The exercise:
The word of the day is: uncharted.
Because I heard it on the radio this morning and thought it would be a good prompt. Some days, that's just how it goes.
Mine:
It's an amazing feeling, standing where no human has ever stood before. Not a whole lot of people can say something like that. Many say they do, but the truth is they're too scared. They need a leader to follow, a shepherd to guide the sheep along new paths.
That's me.
I'll return to them, the ink on my maps still drying, and then I shall show them this place. They'll probably build a statue in my honor in this very spot. Maybe name a street or two after me back in my hometown. This is going to make headlines all across -
"Hey!"
What the...
"Yeah, you!"
The man in the Hawaiian shirt is holding out a camera to me. My mind has gone blank. I don't understand.
"Do you mind taking a picture of the wife and me?"
4 comments:
Lovely story, I like the way the tourist destroys the dreams of the narrator. I know how the narrator feels though, sometimes even the most familiar place can seem new when you look at it the right way.
Uncharted (adj.) A word that causes violent debate amongst lexicographers, and widely considered responsible for the Great Chocolate Biscuit Debacle of 1889 in an Oxford University Commonroom. One camp firmly believe that Uncharted is the cockney pronunciation of Hunch-Hearted and refers to people especially fond of Richard III and any plays or stories about him, to the extent of dressing up like him (complete with hunch) and waffling on about winters of discontent until punched by bystanders. The other camp insist that it is a corruption of Lunch-hearted but fail to provide any examples of usage or even a meaning for the word. Miss Rita Tailsworth has written a dissertation on the theme that language requires some words to exist that have no meaning, but hold open places for meaning to creep in. This is probably reason enough to punch her, too.
Nonetheless these are waters not well-traversed and for which there exist no charts.
"This is probably reason enough to punch her, too."
Fantastic :)
Marc- Liked the story. Would have preferred to stay in fantasy land thought.
Greg- Actually laughed out loud, although quietly in order not to wake up the house.Nothing specific, just the general feel and the quick quips.
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Uncharted. I suppose that is what you could call the place I find myself in more and more frequently. I never know how I end up there. I just seem to be there without warning.
My intentions are good and I have the route memorized. Still, I find myself sitting in front of the computer surfing facebook, a friends blog, wiki, whatever and grasping at straws, hoping I'll stop picking the short one and come up with a great idea.
And when things don't work out and the date on my last posting doesn't change, I start blaming other things. School started back-up. I'm busier, gone three nights a week instead of one. I have to be up early to get my kid out the door and to school on time. The house needs attention. I spend too much time surfing the web.
Regardless, it's still new. I don't like it. I miss my old land of easy inspiration and truly dislike this lonely uncharted place of lack of ideas and motivation.
Heather - that's a tough place to be in. The only escape route I've ever discovered for that is to write your way out. Just write, write, write, until it starts to feel right again.
Inspiration can be a tricky little devil, but it'll arrive at some point or another and all we can do is be ready for it.
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