Thursday January 31st, 2019

The exercise:

Ah, the end of January. Always a happy occasion.

Until I remember there's still February to get through.

Write about: the indictment.

Wednesday January 30th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: justice.

Tuesday January 29th, 2019

The exercise:

Write two haiku about: the prosecutor.

Monday January 28th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: the probe.

Sunday January 27th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about what happens: when worlds collide.

Saturday January 26th, 2019

The exercise:

Write a four line poem about: the order.

Mine:

The order matters not to me, loyal friend -
Proceed however makes sense.
Though to avoid drawing notice, the first to go
Should look like accidents...

Friday January 25th, 2019

The exercise:

Write four lines of prose about something that takes place at: the emotions factory.

Thursday January 24th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about something that is: auspicious.

Wednesday January 23rd, 2019

The exercise:

Write about something that has: splintered.

Tuesday January 22nd, 2019

The exercise:

Write two haiku about: the pursuit of perfection.

Monday January 21st, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: infiltration.

Sunday January 20th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: the houseboat.

Saturday January 19th, 2019

The exercise:

Write a four line poem about: the list.

Or, you know, carry on.

Mine:

Big Buddy had no concerns or objections
When given the list of names.
In fact, his only question was simply: In
Which order should they be maimed?

Friday January 18th, 2019

The exercise:

Write four lines of prose about: the medallion.

Thursday January 17th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: the convergence.

Wednesday January 16th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: when the fog lifts.

Tuesday January 15th, 2019

The exercise:

Write two haiku about: the stranger.

Monday January 14th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: the jumper.

Sunday January 13th, 2019

The exercise:

If Wednesday was Thing 1, then consider today Thing 2.

Write about: the unveiling.

Mine:

Perhaps that is too grand a prompt for this.

Perhaps not.

Either way, here it comes.

I have mentioned on more than one occasion that I've been devoting my creative efforts elsewhere since I've stopped writing on the prompts I post here. I have, quite intentionally, not provided any details, as the project I've been working on is a big one and completion has felt a long way away. It's still a long way off, but enough progress has been made that I'm comfortable with pulling back the curtain now.

I've been working on a poetry collection, about parenthood, intended for fellow parents. It has a title, but I'll save that for another time. I've recently finished a first draft of all the poems I was working on, which ended up being 152 in all.

Don't get too excited. There's a lot of haiku in there.

Anyway. Currently I'm working on organizing them, putting them in some semblance of order. Once that's done I'll see if any more need to be written (already added two more) and if any of the current ones can be culled. Then I will get to work turning those first drafts into final drafts. Which, for some, will require a lot of polishing. For others... they felt pretty final when I initially wrote them. But I'll obviously give those ones another hard look as well.

How long will this take? Who knows. I'm chipping away at this collection between work and taking care of the boys and all the other things that life seems to keep me busy with. I have unofficial goals for when I'd like to see it done but I'm not going to stress about it, as long as I'm still making progress. Momentum kind of stagnated over the holidays (which I'm basically okay with) but I'm gaining traction again now as routines return to what passes for normal around here.

I'll keep you posted as things near the finish line.

Saturday January 12th, 2019

The exercise:

Write a four line poem about: how it all began.

Which is a significantly easier prompt to work into the second entry of a fifty-two part poem than what I'd initially chosen, having utterly forgotten about this experiment.

If 'experiment' is the right word for... this.

Anyway, I think I'm going to call last week's opening a prologue of sorts. That way the story of the poem can begin with:

Mine:

The Master was sipping his morning coffee
(Which Big Buddy had just brewed)
When he suddenly decided his rival's
Lives all needed to conclude

... and I am now realizing this is going to be much more difficult than telling a story in monthly installments, as this thing is going to need to flow from week to week. Coming up with prompts for this, which will need to work for both Greg and myself, is going to be... interesting.

Friday January 11th, 2019

The exercise:

Write four lines of prose about: gaining traction.

Thursday January 10th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about someone or something that is: volatile.

Wednesday January 9th, 2019

The exercise:

Okay, here's one of the things I promised for this week.

We have now done six yearlong prompts, from Mejaran in 2013 to Empires in 2018. That's a lot of material to work with, and it seems a shame to just abandon them.

So I thought, hey, let's not.

Instead, let us take one day of each month in 2019 to return to them, in a little something I'm calling Yearlong Revisitations. We could pick up the story where it was left. We can leap ahead into the future. We can go back and fill in gaps that were left, whether they were due to time constraints or some other reason.

In theory, that's two visits per story. But we'll see how it actually plays out. If it feels like momentum is building in one tale, we can go there three or four times. Or more!

And while I'm not necessarily going to do them in order, we are going to begin by seeing what's going on in Mejaran.

Tuesday January 8th, 2019

The exercise:

Write two haiku about: danger.

Monday January 7th, 2019

The exercise:

I need to get this week organized, clearly.

Anyway. For now, the (slightly later than intended) prompt is to write about: the rhinoceros.

Sunday January 6th, 2019

The exercise:

Write about: the knife.

Got a couple things coming up this week. Haven't written either of them yet so I'm not going to commit to them appearing on any particular days.

In fact, I had hoped to do one today.

Clearly, I was not organized enough for that.

So, stay tuned.

Saturday January 5th, 2019

The exercise:

Write a four line poem about: a robot and its master.

Or, if you're at least a little bit crazy, write the first four lines of a poem that will eventually be 208 lines long. And take you a year to write.

Greg, sometimes?

Sometimes I hate you.

For the record: I have no idea where mine is going. I only know where it begins.

Below.

Mine:

Unit 78-B-2M-6O
(Better known as Big Buddy)
Served its master very long and very well
(Though sometimes things got bloody...)

Friday January 4th, 2019

The exercise:

Write four lines of prose about: escape velocity.

Thursday January 3rd, 2019

The exercise:

Write about something that is: fundamental.

Wednesday January 2nd, 2019

The exercise:

Your prompt today is this:


I mean, just look at it. There are stories to be told here, clearly. So tell me some.

Tuesday January 1st, 2019

The exercise:

Happy new year!

Let us get things off to a good start by writing two haiku about: hope.