ll remember this when I’m trudging to the gym in thigh-high snow this winter. For now, I drink my buzzy cocoa and post Day 2 of my song stories: Today’s shorty was inspired by one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, Tracy Chapman, singing the sad, sweet “Give Me One Reason.” This shorty could not be more different from that song in tone, yet I wrote it while grooving to Tracy on a loop, so go figure.
Today I start a week of shorties inspired by songs. To select my songs I created a Pandora radio station and spent about 20 minutes entering singers and bands I like and giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to songs the site selected for me. Then I saved the station and went on with other things. Last night I went back to the station and wrote down the titles and artists of the first 7 songs Pandora gave me, whether I liked them or not. I bought the songs from iTunes and loaded them onto my iPod. Today I began my series by listening to “Little Bitty Pretty One” by Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers. Because this song is impossible to hear without dancing, I got up and danced like a fool for a good 20 minutes while replaying the song. Then I sat down at my computer, turned the volume down, and continued to replay the song while I wrote.
A friend recently expressed confusion (and a little contempt?!) that I reward Daily Shorty milestones with virtual treats. Occasionally the treat is something I acquired and photographed before inhaling it but typically, no, these treats come from Wikimedia Commons or friends kind enough to remember me and snap a photo before inhaling their own delights. In my defense I can only say that I love looking at these pictures. And that if I I ate all of the treats decorating this site I’d have to exercise twice as much as I do already, and these old knees can’t take it. So enjoy with me this gorgeous fruit tart, which caps a week of shorties inspired by poems posted at 
This one took forever to write. Might be a keeper with a good revision but I was glad to be done with it for now, after a long night. I took my inspiration from one specific and very simple image in the poem 
Ahh, another excuse to post a picture of my darling Maria. Bad lighting and apologies for the husband’s foot, but you can see that she is ridiculously adorable. Today’s shorty was inspired by my current favorite of the terrific poems I’ve been pulling from 
I could fill this whole box with complaints about the day’s shorty, which I worked very hard on and yet it refused to be anything but a pretty, preening piece of crap. Instead I will congratulate myself for finishing my 4th month of the Daily Shorty challenge! That’s a THIRD of my year, folks! Have a red velvet cupcake on me to celebrate. The wonderful poem that inspired today’s shorty is 
I finally picked up the craft book Rules of Thumb, edited by 
What I can say so far about using poems as prompts: I’m producing stories I feel I would never have come up with on my own. That was only rarely true when I used place and photos as inspiration. I wonder why? The day’s shorty was inspired by the poem 
Two shorties inspired by poems, five to go. I was very happy with this story and worked hard to find the right ending, but it never came. Right now I’m thinking the last third of this one is likely to be replaced in revision. The poem that inspired this shorty is 
My weeks at Daily Shorty start on Tuesdays. I just finished a week of stories inspired by place, and that followed a week of stories inspired by photos. Now poetry. Many thanks to the folks at 
THAT is a chocolate soufflé! Congrats to me, to me, to me, for finishing off my 17th week of the Daily Shorty Challenge! And I can’t let another August 27 post go by without wishing a big, fat, happy wedding anniversary to Pat and me! Best decision I ever made, Babe. And I’m looking forward to that steak dinner Wednesday night….
I spent the day in Boston with my friend Mark. I took lots of pictures and tried to go thoughtful once in a while, but I never did take a few minutes out of our traipsing even to take notes for a story. Instead I carried my notebook to (an early) bed, reviewed my photos, and closed my eyes and waited…. As it happens, I have no photo to document the moment in our day that inspired this story. Instead I’ve posted here the favorite of my pictures. The shorty was inspired by the rest we took in the Public Garden, admiring the pretty lake and glimpsing from afar a big rock with… was that a mermaid??
Daily Shorty 
