Odd Prompts: Still
A bit of prompted writing for the weekly challenge
The street had been unnervingly quiet the entire time she had been walking. Even the sound of the bus she had disembarked at the end of the narrow old street, now limited to foot-traffic only, had faded eerily fast as it rolled on without her.
Even now, at her own door, she hesitated. The cool weight of the key in her pocket felt more real than the stones under her feet. Gripping it tightly, she somehow could not bring herself to make a noise by inserting it into the lock. There was nothing. No sounds at all. Not the cheerful tinny music of the neighbor’s radio. No grandmotherly singing over the nightly meal preparation. Not even the street cat’s rusty miaou had greeted her as it would on another night.
Finally, she pulled the key from her pocket. It was time. She extended it to the lock, seeing the pale shape of her hand waver a little as she heard the ‘click’ of the metal on metal…
More Odds Than Ends is a blog, which grew out of a writing group of the same name. My intent originally was to gather up creatives who, like me, sometimes have trouble finishing things. Odd people who love odd things, and there are more of us than there are the words ‘The End’ for our ideas. Over time, it evolved into a group focused on writing - the blog with it’s weekly prompt challenge in particular. I’m one who still incorporates art into the challenges.
I enjoy working with a creative nudge. My life is busy, and the inside of my head is a noisy place full of to-do lists, work, and did I remember to water the pineapple sage? In this space, it’s difficult sometimes to gather up an idea to work with. A weekly prompt was something I’d worked with very early in my writing (career? No, not a career. I’m professional, sure, but don’t make a living from this) forays. The prompt group went away, as these things do. Years later, inspired by it, I proposed we do something like that to the MOTE group, and Odd Prompts was born.
Well into the fourth year of weekly creative challenges, the core group participating is perhaps seven or eight people. Some come and go as they have time, one is invisible unless you know the spare prompts mostly come from a single curious brain. Many of those who are taking part are now professional writers, if they weren’t when they started. All of them are better writers for having worked at their craft for lo, these many weeks.
It has been an interesting journey to take. I haven’t been as active in 2024 as I would like, due to the intrusions of life’s many demands. Hence the short bit above, this last week’s flash of something I jotted down, along with an image prompted by the challenge from Becky Jones “The street was unnervingly quiet.” Still, I’ll take it. I managed to meet the challenge, rather than letting my partner down. This coming week I’ll take a spare, perhaps more than one, and wonder over it for a while before writing what it inspires in me.
You can take part in this, if you like. As a game, as a mental sharpening tool, there are no real rules. No wordcounts, it need not even be words. Just a prompt, and a response.
I’ve been very busy. Too busy. Fortunately, this coming month looks like it won’t be nearly such a wild ride as the last. Hopefully, that means I can get back into the writing groove. The garden is ready for a long couple of months of heat and drying, so I will be focused more in the house. Funny, most of my life I’ve lived where winter kept you indoors for months. Here in Texas? It’s the months of July to September that are triple-digit heat and no rain, which keep me in the air conditioning and away from the angry sun. Time to do things like paint the living room and rip out the main bathroom flooring.
Hopefully, I can get Tanager’s Flight finished this month. I’ll be posting more of that tomorrow for the paid subscribers. I really appreciate their support. I appreciate all of my subscribers - more than 500 of you, now! - because that action lets me know I should keep writing. I’m not shouting into the void. Thank you all!