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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 97

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on November 26, 2013 - 3:23pm

15 Minute Tweet TalesI hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you safe travels as you gather with family and friends and delicious food to fill your bellies!

Here are some 15 Minute Tweet Tales to entertain you while the turkey is cooking:

11/20 - Her friends aren't quite a claque, but their admiration is bought with popularity points - that's why Ty's scorn is like catnip to her.

11/21 - His clothes are expensive, but the way he licks his saurian lips creeps her out. She picks another guy at the bar. Should've stayed put.

11/22 - Their first date. An expensive restaurant to impress her. So nervous he farts. She responds with lalochezia. He proposes on the spot.

11/23 - The corpse's rictus made the CSI techs uneasy: the expression blended pleasure and pain in such a way no one wanted to know how he died.

11/24 - Wants to surprise husband at work wearing nothing but trench coat. Cyprian stares on subway make her realize: should've called a cab.

11/25 - Perfects a renable speech, but when envelope's opened, another name's called. Rushes stage yelling: Hell, no! Most memorable speech ever.

11/26 - The stomatic print on the wineglass was not her shade of lipstick, but she pretended not to notice because she didn't want to be alone.

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 96 + NaNo Fail

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on November 19, 2013 - 9:50am
I hate to say it, but I’m throwing in the NaNoWiMo towel this year. Not that there’s really much of a towel to throw in, since I only have a little over 5000 words at this point. With my constant dithering between ideas, it was pretty clear from the start I wasn’t feeling focused this time around. 
 
During our awesome writing retreat, I actually started writing three different novels … well, I guess more like novel openings. On the first day of the retreat, I FINALLY decided on an idea and felt pretty good about it, but after writing a bit, I knew my heart wasn’t in it. So the next day, I started on a second idea that had been knocking around in my brain. I got a few pages into that before I realized my protagonist/voice sounded exactly like the character in my current WIP. So since another of my NaNo ideas had been a second novel starring my WIP character, I decided to start over combining the two ideas. During the rest of the retreat, I stuck with that combo idea; however, it felt like it was meandering along without much structure, although I was happy to be getting words on paper.
 
Once I got back from the retreat, I let other things pull me away from getting back to it. Some important, some not. Today I actually cleaned my desk. As in it has a glass top and I pulled out the Windex and gave it a thorough scrubbing type of cleaned. Both the top AND the underside of the glass. Yeah, definitely not feeling it this time around.
 
Now I know I struggle with procrastination, but this feels different than my usual putting-off-work-edness. I just really do not have any passion for this idea, so there’s no reason to push it. No reason to spend the next two weeks spewing out crap when it’s not the type of crap that makes me excited to rework it. Especially since I can be using that time to research agents and do other things to be ready to query in January. So even though it pains me to give up, I know it’s for the best.
 
15 Minute Tweet TalesAnd now with that depressing admission out of the way, here are some 15 Minute Tweet Tales to entertain you:
 
11/13 - He likes giving nicknames, so he calls his friends: Nose, Ears, and Tiny. They don't like the metonymy and privately call him Asshole.
 
11/14 - She took pleasure in bruiting that Pam was divorcing Tim because he cheated, never realizing her husband was the one Tim cheated with.
 
11/15 - The mulierose engineer had terrible luck with women, so he built a perfect female robot companion. She fell in love with the toaster.
 
11/16 - "Do it now." Her uncertain tone undermined the jussive words and he hesitated with the gun. Their newly turned son tore out their throats.
 
11/17 - The JumboTron footage of Jan saying "No" to a crying Bob went viral. Turns out it was a stunt to get réclame for a new dating website.
 
11/18 - Each week his family watches horrified as he acts like a grobian, but reality TV doesn't reward nice guys & he needs the money for his son.
 
11/19 - Despite her saturnine students, she pursues her "O Captain! My Captain!" moment. Turns out she's just the captain of a sinking ship.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 95

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on November 12, 2013 - 6:20pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesIt’s been crazy this last week with YALLFest and a writing retreat. I’ll post about my inspiring and productive past five days later this week, but for now I’m pretty proud of myself for actually getting my 15 Minute Tweet Tales posted before I collapse into bed.
 
11/6 - He shoves the baby into her arms. Not sure what to do, she jounces it on her hip to try to keep it quiet while he buries its mother.
 
11/7 - After a few nights of rustling in his attic, he concludes he has an inquiline squirrel. He's shocked to find the neighbor's kid hiding.
 
11/8 - She surfs eHarmony to improve stochastic chances of finding soulmate, never noticing guy next to her reading her favorite obscure novel.
 
11/9 - Her intelligence was so vast it was incommensurable with normal IQ measurements, but instead of curing cancer, she played video games.
 
11/10 - She furbishes the mirror again and again, but it reflects the ugly truth: tho a pretty girl, she'd been cruel when she could've been kind.
 
11/11 - Everyone is dumbfounded by his involute speech about why he shouldn't have to pay bus fare, then they start slipping out the back door.
 
11/12 - Her tiffany clothes make her look soft and weak - a purposeful wardrobe choice for lulling her coworkers and then stealing their ideas.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 94

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on November 5, 2013 - 6:45pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesI hope everyone had a fun Halloween. I tried to honor the day with a creepy tweet tale – horror movie buffs should get the reference. 
 
YALLFest is happening this weekend! After all these weeks of interviews, I can’t believe it’s finally here – so excited to hear these authors speak!
 
NaNoWriMo has officially started and guess what? I STILL haven’t decided on an idea. Obviously that means I’m sitting at zero words when I should be at 8335 by the end of today. Oops! The last time I participated I actually wrote my novel in two weeks, so I’m not out of the running yet. But due to other obligations, I probably won’t be able to start until after YALLFest. That’s going to be dicey, but I think doable. We’ll see how it goes!
 
A now here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the past week:
 
10/30 - The recusant Girls Scout hot glued 'knots', left camping to go to library, and ate all her cookies. She went on to become the President.
 
10/31 - The fodient activity at the Myers' house makes her curious, but she won't ask Michael what he's planting - he's not the green thumb type.
 
11/1 - Tired of Dems and Repubs, the men declare their neighborhood an autarchy. Their bout with independence lasts until the beer runs out.
 
11/2 - She thought the bump derogated her beauty, so she got a nose job. A slip of the hand taught her a bumpy nose was better than no nose.
 
11/3 - Her feelings about him are not effable. Because if anyone overheard she'd be arrested for conspiring to cause bodily harm or death.
 
11/4 - She redacts articles to perfect them for her magazine, so she can't help correcting her boyfriend's grammar. He can't help dumping her.
 
11/5 - They call him Prince of Persia, but he's a satrap controlled by neighboring rulers. He only feels powerful when tormenting servants.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 93

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on October 29, 2013 - 4:45pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesNational Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is starting in just a few days – are you planning to embark on the novel-writing challenge? I’ve done it four times before, and it’s such a rush. I skipped the last few years to focus on making movies and rewriting my WIP (my second NaNo novel), but I’m ready to jump back in this year with some story-making madness. I’ve spent the past few weeks waffling back and forth between two ideas, but as the start day looms, I’m actually feeling pulled toward a third late-blooming idea. Since I’m a complete pantser rather than a planner, I’m not too concerned, but I do need to decide on one pretty soon – at least in time to pick names for my main characters! 
 
As for my other writing adventures, here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the past week. I didn’t realize I had two tales this week about witches performing curses until I just reread them. I guess it’s appropriate considering it’s Halloween week.
 
10/23 - "Your face is emetic!" Ann sighs when Tim just shrugs. It's tough being an erudite bully - her victims are too lazy to look up her insults.
 
10/24 - Since her dog sheds, Pam bought a couch that matched his fur color, but his apatetic coat made him tough to see. Poor Fido's now flat.
 
10/25 - The king thought the turbinate hedge maze was a perfect place to meet his lover. The queen thought so, too. Awkward afternoon delight.
 
10/26 - The grass drinks in roric droplets, but shrivels; it's not normal moisture but tears of a witch cursing the land for killing her love.
 
10/27 - Most women rush past the thersitical construction workers, but Kim saunters by: she paid a lot for her body and is glad it's appreciated.
 
10/28 - She visits a shrink hoping discussing past relationships will lead to a satori about her bad taste in men. She ends up screwing him.
 
10/29 - His body twists and writhes as the curse takes effect, giving him ungual appendages unlike any creature on earth. Never insult a witch.
 
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 92

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on October 22, 2013 - 3:21pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesAfter last week’s weirdness with all the repeat words, I thought we were going to get through this week without a repeat until I opened the Rare Words book this morning. Today’s #15tt word was supposed to be purlieu, but we already had it last August, so I moved on to the next one. At this rate, I’m starting to wonder if there are going to be enough unusual words left to keep going next year! But for now, here are the 15 Minute Tweet Tales for this week:
 
10/16 - The guards only pretend to do rounds during hyetal weather, giving Tim a perfect way to rescue his wife. Sucks about the six month drought.
 
10/17 - The effluvium preceding the Devil's visits frustrates Kim; she can't wash the smell from her clothes. Drawback of dating the king of hell.
 
10/18 - She thought she'd found someone special when he wrote her anacreontic poems. Turns out he was recycling them, plus they were plagiarized.
 
10/19 - She got an F on her orrery because it had an extra planet: a hidden one only her parents knew about because it was where they were born.
 
10/20 - He swore he'd protect his sister, but when the zombies broke through, he gave her a recreant push, creating a diversion for his escape.
 
10/21 - She had divers excuses for missing the deadline, none of which mentioned the hundred grand a rival company gave her to drag her feet.
 
10/22 - The strip club wasn't the milieu where she'd dreamed of getting engaged, but he loved her (well, her body) & she loved him (well, his money).
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 91

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on October 15, 2013 - 5:39pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesThis week was crazy with repeat words from last year. Not only were there three of them, but there was some Halloween-worthy spookiness with two of them. On 10/9, the next word up to bat in the Rare Words book was supposed to be solipsism, but we’d already had it at the start of this tweet tale adventure waaay back in week 3. So as I usually do with repeats, I moved on to the next word in the book – it was solecism. Not only was it another a repeat word, but it was also in week 3 and was the word of the day before solipsism. *cue Twilight Zone music* I think it’s odd that two different providers of unusual words presented these two words back-to-back, albeit in a different order. Luckily when another repeat word showed up for 10/11 (sedulous) it was from week 39, so I didn’t have to get too weirded out by it.
 
And now here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the week:
 
10/9 - The brumal weather outside's considerably warmer than the chill in the bedroom. She's found him dancing in a lacy thong. It isn't hers.
 
10/10 - Bill's doxastic research made him a top election advisor, but he was paralyzed when it was time to tell his son the truth about Santa.
 
10/11 - Ron gets jumpy when the temperature rises: he loves the skin displayed by estival outfits, but fears his wife's punishment for looking.
 
10/12 - The school nurse diagnoses pica, but he only eats weird things because it hurts less to be called a freak for stuff he does on purpose.
 
10/13 - The ducklings mourn their father: coming home after one too many quack-tails at the local watering hole, he crashed into an empennage.
 
10/14 - Wanted new haircut for first day of job but pileated result made her cry. Upside? Boss thinks she's edgy and gives Em her own trend column.
 
10/15 - Locked in her room, Suzy uses the hamate end of a coat hanger to pick the lock. What she finds downstairs changes her life forever.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 90

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on October 8, 2013 - 5:07pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesAfter finishing the rewrite of my novel, I slept for twelve hours straight on Sunday night. It was awesome. Since then I’ve watched some TV (most of the new shows are terrible) and started reading Divergent (finally!). But I’ve also been spending time wandering around the house feeling a little lost. The rewrite had been hanging over me for so long that without it I feel like I don’t have a purpose. 
 
I think a bit of a break is good, but I also know I need to jump into the next project before I let myself get pulled back into the land of laziness. I’m actually planning to participate in NaNoWriMo in November after taking a break from it the last few years, so I need to start figuring out what I’m going to write. I have two ideas pulling equally at me, so probably the best course of action is to jot down a quick outline of each and see which one ‘feels’ right. 
 
But until NaNo starts, I’ll be keeping my writing muscles warmed up with my 15 Minute Tweet Tales. Here are the ones for the past week:
 
10/2 - Deb's supererogatory attempts to place the ideal ratio of condiments on the buns gets her fired. It's fast food, not slow perfection.
 
10/3 - The kick to his junk was painful but condign. He was just grateful she didn't know the entire story, or she'd have cut it off instead.
 
10/4 - Blind date set up by Mom. Infandous outfit to repel him. Regrets it when dream man arrives and says she looks hot with twinkle in his eye.
 
10/5 - Keeping her seity different from all the mindless followers at school turned into a challenge after it became trendy to be unique.
 
10/6 - Emma uses cacoepy in an adorable way when she speaks. It makes people underestimate her, which is vital for the success of her missions.
 
10/7 - Water weeps down dirty windowpanes, creating a loxotic image of men dancing in the rain rather than warriors battling to the death.
 
10/8 - Thinking she's about to be hit by a car, he tackles her. Then he has to explain to the cops he's a victim of parallax, not an attacker.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 89

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on October 1, 2013 - 4:56pm
15 Minute Tweet TalesIt’s been a busy week, so I'm keeping it short and sweet today – enjoy my 15 Minute Tweet Tales:
 
9/25 - Tim's the town bully, so people cheer when Ed finds muniments proving Tim's land belongs to Ed. No one mentions Ed's past as a forger.
 
9/26 - Her displays of love were exiguous - to make her kids grow up strong. It worked. The conditions of her nursing home didn't faze them.
 
9/27 - Despite my dirty looks, the man behind me crepitates through an endless tub of popcorn. In the parking lot, I get a perfect end to my movie.
 
9/28 - The audience freaks when he apostrophizes during his victory speech, but now that he's Governor he doesn't have to ignore Mr. Jingles.
 
9/29 - The women he picks up in bars doubt his claims of chiromancy until his fingers slide sensually across the lines etched in their palms.
 
9/30 - His heartfelt promises are nugatory words twisted into lies by all the other times he swore he'd never do it again but did it anyway.
 
10/1 - She affects a Palladian air, from her clothes to her decor, her followers blissfully unaware her insight is culled from fortune cookies. 
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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Flash Competition + Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 88

Submitted by Jocelyn Rish on September 24, 2013 - 9:54am
NYC MidnightThis weekend I participated in the NYC Madness Flash Fiction Challenge, where you have 48 hours to write a 1000 word short story for an assigned genre/location/object. My group got ghost story/a coffee shop/a light bulb. At first I was super excited because ghost story is right up my alley – the one time I was assigned the ‘open’ genre, I actually wrote a ghost story (which eventually became my short film High Heels & Hoodoo). 
 
But as soon as I started brainstorming ideas, my enthusiasm waned – everything felt so cliché or like it was going to be the same as everyone else’s story. I mean, that light bulb was going to be flickering in all of them, right? And it was either going to be a barista serving a customer who was actually a ghost or a customer being served by a barista who was actually a ghost. Eventually I came up with something I hoped at least started the story in a slightly original way and was also a fun kind of meta (the protagonist had to submit a short story for a competition’s midnight deadline, but her internet went down, so she was parked outside a coffee shop for wifi).
 
By the double halfway point (500 words in at 11:30pm Saturday night), I finally admitted I hated my story with the heat of a thousand suns. It was stupid and, worse, boring. I briefly attempted to fix it by rewriting it in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, but soon realized unless the judges got what I was doing, they were just going to think I was a terrible writer (so many adverbs, adjectives, and repeated words!). 
 
As I was pulling out my hair in writerly despair, a new idea revolving around format popped into my desperate brain. I was intrigued but wasn’t sure I could make it work. I spent the next hour thinking and pondering (it might have looked like I was napping, but I was working, I swear) until I had a plan, and then I was off! By 5:30am, I had a rough draft. I finally grabbed some zzz’s and then spent Sunday afternoon rewriting it several times. I managed to turn it in five minutes before the midnight deadline on Sunday night. Whew!
 
It’s not one of my finer efforts, but it’s not the shame-inducing mess of words that was my first attempt. The big format risk is that the entire thing is an online chat, with a few tweets thrown in at the end. So if the judges don’t spend time hanging out online, they might not understand what I was doing, and I’ll be completely screwed. Plus, since it all happens online, they might decide I didn’t meet the coffee shop location requirement. We’ll see, but regardless, it was fun to stretch myself with something new.
 
Here's my title and synopsis: A Spirited Chat - Kerri meets an exciting guy online, but he might be seeking more than she's willing to give.
 
15 Minute Tweet TalesAnd now for my awkward segue… NYC Midnight is the group that originally introduced me to twitter fiction, so here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the week:
 
9/18 - She wants to play Dad's favorite song at his funeral. When the palinoia makes her fingers bleed, she's ready - she slips him the cyanide.
 
9/19 - At fist day roll call, she sighs at a name. Had his four hellion brothers, so it's ineluctable he'd be in her class. He hurls a spitball.
 
9/20 - Dr. More's wife had a jugal jut that caused people to call her exotic. Accurate, since he created her in a lab by splicing cat and human.
 
9/21 - Never one for birthdays, he celebrates his 38th with a perfervid energy that baffles his friends. Six months later cancer claims him.
 
9/22 - While the crepuscular lighting in the room is appropriately symbolic, Jane wants to feel the sun on her face when it's her turn to die.
 
9/23 - She recites his evil acts seriatim. Tied up, defiant, he says, "If you'd been this focused on housework, U wouldn't have needed discipline."
 
9/24 - Since his cube-mate has been hurt before, he plans a proreption to win her heart. But she thinks he's gay and starts dating Stan from HR.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
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