Yet another writing challenge: imperitives

[TheFifthElement]

I really should post these on a Saturday.

Write a short story in which each sentence is an imperitive (do this, do that, etc).

For example:

Kick his sorry ***

Do it. Do it now. Get rid of him. Toss him out on his ear. Kick his sorry *** out on to the street. Don’t forgive him. Don’t listen to his lies. Don’t entertain his ‘I’m sorries’, his ‘I won’t do it agains’. Tell him to go screw himself and anyone else he so fancies, except you. Tell him to get lost. Tell him he’s scum. Tell him you’re over him already.

Get all his stuff and throw it out on the street. Cut him out of every photograph. Rip holes in all of his pants. Shred all his shirts. Take his favourite set of golf clubs and bend them into an assortment of geometric shapes. Flush his Rolex down the toilet. Scratch ‘pencil-dick’ on his car. Use his CD collection as coasters at your next drink ‘til you’re trashed party. Lay out his cashmere sweaters for people to puke in. Give away all his books, his socks, his dirty magazines. Give all the gifts he ever gave you to the Oxfam shop. Burn his letters. Take his collection of antique Thunderbirds toys and give them to the kids at the local nursery.

Tell your friends how much he sucked in bed. Tell them how he cried at movies like ET and Ghost. Write a blog of his most embarrassing moments and advertise it in The Sun. List him on e-Bay: ‘One ex-boyfriend - faithless, out of shape, washed rarely, some damage from where my foot kicked him in the ass’. Phone his boss and tell him what he was really doing on all those sick days he took.

Cut your hair. Buy yourself a new wardrobe. Go out with your friends. Don’t feel guilty. Put on your pyjamas as soon as you get home. Wear all those clothes he hated that you loved. Listen to your music. Take your make up off. Travel. Make up your own mind. Have a dinner party minus his boring friends. Be silly. Never watch sports on TV again. Do what you want to, how you want to, when. Flirt. Make new friends.

Remember that you’re beautiful, you’re funny, you’re smart. Don’t think that his actions are a reflection on you. Take time for yourself. Give yourself space to come to terms with what he did, his betrayal. Get angry. Cry. Pick yourself up. Move on. Hold your head up high. Go out there, and get yourself a better life.

[MANICHAEAN]

5thE

Man you are something else!
Where do you get these ideas from?
Full marks for imagination.

I've seen threads on:
1. The one word poem.
2. Stories leaving out the word "and"
3. Switch between the "lit greats" in one story.

This one is a bit too much for me today!

Whats next?

1. Write an extract from Shakespeare in Rastafarian patois?
2. Ghost write sections of Dante's Inferno in the Raymond Chandler style.
3. Compose a poem. Numbers only every 4th word.
4. A one paragraph story to include: a birth, a banana, transubstantation, a Starbucks coffee & a North Korean trawler.

Best regards
M.

[Delta40]

This is really good! very loud and clear and a good exercise in writing

[zoolane]

Hi Fifth,
I am not sure if this what you look for but I though would give in try.



Should I kick hes *** to curb?

I do love him, the way he act is horrible when he round other poeple. To do this I would have to find great courage which I know is here inside me but just got find it. If I do that. It would free me more ways than one. I do love him, that why I stay with for long. If I do this it mean starting love and date game again. That I am lot older, would I find someone new and who accept me with all weird and wonder ways.

To do this I would have to move out find my own little place. Do that I would move far away and start all over.

I do love him, if I do this what I've plan and do that want my heart desire.

[TheFifthElement]

Thanks Delta, I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I'm not sure it entirely hangs together as a 'story' but it was fun to write all the same.

Manichaean thanks, but I cheat :blush: The 'the' exercise came from something someone said to me about something I'd written being a little heavy on the word 'the' so it seemed like a good thing to do. But the other's I've pinched from a book called The 3am Breakthrough by Brian Kiteley, which is full of lots of little writing challenges. They're fun to do. I was going to attempt one where you write a piece without using the letter 'e'. Sounds impossible doesn't it, but apparently Georges Perec managed to write an entire book without using the 'e' and it held true both in French and English (I think it's called 'The Void' and reputedly he wrote it without using the letter 'E' because his mother's name was Elizabeth and she had died when he was quite young). Bizarre! Anyway, I love all of your suggestions. I'd absolutely love to do Shakespeare in patois, that one's really got me excited, but I doubt I have the skill. Never mind. Don't be surprised if you see one of your other suggestions making an appearance at some point in the next few weeks though :D


I do love him, the way he act is horrible when he round other poeple. To do this I would have to find great courage which I know is here inside me but just got find. If I do that. It would free me more ways than one. I do love him, that why I stay with for long. If I do this it mean start love and date game again That I am lot older, would I find someone new and who accept me with all weird and wonder ways.

To do this I would have to move out find my own little place. Do that I would move far away and start all over.

I do love him, if I do this what I've plan and do that want my heart desire.

Hi zoolane :) I think this is great. You've embraced the intention of the exercise and brought out a story in very few words. And it is emotive too, there is so much longing and uncertainty conveyed. And it's clear that your character is struggling with a difficult decision. I loved this bit:


I do love him, the way he act is horrible when he round other poeple.
because it creates that sense of struggle straight away, and brings out such a lot about your characters in so few words.

Thanks for contributing. I hope you found the exercise useful.

[zoolane]

Originally Posted by zoolane
I do love him, the way he act is horrible when he round other poeple.

Hi zoolane :) I think this is great. You've embraced the intention of the exercise and brought out a story in very few words. And it is emotive too, there is so much longing and uncertainty conveyed. And it's clear that your character is struggling with a difficult decision. I loved this bit:


because it creates that sense of struggle straight away, and brings out such a lot about your characters in so few words.

Thanks for contributing. I hope you found the exercise useful.

I found bit hard at 1st, I tryed to keep set pattern with phrases, contains was the character own personal inner thoughs about her current situation and now maybe change it.

I did enjoyed this little exercise and it good know that I can do.