As a young girl on long flights and road trips, my mom knew just the thing to keep me quiet and engaged for an hour at a time. She would buy me a notebook and a pencil and write down five words that I had to use in a story. When I was young, the words would be simple like dog and ball, but as I grew older, the words would be more complicated or in some way related to the trip to serve as a travelogue.
At the time, it was a great writing tool for me. I loved to write, but could never for the life of me figure out what to put down on the paper. My mind would race so quickly that I was left with a blank stare at an empty page and get frustrated.
It's still a good tool, but not as necessary anymore. The thing that fascinates me now about the exercise is that with the same five words, no two people will write the same story, and I love that! So please, show me how your mind works. Write a sentence, a poem, a paragraph or a story, but write.
writing exercise: Use the following five words in a sentence, poem, paragraph or short story.
- business
- bureau
- start
- tickle
- yo-yo
Don't worry about structure - just freewrite for a few minutes. You may use the definition of your choice for words with multiple meanings.
(Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.)
writercizer response:This whole business with the yo-yos was really starting to irk Wilhelmina. She could accept Ted's erratic moodswings, his complete inability to show up on time to any event, even his goofy comb-over (the next great trend, he kept telling her), but this yo-yo obsession had to go.
"What is the point of a yo-yo shop, Ted? No one but you has a bureau in the bedroom dedicated to a spinning circle on a string - no one! We're broke, we can't afford to upgrade from Ramen to Barilla, and you're taking out a lease for a yo-yo shop in the middle of an economic crisis? Just because it tickles your fancy? You won one "walk the dog" contest at the county fair, and now all I hear 'yo-yo this' and 'yo-yo that.' This is insane! You're running us into the poorhouse." Wilhelmina yelled as he showed her photos of the empty storefront in a run-down neighborhood.
Aw, you just have to put me to work, huh. lol.
ReplyDeleteWell, here is a stab in the dark:
A man lost his business after one of the partners got in trouble with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So, he moved his wife and kids to another state where a friend allowed him to work at a company making yo-yos. After two weeks, he got promoted but became uncomfortable because the company boss always gave him weird looks. Within a year, the man left and started his own yo-yo company after the boss confessed one day about wanting to tickle him.
That wasn't so hard, I guess.
This is a nice blog you have here and the name of it is catchy, so plan on me returning!
The Madlab Post
here's my effort :D
ReplyDeleteFrom the start, I knew I wouldn't get very far. But I felt that familiar tickle in the back of my mind--all the sign I needed that I would soon be out of control. So began the interrogation, me facing Mandi on the steps outside the Paranormal Weather Bureau. I demanded an explanation for the yo-yo weather patterns we'd been having lately. As predicted, Mandi snapped, "It's none of your business! But if you really want to get into this, talk to Mr. Storm!" And then she walked away, and I stared up at the rainbow-clad sky. As befuddled as ever.
Ha! Love how different each of these answers are. Thanks for trying it out Trisha and Nicole!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to start on this Five Words business but I got a tickle in the back of my throat and my head feels like a yo-yo after I bumped it against the bureau.
ReplyDeleteThe Better Business Bureau found that at the start of the 21st century children preferred Tickle Me Elmo to an old yo-yo.
ReplyDeleteNot very thrilling to be sure, but it was fun :)
Haha - Love all of these!! Thanks for participating. Five words exercises are so fascinating.
ReplyDelete