Guest Writercize #1 - Elizabeth Grace

I am very excited to host Beth today at writercize.  Beth is the leader of the Group Blogging Experience, better known by it's acronym and twitter hash #GBE2.  She is also a fabulous writer, energetic reader and the winner of a slogan contest I hosted here several months ago!

Please welcome Beth and try out her very challenging, intriguing writercize.  I have to say I am very excited to see what you come up with. 

Without further ado, I give you - Beth!

First of all, thank you, Alana, for allowing me to take over your blog for a day. I always enjoy your posts and love that you consistently find creative ways for writers to keep limber as we try out your Writercizes!

My blog, Word Nerd Speaks is about a little bit of everything. I’ve been a professional writer for decades, but in all that time, my absolute favorite gig was as a daily columnist for a good-sized family of community newspapers. When the paper closed its doors, I mourned. I loved being able to jabber about whatever was on my mind on a given day and really loved that my work seemed to elicit lots of feedback from readers. These days, I do my jabbering on the blog, and I still welcome and appreciate comments from those who are kind enough to pop by to read what I have to say.

Now for my Writercize offering! When it comes to good storytelling, less is often more, so I’d like to propose an exercise that will require writers to choose their words judiciously, careful to see that each one is there for a reason. The Writercize is called “Ten to One” and the idea is as follows:

Participants are asked to write a complete story in exactly fifty-five words. The first line should have ten words, the second nine, the third eight, and so on until the last sentence, consisting of a single word, completes the story. 

Here’s mine (mine as in Beth's):

Truck Stop

She knew what he’d order: peach pie and coffee, black.

He set his fork down and smiled at her.

You spend too much time alone, he said.

She rolled her eyes and nodded. Yep.

I’m hauling a load to Tulsa.

You could come with me.

She folded her apron.

I’d like that.

Sign flipped.

Closed.

(There are still some guest spots available.  Click here to read the guidelines and sign up.)