Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Bare Bones Story

Good morning minions. Today I'm launching a new feature called Bare Bones Story. And you get to participate. The idea behind the feature is that I'll be writing a story from prompts provided by you.

In the comment thread please put whatever nine or ten random things you can think of into a list or a paragraph and I will attempt to make one or more of your entries into a coherent, witty and entertaining story.

Won't that be fun?

Here's an example of what I'm looking for.

Ostrich, Gina, Farm Park, Sunglasses, Catch phrase, Baby pigs, Summer

Ok, here goes.

I was at the farm park with a gaggle of pre teen girls one lovely summer day. We were hovering over the pig sty. Mama pig had a bunch of baby piglets. We were ooohing and ahhing at how cute their tiny pink snouts were and how cute their tiny pink curly tails were and how cute they all sounded making those cute little piggy noises while they nursed.

Well, I leaned a little too far over the pen while taking a photo and my sunglasses fell off of my head and into the pig pen. Mama pig immediately snatched them up into her mouth and started crunching them.

Alarmed, I called one of the park attendants over to the pen to retrieve the sunglasses so Mama wouldn't swallow them.

The woman came over, calmly removed the slobbery, dripping, mangled mess from mama pig's giant gaping maw.

She then proffered the same to me.

I politely declined reclaiming them.

She looked a bit miffed, as though she was thinking then why did you ask me to get them for you?

Shaking her head at the vagaries of city slickers, she deposited them in the trash can nearby.

I have a feeling that that sort of thing happened a lot at the farm park.

Reluctantly leaving the pigs, we trooped outside to see the ostriches. We were standing on the split rail fence surrounding the ostrich enclosure doing what you do when you look at ostriches; chattering, waving our arms and being generally delighted.

One of the ostriches perked up and charged the fence beak first, straight for Gina's face.

I grabbed her and jumped down just before her face was ripped off by a marauding mad ostrich.

Ever after, whenever we played catchphrase, if the word ostrich came up, the clue was "tried to eat Gina."

Tah dah….

And yeah, before Rachel outs me….this all really happened….but you get the idea….give me bare bones, and I'll make you a story.

If you're extra nice, I'll even tuck you in and read the resulting stories to you until you get sleepy.

Then I'll turn out the light and tiptoe out.

All the while being sure not to run into any mad marauding ostriches bent on removing my face.

I like my face. It's a good face, and I'm very attached to it.

15 comments:

mdvelazquez said...

This should be fun, Karen.

Camera, walk, sunshine, strangers, architecture, history, water, subway, alone, laptop.

Maria

Lisa Katzenberger said...

Love this idea!

Birthday cake, wristwatch, clogs, bad hair day, insomnia, olive oil, dentist, grocery store, mountain road, snowman.

Karen from Mentor said...

Wow!
You guys are good. Keep them coming. I'm already abubble with ideas.

But I have to warn you, I once made a song from a list of random words that Lauren gave me which had the words aardvark and swingset in it and it not only rhymed, it had a tune...

Rougeneck said...

whiskey, chicken livers, magenta, umbrella, roller skates, caulking gun, shelf liner, clorox, and diamonds. Oh - and goats. 'Cuz - ya' know - it's *me* xo

Unknown said...

Chardonnay, a numbat, a road train, eggs benedict, magenta silk, a wedding ring, two old newspapers, green leaves, a tin cup and disco's greatest hits.

Karen from Mentor said...

Merrilee?
The best part about your list is that I'm currently LISTENING to disco's greatest hits..volume two.
Going to have to look up numbat.

fun fun fun

you guys rock...

what's up with magenta today? You and CG both have magenta in your list...

Anonymous said...

So this is training for improv?

Lavender, pizza, lamp post, puzzle, gallstone, moonlight, spelunker, sunflower, giraffe, and witches.

Karen from Mentor said...

Linda,
Spelunker made me laugh.
:0)

Ashley said...

magma, dusty library, juice, blue man group, mushroom forest, ancient egypt, the queen of england

Karen from Mentor said...

Ashley, I LOVE the blue man group.
And happy bloggiversary missy!
Karen :0)

j said...

Yoink!

Just the one word. It can be added to any story you come up with. The cool thing is that it serves as both an exclamation and a plot twist. You go, girl!

Cat Connor said...

red notebook, Baby Alive, Sims 2, blue pen, cell phone, purple bus, Twisties, rubber gloves, coffee.

:-)

Unknown said...

Karen: I think I must have parsed CountryGirl's list in my subconscious and pinched the magenta :)

As for the disco hits - either I'm psychic, or I'm watching you through your monitor...oooeeeeoooo.....

Anonymous said...

Let's see here, it should be fun :)

Cactus, metal, future, fan, slippers, hair dryer, flat, shorts, monitor, blankie

Karen from Mentor said...

Estrella,
I especially liked blankie.
:0)