Writing Excerpts – April 25, 2016

{Fiction, Ghosts & Angels, Workflow vs. Schedule}

Welcome to Week #12 of my (almost) daily writings! Once again there is a little more fiction than some previous weeks.

 

Note: This series of Writing Excerpts was originally inspired by this post and Jeff Goins’ My 500 Words challenge.

For April, I found a new writing prompt list. You can check it out HERE. I don’t know if they were supposed to be done in order, but I’m doing them according to what sounds good for the day. Sometimes I don’t follow the list at all.

 

4/19/2016

(What a hunk)

She slammed her fist on the steering wheel, screaming all of the appropriate cuss words she could think of. “What a hunk of junk!” Of course the damn thing would die on her right this minute, just as she was heading out for a job interview. She tried to count to ten and breathe deeply before she called to say she could not make the interview. There was nobody from whom she could get a ride or borrow a vehicle, there was no public transportation, there was no choice.

She made the call, trying to keep the tears from falling when the HR receptionist crisply informed her there was no rescheduling. She already knew that, but she cried a little harder. This had been it. Her dream job. Decent pay, a real office of her own, validation that she was an intelligent human being. But now…

Taking one last deep breath and wiping her tear-stained face, she got out of the useless car and trudged across the walk to let herself back into the cheap rental house. “I’ll give myself the rest of the day to get over this, and then I’ll hit the job search hard again tomorrow.” She didn’t just need a new job, she needed a new life.

 

4/20/2016

(Who was he?)

The first time she saw him, she could only describe him as lounging on the park bench reading a newspaper. A newspaper! Who still read those? And yes, lounging was the term for the way he sat — completely relaxed, almost like he was at home on his living room couch. Suddenly, he looked up from his newspaper and looked straight at her, right into her eyes, as if he KNEW her.

She was so startled, she dropped her water bottle. In this city, nobody knew her. How could this stranger look at her that way? Who was he?

 

4/21/2016

(Free write… warmup)

I remember posting on frugal families. Epic posts about saving money in all sorts of little ways. Realizations that spending insane amounts of time to make things from scratch or to reuse old items was not always wise. Often finding that reusing something meant spending MORE time and money to make the thing functional than purchasing a new item. My favorite little way to save money is something I still do — rounding checkbook deposits and withdrawals. What else did we used to do? I can hardly remember. Turning off lights of course (not quite as important now with CFL and LED lights). Line-drying laundry. I should do that one again. Picking up cans & bottles for the deposit.

 

4/22/2016

(Ghosts were howling, angels were screaming.)

How was it possible that nobody else heard them? And why did she think in terms of ghosts and angels instead of demons and angels? How did she even know the difference? She was a rational human and wasn’t even sure she believed in spirit worlds. Was she going crazy?

Heading home for the day, she sat on the subway and cautiously looked around at the other passengers. They were all completely engrossed in their electronics. Wait, no. One young man at the other end of the car was also looking around. As their gazes caught, she knew he also heard them. But the look in his eye did not reflect the fear she felt. Instead, it was more like… excitement.

She felt the adrenaline rush as she considered what this meant. The fight or flight instinct kicked in, and she made a quick exit at the next stop, praying like hell that the young man kept riding. Keeping her eyes toward the ground, she held her bag to her chest and nearly ran up the steps to the street, hoping that the cacophony of the city would hush the sounds in her head.

(Mini-weird coincidence: This writing prompt popped into my head while I was driving to work yesterday. For some reason I pulled over to get the prompt written into my list because even though it’s not my usual style, I liked it and knew I would forget it by the time I got to work. I seriously never EVER pull over to do that. After I typed the words into my phone, I read the text message from my husband that Prince had died. Sorta weird.)

 

4/23/2016

(Workflow)

It really is a beautiful term. Lightbulb moment: I keep confusing “schedule” with “workflow.”

Apparently, workflow is all of the steps taken to complete a project or portion of a project. So, creating a blog post would actually consist of several workflows. Writing the post, creating graphics, putting it all together and publishing, and then promoting.

Schedule is how to divide the day or week for the most efficient workflow.

(Yes, I’ve probably read all of this in many different blog posts, but it never clicked.)

Efficient workflows WITHIN a schedule are what I need to create.

Wow, why does it take me so long to figure this stuff out? *virtual forehead slap*

 

4/24/2016

(Sunday morning ramblings)

The baby bunnies started coming out to play.

We’re going to purchase a new lawn mower today. I’ll be happy if we can leave with ONLY the mower and not several accessories. I’m also pretty excited that this thing will be paid for. Now if I can just make sure my husband gets rid of the old non-working mower.

I’m getting too many thoughts in my head. Sometime today I need to do a brain dump. Maybe next week I need to ramble a little more in my writings. I’m loving that the fiction is starting to work more easily for me, but sometimes I think I need to also write about life stuff. Of course, I can’t think of anything at the moment, the brain is too stuffed-up.

Stuff, stuff, stuff… that word is everywhere these days. Must be a sign.

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