Posts Tagged ‘Figment’
Oct
She Liked Avocados
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
It wasn’t the flying that alerted her. That seemed natural.
It was the complete lack of context that confirmed to Shirlene none of this was real.
There was very little this version of herself knew with any certainty. She remembered her name. She liked avocados. And she was positive that every memory she possessed was a figment of her imagination.
As Shirlene soared above the city of clouds and unfamiliar landscapes, she reflected on her other dreams and other lives. None seemed as real as this moment right now.
The only reality that mattered was her hunger for more avocados.
Apr
Experiment Over
by thegooddoctor in News
For the past couple of months, I’ve been using prompts from Figment.com to write my stories. What I mostly found myself doing is playing with the expectations of the prompt to come up with some sort of surprise or an unusual way of approaching it. This worked rather well, but I think many of my stories only succeeded in conjunction with the prompt. Although some did, many were unable to stand up on their own.
In any case, it was interesting to experiment in this way, but now I’m moving on. Starting next week, all stories will be based upon whatever inspiration happens to strike my fancy that day.
Thanks for paying attention. That is all.
Apr
Don’t Think Too Deeply
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
You can bet if anyone discovers your involvement, there will be hell to pay. Perhaps that’s what attracts you in the first place. The flirtation with danger. Or more likely, it’s the inevitable moment when you are caught and everyone’s expectations of you, their belief in your character, their assumptions about how far you are willing to go, will all be dashed.
Or perhaps you go along just because everyone else is doing it. You know you might get in trouble, but there’s safety in not thinking too deeply.
Whatever the case, murdering this homeless man will haunt you forever.
The Daily Theme from Figment for April 11
Think of a time in your life when, against your better judgment, you decided to give in–to temptation, to popular opinion, to someone else’s will.
Now focus in on that decision to relent. In second person, describe those moments of transition, using the distancing effects of second person to allow you to analyze your decision as if it had been someone else’s.
Apr
You Will Make Someone’s Day
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
It had seemed such a pleasant, trivial fortune: “You will make someone’s day.” Who wouldn’t want to make someone’s day? Janet cheerfully left the restaurant, ready to get back to work.
The smile left her face when she was called into Mr. Babcock’s office. He was an absolute terror to work for, and in any other economy, Janet would have quit months ago. She fully expected another tongue lashing this afternoon.
Instead, Janet went running from the office, trying desperately to cover her tears. Mr. Babcock’s final words were ringing in her ears.
“Firing you has really made my day.”
The Daily Theme from Figment for April 6
Write a fortune cookie fortune. Now write a story about a person who receives this fortune and then sees the prediction actually fulfilled.
Apr
Either Way, You’re Likely To Take A Beating
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
You are walking alone at night. The avenue is poorly lit, with violent shadows cast from the lone street lamp. You look about nervously. You’ve never been in this part of town before.
That’s when you notice a shiny gold coin in the corner of your eye.
As you are about to pick up the token, you see a gnarly old leprechaun jump out of the shadows, wielding a heavy shillelagh and threatening to beat you over the head with it.
Do you:
Stay and pick up the coin (turn to page 47)
Run like hell (turn to page 23)
The Daily Theme from Figment for April 4
You are walking alone at night and notice a trinket on the ground. It’s intriguing enough that you stop to take a closer look. You’re about to pocket it when something happens that makes you immediately throw the object back down and start to run…
Apr
Dueling Perspectives
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I stumble down the street.
Everything about that night is pretty hazy.
There’s no one around. I’m completely alone.
But I couldn’t have imagined the gunshot. If everything else was a dream, that was real.
I look down to see if I’ve been shot. There’s blood on my hands.
I don’t remember seeing a gun. They said the gun was mine, but I don’t remember having one.
I don’t know where the man came from, but he’s lying on the ground.
I didn’t know until later he was sleeping with my wife.
The man is dead.
The man was dead.
The Daily Theme from Figment for April 3, 2012
Choose a significant incident in your life. The incident should be discreet, with a beginning, middle, and end (a date, a car accident, a major embarrassment). Tell the story of the incident by moving between two points of view–your perspective at the time of the incident and your perspective now. How are these two different? How does shifting between them affect the telling? Try to use these shifts in POV to show how your feelings about the event have changed over time.
Apr
The Wagon
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Caroline stared up at the clouds on the horizon. Or they might have been mountains. Or cacti. She couldn’t say anymore. In the deserts of Utah, everything looked the same. Just like everything had looked the same in the plains of Wyoming, and everything had looked the same in the mountains of Colorado. Traveling by wagon had to be the slowest way to get anywhere.
Caroline wasn’t actually doing any of the work, and whether that increased her tedium or just allowed her idle nature to dream up mischief, she found their pace was becoming unbearable.
“Pull it faster, Daddy!”
The Daily Theme from Figment April 2, 2012
You are in transit, heading somewhere you’re either thrilled or dreading to go. Don’t explicitly say how you feel about it, but through your description of the destination and the journey, make it clear.
Apr
The Affliction
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The moment he was born, he’d immediately cursed at the affliction, causing the doctors to gasp, his mother to cry. The scientists argued whether he was a product of his environment, or his stars had preordained the shortcoming
His way of coping had always been to cover up who he was. Others accused him of turning his back on his heritage, of betraying his family, but they couldn’t understand what it was like for him.
Finally, when he became CEO of his company, he accepted who he was. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad being a white, protestant male after all.
The Daily Theme From Figment For March 30, 2012
After trying for years to change something about himself or herself, your character decides in an instant just to live with it.
Mar
A Little Something To Look Forward To
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Anyone who’d been to space knew the most terrifying moment came not at liftoff, but when the rockets detached near the limits of the atmosphere. This was the moment when most accidents occurred.
Of course Lincoln knew nothing about space travel, and was naturally frightened by the entire process. Then again, he’d known nothing about the future, but here he was in the year 2100. It wasn’t how he expected. He couldn’t even begin to put the experience into words and so it was best if he said nothing.
Though he did rather enjoy the snacks. They were a huge improvement.
The Daily Theme From Figment For March 22, 2012
In writing classes, we are often told to write what we know. But sometimes it’s more interesting to break the rules. So let’s turn this one inside out. For an interesting change, write what you DON’T know. Try to sound like a convincing expert on some topic that you know nothing about: the solar system, marriage, bread baking, the hiking trails of the Adirondacks. How convincing can you be?
Mar
A Minor Transformation That Would Later Be Cited As Evidence Of His Divinity
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
He woke up from what felt like an intensely deep sleep. His first instinct was to feel his wounds. They were still there, but something felt different. It may not have been a big change, the kind that people would notice, but he was definitely aware of it himself.
He realized it was dark, and he felt his way around and decided he must be in some sort of cave. That’s weird. He would have thought they’d have built some kind of tomb or something befitting his celebrity.
Ah, now he recognized what was different. He wasn’t dead anymore. Cool.
The Daily Theme from Figment for March 21, 2012
Literature is full of stories about people who wake to find themselves in extreme altered physical states–a man wakes up as a giant insect; a girl grows antlers in her sleep; a poor weaver discovers that his head has been replaced with that of a donkey. But what happens when a person wakes up only slightly transformed? Write a story about a person who wakes one morning with a small physical change–big enough to feel profound to him or her, but subtle enough that it’s not immediately apparent to others.