A mocha, a cushy couch. Memories inspired by the man-sandles I saw on the guy sitting catty-corner to me. Oh, how my father would despise those shoes, I thought. And I was off and running.
Working Title: Blood
1st Sentence: When I was about twelve years old, I once put myself into a euphoric state by imagining the act of slamming the back of my brother’s head with a cast iron skillet.
Favorite Sentence: And then I would run lightly up to the back of the sofa, right behind his huge head—barely covered with the same fine hair I had, no protection at all—and hover there, for a moment, thinking like this, this fast, this hard.
Word Length: 822
Photo: Hello, my friend. August 2012.
Frontier is a wonderful example of how the old mill buildings so prevalent in Maine can be re-purposed. A combination restaurant-theater-gallery-performance center, Mainers have treasured this place since it opened in Brunswick not long after I moved to the state in summer 2006. I sat in their small theater scribbling ideas in my notebook for about 15 minutes before the showing of the film my husband and I came to see, “Queen of Versailles.” (I give the documentary a thumbs up but I have no idea why reviewers found it hilarious. It’s fascinating, disturbing, and very sad. I think I laughed three times.) I came back to my notes hours later to work my impressions into a shorty. Love the idea for it, but I’ll need good luck with revision to accomplish what I hoped.
Okay, I wrote today’s shorty before I got to the gym but that’s because I woke up thinking “gym” and I’m so familiar with the place—and I’ve already written several shorties there—that my mind started working on the sights and sounds right away. Within minutes I was scribbling.
I’m finding that places are not inspiring stories as well as photos but that is likely at least partly due to the fact that having to go somewhere adds a task to my day that I’m having trouble fitting in. Each of these first 3 days of the series I’ve left for my writing prompt-place no earlier than 4:00 in the afternoon. I do like today’s shorty, especially that I kept it so brief. But I don’t love it.
Dear Home Depot: What story will you bring me? One about a husband who’s getting a bit too handy around the house, of course. I had to fight hard for this one—lots of starts and stops. It’s okay, probably not a lot of potential for being publishable. Onward.
One of the ways I keep my energy going for the Daily Shorty challenge is to celebrate every milestone. I didn’t have room for this photo yesterday and I won’t when I write up today’s story post, so here’s my pat on the back for completing my 16th week on August 20! This apricot-blackberry tart, purchased at Forage Market in downtown Lewiston, Maine, is my celebration treat. I don’t often get to eat the real treat photographed for these virtual celebrations, but I ate this one and it was DELICIOUS.
Starting a week of shorties inspired by place. Today I sat on a bench on the quad of Bates College. Something about the peace (the students aren’t here yet) made me write something dark and violent. DO NOT LIKE. This one will live only on my hard drive but I’ll put it in a cell so it won’t hurt any of the others who are imprisoned there.
Saying goodbye to Week 16, but I’ll have to delay my virtual treat by one day in favor of posting the picture I used for today’s shorty. This story came to me very quickly and whole, so was fun and easy to write. And I like it. Overall I consider my week of photo prompts very successful. The stories came out odd but I like that. I sometimes had trouble going deep but don’t I always. I do think starting with the photo stripped a layer of effort or pressure from the shorty mission. To sum: I will do this again.
Another really tough one and again, doesn’t match up to my vision but there’s hope for when I can come back to it.
I really like my vision for this but it didn’t come out so well. Hopefully I can ramp it up in revision.
Had to fight hard for this one but wound up with something I really enjoy.
Three starts today to get a shorty. And this is the third in my experimental “photo series” and today I’m really pleased with what I wrote. If forced to think like a critic I’m not sure how highly I’d rate this story but I went deep today, something I haven’t been able to do lately. You know when you’ve written something that matters. Not all stories that matter will be publishable, but in the end “publishable” is someone else’s lookout.
Well, here’s what I can say so far about this experiment with photo prompts: Both yesterday and today I did come up with a shorty pretty quickly and I wrote each with relative speed and ease. They are both odd, and I like that. But both lack… depth and feeling. Of course it’s not like I never have that problem otherwise. And maybe the photo series shorties will get better. On to the next!
In the last few weeks I’ve been finding ways to defeat an increasing sense of mental fatigue. More on some of the tricks I’ve developed another time, but here’s my latest: I’ve brainstormed a list of types of prompts I can use to inspire shorties. On a given week I will use a particular kind of prompt every day. I fear that my mind will not love this kind of constraint and the overall quality of the shorties will suffer. But for now I want to see if using prompts reduces at least one kind of mental work by relieving me of the burden of creating a story idea out of nothing and everything. My Daily Shorty weeks start on Tuesday so today I began a week-long story series using 7 selected photos from my recent trip to Ogunquit, Maine.
I keep wondering when I’m going to run out of easy days. More, please. For now, you’re welcome to one of these amazing macaroons. I’ll have the other as a reward for completing Week 15. Mmmm. I love coconut.
I have to do more of this. Went looking on my hard drive for lost bits and pieces and found a nugget I wrote a year ago using an exercise provided by the fabulous 
Worked on this one a few times during the day, then saved the heavy hitting for late, when I knew I’d be sitting in an airport for a few hours, waiting for the husband’s always delayed plane. Might as well make being stuck in limbo work for me, right? A disappointing shorty, as it happens, but an efficient Claire. Next!
Jen: You said, “creamed corn, creamed corn, creamed corn.” I listened. Re the shorty, this a perfect example of a story I can’t imagine having written before this story-a-day experiment. Very little happens, it’s kind of sentimental, and it has a pleasant little ending. So… elaborate, snarky, slightly foul-mouthed Hallmark greeting card? Or small, worthy story about a quiet moment between a (snarky, slightly foul-mouthed) couple with a defiantly positive ending in a world clogged with disillusion? Probably the former. Either way, another day marked off and on to the next.
Two easy ones in a row, after a couple of weeks of feeling drained, and talk of limping in my last post. I learned in May that I can write a story even while totally exhausted. I learned in June that I can do it even if I’ve been exhausted for days. I’m still amazed by that. I suppose the next—sad—question is: Can I write a story if I’ve been exhausted for weeks? I hope I don’t have to find out.
It’s fitting that today’s shorty is entitled “A Toast.” I remember when thinking of the number “100” in relation to this challenge made me want to bury my face in my hands. I’ll admit that I’ve limped these last couple of weeks to this particular mark. But I’m here. And… dare I say it… on to the next!
Um… wow. This shorty includes the two most unlikable characters I’ve ever created. And I’ve created quite a few. But these two ladies are just…awful without being interesting. Nothing whatsoever to recommend them. Why? Why would I do that? Who wants to read about people like this? One very interesting thing about this challenge—I’ve written a lot of stories that are so different from my norm that I actually feel incapable of judging them. That’s never happened to me before. For now I trust it’s just the labor and intensity of the challenge and my Inner Critic will be just as full of herself as ever when it comes time for revision. No, Inner Critic, that was not an invitation, go back to your seat.
I love fiction that breaks rules and refuses to deliver the expected goods and shape. But no matter what kind of story I’m writing, I’m always asking myself why I, as a reader, should care. I was flipping through my notes on a talk by the wonderful 
Ahh, a lovely pecan nougat roll to reward a tough week. I have felt that my stories lack vitality this week but I just looked back at them all and actually I really like a couple of them. And two others have a lot of potential. So a typical week, I guess. On to the next!
Nice to get an easy one today. Hopefully a sign of things to come! Let’s go, August, come on, let’s pick it up. Now, let’s see… what’s Michael Phelps doing tonight?
Again, had to work hard to get the story on the page and then I had to press like crazy to finish it. Really liked the vision for this one but had to settle for a mediocre delivery. Hope it comes together in revision. I really miss the days of this challenge when I had time to look at older stories and re-work them. Maybe soon I will find a better rhythm and add revision to my days again. Not until the Olympics are over, that’s for sure.
Too many things to do and I can’t seem to just set my feet, scowl, and knock down each pin. I think it might be time to admit that having to complete a story every day is extremely mentally taxing. What to do? I can’t stop.
To celebrate finishing a quarter of stories, I took the day off from everything but my shorty. Which is good, because it took me ALL DAY to put this little thing out. I started three stories, even wrote three pages for one that I just threw away. But finally, finally, August sets sail.
Hell yes! A quarter! I’ve written a story a day for an ENTIRE quarter! And just to add to my bliss, I really enjoyed working on my story today. Took a while to get the idea but I was patient and kept revisiting it. Finished it up with a nice polish tonight. Yeehaw! Now stand back while I cut this gorgeous “tiramisu cake” that appeared at a fabulous wedding reception attended by my friend Mark.
Enjoy with me a delicious, custardy shortcake, to celebrate the close of another week. I’m feeling… Olympian. And resourceful because I started this shorty in the parking lot while waiting for a doctor’s appointment, added to it in the grocery store parking lot while waiting for the husband to fetch one more thing, and finished it at home during the commercial breaks from men’s gymnastics. True, I took a huge hop on the landing, but that’s just a one-tenth deduction….
I have not changed my official 
Daily Shorty 