Saturday March 5th, 2011

The exercise:

Welcome to the 1,000th day in a row of Daily Writing Practice!

As mentioned yesterday, we're skipping the usual Saturday four line poem day this week in order to celebrate, for lack of a better word. So what are we doing instead?

We're going to write a 1,000 word story - 100 words at a time. I'll start off with the first 100, then you guys carry on from there. You're welcome to add more than once, just not consecutively. I'm planning on dropping by later in the day to add another 100 words.

If we actually get up to 900 words, the person that writes the final 100 has to find a way to bring the story to some sort of conclusion. And if we do manage to get a 1,000 word story finished... well, why not start another one?

So. 100 words each. Even if that means stopping in the middle of a sentence!

Let's get started and we'll see how it goes.

Mine:

The man stood on trembling legs, a hand against the mast holding him upright as wave after wave smashed into the side of the ship. His shirt was torn in several places, darkened by the blood seeping from his wounds. His breath came in ragged, painful spurts.

The hand not supporting his weight held a sword, its wickedly curving blade shining dully in the moonlight. A particularly large and hungry wave reached over the railings and threatened to sweep his legs out from under him. But he held on, his eyes fixed on the hatch.

They would be coming soon.

4 comments:

Greg said...

Oh this is good idea! Not as good as the pigeons in my opinion, but I may be a little bit biased for that one.

Right, 100 words to carry on; let's see what's in that hatch!

Words 101-200
At least he had a sword now; fighting them off by hand earlier had been exhausting. The blade looked to be as sharp as butter, but at least it might keep them at arm's length. He shuddered as he took a deep breath, but his legs were starting to feel stronger again.
Something scrabbled belowdeck.
The hatch lifted a fraction, then dropped again. Then lifted again.
A spindly leg like a spider's, black and shiny but perfectly smooth pushed out from underneath the hatch and probed for footing on the deck. He gripped the mast harder -- here they came!

Marc said...

Words 201-300

The first came scurrying toward him on its six legs, fast as a mouse but twenty times the size. When it was eight feet away it leapt, mouth open wide, baring its dagger-sharp teeth.

With a strangled cry he thrust forward, the blade sliding between its front teeth. He stumbled back as the creature's weight hit him, but he made sure to stay on his feet. It was impaled all the way to the hilt, and he had to place one foot on its head in order to pull his sword free.

The others were more cautious.

"Great... they're intelligent."

Zhongming said...

Marc - congratulation on the first thousand mark! That's really something worth saluting! Great work!

300-400

So the rest stayed focused and alert, awaiting the perfect chance to take advantage of the creature's weakness - their colorblindness..

They understood that they function exactly like their bull brothers. Their sensitivity towards the other color were at minimum, almost painful but they just don't respond at all.

So code-red? He decided to experiment with the second which charged towards him at blazing speed with small footprints. He throw an apple towards the tree thinking that the creature might just bang onto it but who knows the creature simply decided to be rebellious! It made a swift turn, switched to anger mode and started howling loudly before it chanced upon another of his mate...

Aaron said...

400-500
If he let Spinsters have the crewmate their blood frenzy would subside. All Webmen knew that only blood could stop frenzied Spinsters. So he let the man fall.
Six-legged black masses began materializing everywhere on the man. The spider like creatures moved like shadows. They were too smart to waste venom on other, still moving prey.

The screams of the dying man as the Spinsters poison melted his organs to the jelly would have been terrifying had they not been so familiar.
He flew backwards and a knife pressed against his throat. The Captain stared down the blade of his sword at Arachnis.

“Did you let him fall, Webman.”