VSS Seedling Challenge
19/01/19 14:18
The daily trip we get from completing the #VSS365 prompts is a beautiful thing. It takes me back to the one day I had doing a creative writing course a few years ago in a classroom in Liverpool. In that the tutor asked us to write a colour (I think) at the top of one page in our book and another on the facing page. Then we were asked to write five sentences that each colour made us think about on the following two pages. Then we had ten complete sentences representing all sorts of ideas. After that we were asked to choose one of the ten sentences to write a flash story on.
It was amazing the range stories that came out that day from all the writers; which could be traced back to one word at the top of a page in a notebook. Sound familiar? Each day that's what we VSSers are doing. But we stop at the 280 characters. How many of us are taking them to the next level - from a sentence or two to a flash or short story? Anyway, here's the idea... look at your VSSs you've produced during the week and choose one to write a story on. Length? Well of course it'll have to be up to 365 words (a nice circularity there and a similar length to the great stories that used to come out from Angry Hourglass back in the day (they were 360 words)).
For the next few weeks I'll post the past week's seven prompt words and create a single page where you can post your story or comment on others.
Initially it'll be just for fun. No judge for winners and runners up and all that. Perhaps that may come in the future. As there will be no judging there is no need for a time limit at this stage, but I'd suggest that you may want to set yourself a target of writing over the weekend each week.
For now I'll call it the VSS Seedling Challenge - as the prompt is the seed and your VSS is the seedling. The short story is the result. Note: you don't need to include your original VSS tweet in the text of the story, just use it as the seed for your imagination.
It was an idea that popped into my mind this morning so it may well evolve into something else (or at least end up with a better title and maybe a logo or a song).
______
I can recommend taking a look at the Angry Hourglass website to see what amazing stories were produced with 360 words (based on a photo prompt).
It was amazing the range stories that came out that day from all the writers; which could be traced back to one word at the top of a page in a notebook. Sound familiar? Each day that's what we VSSers are doing. But we stop at the 280 characters. How many of us are taking them to the next level - from a sentence or two to a flash or short story? Anyway, here's the idea... look at your VSSs you've produced during the week and choose one to write a story on. Length? Well of course it'll have to be up to 365 words (a nice circularity there and a similar length to the great stories that used to come out from Angry Hourglass back in the day (they were 360 words)).
For the next few weeks I'll post the past week's seven prompt words and create a single page where you can post your story or comment on others.
Initially it'll be just for fun. No judge for winners and runners up and all that. Perhaps that may come in the future. As there will be no judging there is no need for a time limit at this stage, but I'd suggest that you may want to set yourself a target of writing over the weekend each week.
For now I'll call it the VSS Seedling Challenge - as the prompt is the seed and your VSS is the seedling. The short story is the result. Note: you don't need to include your original VSS tweet in the text of the story, just use it as the seed for your imagination.
It was an idea that popped into my mind this morning so it may well evolve into something else (or at least end up with a better title and maybe a logo or a song).
______
I can recommend taking a look at the Angry Hourglass website to see what amazing stories were produced with 360 words (based on a photo prompt).
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