"...Thus grew the tale of Wonderland: Thus slowly one by one, it's quaint events were hammered out- and now the tale is done...the dream child moving through a land of wonders wild and new, In friendly chat with bird
or beast-and half believe it true..." -Lewis Carroll

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Waylaid Best Laid Plans & Trifecta

Greetings and Salutations citizens of the Blogospere!

Despite my best laid plans to write more often, I am suffering from what appears to be be a beginning of the year tradition: writer's block. 

It's not that there aren't any interesting things going on in Wonderland...there are always interesting, weird, and crazy things happening. It's just that for some reason, of late, I've lacked the wherewithal to record them. 

I do confess that school, particularly my writing class has been consuming quite a bit of my creative energies. That should not, however, stop the flow of creative juices, but should in fact enhance them. What can I do, though? It is what it is. I am once again suffering from writer's block. Boo. 

As such, I am stealing an idea from my friend and fellow blogger, Mike. I am joining the Trifecta Challenge. This challenge provides 2 writing prompts per week. One for the week and another for the weekend. It requires a minimum of 33 words and cannot exceed 333. You're supposed to post the completed work within a certain amount of time. I'm not sure if I will do this. I may just use the prompt for the sake of my own blog, not necessarily to receive possible recognition from the editors of Trifecta. I'm hoping that as I respond to each prompt it will kick start the rusty gears of my writers mind and enable me to hop back on the blog wagon. 

The prompt for this weekend's challenge is personification...that is, the assigning of human traits and characteristics to inanimate objects, phenomena, and animals. 

Deep breath! Here goes....

She passed it every time she went in to do her business. Sometimes she could ignore it. At other times, even when she closed her eyes she could still see it. The small, light white square. It's small window vacant and blank. Seemingly harmless. As she sat on the porcelain seat, she heard a light whisper. Thinking she was imagining things she cracked open one eye. The square seemed closer now. It's window which had just moments before stared at her blankly, now winked it's single eye at her. It flashed a harmless set of numbers: 0.00. "It's been so long", the little square whispered to her. Just months ago we were the best of friends. The girl closed her eyes again and thought to herself, "But I don't want to be your friend anymore". And with good reason. Her little square with it's one eye had been both her motivator and her abuser. Now it whispered to her, kindly enough. It cajoled her...flattering her with memories of goals met. Driving out of her mind the bitterness of disappointment, doubt, and self-hatred it had also inflicted. "Ok. Just this once" She stepped onto the square. The benign little creature sputtered to life. She held her breath and waited. She heard a laugh. Friendly enough at first. Then the welcoming little eye turned on her, glaring up at her as red as the cheeks of a child suffering from severe embarrassment. The girl's breath released in a horrified whoosh, and the little white scale screamed with maniacal laughter at the number it showed to it's very best friend. 

7 comments:

  1. Hi Rachel,welcome to Trifecta:-)Nice bit of writing there but am afraid this is a weekend challenge & so the rule is a little different-you need to use 33 words(possibly the week drains us-so a little break?lol!).You can delete this link,rewrite/edit it to fit the challenge & resubmit it if you like-there is still time-about 4 hours.Looking forward to the abridged version from you-all the best:-)

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  2. Hi Rachel, I got nailed with the same 33 thing. I was pretty sure it was going to be a weigh-in... good piece, I see you got over your writer's block.

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    1. I thought about condensing but then I was like, "nah". I was just glad to be writing something halfway decent again!

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  3. This is cute, and while technically this is suppose to be only 33 words, I think it's exactly what you needed, something to get those good old juices flowing. :)
    I hope it helped with your writers block and that you share your works with us in the future. :)

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  4. Hello new Trifectan!
    I joined Trifecta a while ago for the same reason you did--to break up some stagnating creative juices. It worked for me and I hope it works for you! :D

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  5. Good job... I was confused about the rules too when I first started. On the plus side, your personification was great, regardless of how many words you used. :)

    Blessings,
    Cheryl

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  6. Ha! Had no clue until the end what this was. I love it! LUBAB!!

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