just for fun, gimme a character, any character....

gimme a character or a set of characters. a year. a sub-genre. a setting if you want (a general location, at least). a few details as specific as you'd like, bits of dialogue or quotes. gimme, let's say, hmmm, five objects. gimme these things and let's see what i can do with 'em.

c'mon, challenge me. knock the battery off my shoulder. i dare ya. tell me what you want and put my hack skillz to the test. like you got anything better to do. (hm, guess i've got nothing better to do, either, but that's beside the point.)

a harlequin romance without adverbs? not asking for much, are ye? lol. gimme a date and we're ready to roll unless there's something else you want to add. anything, anything at all. a personality trait, a line of dialogue. space aliens. hell, i don't care. more objects, if you want. (what's funny is when i used to do this, sometimes a person would give me what they've got in their stories just to see my take on it, then give me the cold shoulder when my awful story turned out better than theirs that they were serious about.)

actually, the year is optional here. i've thought something up barring anything else you want to add, but feel free to toss in anything you want. i've not started writing it up, so nothing's set yet. i can still incorporate anything into it.

thank ye, i'll see what i can do with it. the toughest thing will be the harlequin style. i really don't take these things to the lengths of publishable quality, so, stylistically they're pretty rough. some of these have snowballed a bit and that's when i'd write out certain scenes and outline the rest, again not with a keen eye towards style. still, i'll do what i can short of taking it too seriously. what i like about SC's challenge is she gave me great names, though i changed 'annaleigh' to 'annalee' just to make it a little easier on me (i'm hoping it's 'lee' and not 'lay'-- if no, let me know and i'll change it back).

mac, if you want to start me up on another, i can handle that, i think. some basic criteria and a few details as a guide is all this hack needs to get it done, lol.

vampires... blech. lol. i could have done 'em, though. so, i'll use unique's things, too? no problem. the scarf will be easy as what immediately popped into mind was a gypsy caravan. love gypsy caravans. if you can't incorporate a gypsy caravan into a story, don't bother writin' it, lol.

i'll use the timeframe only for part of the story. otherwise, it'll be set in the present day. i was doing a story awhile back called 'the blood queen' which i think i can steal a lot of things from, so it's just a matter of tearing into it. these don't get the full treatment, but i'll make it as readable as possible with roughly a week of here-and-there working on it.

thanks, SB. i used to do these 'preyer challenges', as i called them, quite a bit on a different board. some were better than others. hm, i'd better get started on this, eh?

not at all, i've got the beginning scene done. actually written out and everything. i even went so far as to use capital letters.

it's coming along nicely. had to take a break. not even really into it yet and am approaching 3K words. stalling? bah! even at this point, if there's something you want me to do, do your worst. i was completely ready to do an appendagely-challenged guy, too. lol. oh, i'm sure it'll be 20k words at least, which is about the length of two of my regular posts. be prepared, heh heh.

normally, when i do these, i don't go to this extent. it's been awhile since doing one, though, so i thought i'd flesh it out for a change. ever have an idea you thought was good then promptly didn't write it down? i had one about the kittens, now i can't remember what a kitten barely is.

one thing i'm stuck on is the 'harlequin' style. there are literally about 25 different approaches to take, from epic romance to mills and boon to medical romance (don't ask me what this one is) to harlequin 'superromance.' so, as far as that goes, there's not much of a direction to take with that. i'm keeping the romance thing pretty upfront, i hope, but that it's something you'd mistake for being some a harlequin writer has done, i'm not so sure on that without further definition. i'll do a little research on it and see if i can find some common threads and use those.

quick update, i just topped five thousand words, so it's coming along well. just finished the first major action scene and i gotta tell ya, it rocks. so, unless you don't own one, i suggest going out and buying some kind of apparatus that will keep your butt firmly attached to your body, because this thing would rock j. lo's asss off.

slacked a bit today, circumstances beyond my control. topped 14K words, so you'll have plenty to read. i wanted to be at 20K by now, but whadaya gonna do? i'm trying to pull this in under 25K.

oh, hell no, lol. i tried getting it done before i bought a business, but working nearly 80 hours a week takes its toll on writing. no, i haven't forgotten or been lazy, i just now own a convenience store and at the same time am trying to remodel the house part of it. my time is very limited right now. this computer is even being used for business (my wife runs the trophy and plaque part of the store), so when i'm here on the forums it's because she's doing something else and no customers are here.

have to make a living first, lol, but i'm glad you haven't forgotten or given up. normally, i'd have had it done by now. if you'd like, i could post what i do have (maybe 18k words or so, give or take a grand), though it's in rough draft form.

nope, you didn't miss it. i had a few minutes to work on it yesterday. i beg a bit more time. i'm the new owner of a convenience store and things are just utter chaos. add to that remodeling a house on top of 11 hour days, and you can see where i'm a little bit stressed, er, stretched. just so y'all know, i'm living every man's dream of remodeling side-by-side with his wife. ya can't get better than that for aggravation. (final coat of polyurethane is being applied tonight, then it's on to building bathroom walls, slapping a countertop on the bar, and i can move in. to add to the fun, i run the convenience store part and my wife runs a trophy and plaque business: this being trophy and plaque 'season', we're not having much luck finding a spare moment. this is actually the first time we've missed a harry potter movie on the opening day.)

what's really slowed me down is my wife uses the computer for the business, so i've got even less time to play around on it. i was able to do a quick but rare crit today just to relieve some stress, lol. it's just a weird, yet exciting, time. as much as i'd love to, things aren't condusive to getting stories finished as i'd like. i hope to move in in about a week or so. the store is connected to the house, the store is where the computer is at, and i'm living in an apartment away from my computer at the moment. oh, man, i'm hatin' that part of it. once moved in, i've got some work on the walls in the store to do and some massive re-arranging, but hopefully that should only be a few daze.

ugh. got a lot on my plate. and here i was just flying along with it. then chaos knocked and like a fool i greeted it with a wide open door and a smile.