Word: Egg.
Genre: Romantic Comedy.
What? Write a movie synopsis. Or a pitch? Maybe a snippet of dialogue. Perhaps a story.
And include an egg(s).
Go.
The Rules:
- You must write your entry in 10 minutes. This encourages top-of-mind, primal thinking before the ego and judgmental brain kick in. Just set a timer, make your kid count to 600 slowly, whatever. It’s an honor system. And I trust you.
- Keep to 250 words or less.
- Please have fun. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Together, let’s rediscover the simple joy in the writing process.
- Post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit about it here.
Want to see what’s been written in the past? Catch up on the PROMPTuesdays archive here.
Can I make my prediction that you are going to see a LOT of fertility stories? Or am I the only one whose brain works like that?
ADD – did you see there is an OFFICIAL Paranormal State widget? Huh? Did you?
Oh. Sorry. Probably I should really figure out this whole insomnia gig…and maybe the first step would be, yanno, cutting out caffeine.
Why cut out caffeine? It’s one of the essential food groups. Like chocolate. My former doctor told me so. For reals.
Breakfast is served!
It’s a little silly, but here’s my attempt.
(Hey, getting it done early folks :) So yeah, blame the early for ::: )
In The Soup
It fell.
Or rather the egg was hurled, mightily and with great glee, if little foresight.
That’s not quite how Jeannette phrased it when she ran up the stairs to confront the egg tosser. Not in her head anyway. Due to an ill-timed trip at the top step her anger dissipated. That and the boyish grin she stared into when someone took her arm to help her up.
Early 30s, egg tosser. She’d never seen that in the classifieds, and to the best of her knowledge there was no InstantEggLove.com
Dave looked at her and winced inwardly as she looked like shit. Outwardly he offered, “I feel like shit. I’m sorry.”
In return that anything-but-bold statement got one of the strangest looks he’d ever seen. Lustful. Amused. Pathetic. Pissed. Yeah, mostly pissed. It was one of those looks usually received after months, if not years, of knowing.
So he said nothing else, because, after all, he was near the edge of the roof of his friend’s office. He’d been – and still was – waiting for Gail to finish her morning and head to lunch.
Jeannette was brushing her skirt off, though there was nothing there. She looked back and wondered what and why she had run up the stairs. She’d expected a child and had readied rightful wrath. But instead, trip and fall said it all.
She turned her back and walked away, if only to forestall the awkward silence she could already feel developing.
“Oh my god.”
Matted hair at the back, white and yellow goo on her red blouse made Dave instantly resolve to never throw eggs again. Not sure why he had today. They’d been in the refrigerator as he grabbed a soda. A compulsion that continued without thought until faced with the consequence.
His snort-laugh-gargle – what the hell was that sound? – spun her back around and she felt her hair, a sticky mess, slap her back.
Minutes later, she found herself in a store, looking at his wallet.
“Here, you’ll look bet. .um, good in this.”
And he was right. He’d just bought her clothes – with impressive acumen – and swept one shelf of hair care products; she’d spotted maybe one that she used.
Jeannette was late for where she’d been going. Now she had a new blouse on and was headed out the door. Where, on the threshold, she promptly tripped again.
“Motherfuck!”
Jeannette left with egg on her face – but he had her number.
Steph made an excellent prediction, my mind immediately jumped to fertility. Of course, that’s where my mind is lately, so not surprising. Also, I just watched a not so good movie called Miss Conception, it sprung to mind when I read the prompt.
Temple, that was funny! You nut. Tinsenpup, I loved it!
Can’t wait to read all the others.
Not sure why the trackback didn’t show up: here’s mine.
THE OPENING
Egg: Why don’t you boys come on up and see me sometime?
Sperm1: [stammering] oh, um, er, Miss Egg, that’s mighty kind of you, and um, er…
Sperm2: [suavely] Well, darling, why don’t you come on down here, where there’s more room for dancing?
Sperm3: [slowly] In calculating the greatest likelihood of succeeding in the monumental endeavor…
THE PITCH
Watch the rest of the movie to see whether charming-but-awkward beats out smooth-and-devious or if plain-but-brainy wins the prize in the end. The answer to the question plays itself out by following the lives of the triplet boys born 12 minutes into movie and watching their own dating trials and tribulations.
Finally I found the time. Here’s my effort:
http://www.slouchingmom.com/2008/08/promptuesday-fiction-half-eaten-pie.html
Steph: I accept your prediction and raise you some good old-fashioned sex stories.
Da G: I can’t access your site! I’m at Panera, and it’s banning me from your URL. You must be a dirty girl.
Tinsen: Steph will be thrilled to read your “fertility” story!
Temple: Best last line ever.
Grindhouse: Thanks for playing! I love new voices!
MommyTime: I’ll sneak into Universal with you to pitch this. It’ll be BIG! Oscars all around!
Happyhippy: I feel you. i really really do.
Slouching: I always love it when you find the time. So worth it. Thx!
god damn. I had to go to work this morning, and was in excruciating pain all day long in meetings, and now I have parent open house, but all i want to do is YOUR PROMPT. Can i do it tonight? You know i’ll forget it until then, have to read it over, and will follow the rules. cross my heart.
I’ve decided to start posting them in my blog. I took a little longer then ten minutes. Maybe later I’ll continue and finish it.
Here’s Mine!
Deb, I took a shower today. Honest. But otherwise, yes. I’m a dirty girl.
This is kind of odd, but here’s my effort:
From high in the sky, she took a bead on the jumble of sticks in the fork of the branches of the old Torrey Pine and circled for the landing, looking warily about her for predators. Her snowy wings spread wide, she soared higher and then swooped in and landed gracefully on the rim of the nest. With a quizzical look in her eye, she stepped gingerly between the nestled eggs, lowering herself carefully and squirmed slightly to position her bottom, in for the long haul. Soft, downy feathers compressed into layers and spread all around her like a cozy quilt. Which of course it was, for her little ones.
She stretched her neck to get an imaginary kink out. It had only been five minutes after all. Barely time enough to warm the eggs, to close her eyes and wait for her mate. She felt the life burgeoning beneath her in four perfect ovals, ready to burst forth, but it would be a few days yet. Fully sated on fat fish and delicate crustaceans, she would wait patiently for her mate, but she missed him. They took turns with the incubation and rarely saw each other much during this time. She longed for the slow sweeps of the waters together at dusk and being groomed by his long, sharp beak.
There! She could make out his handsome form silhouetted against the darkening sky. He was hovering and circling, appearing to search for something. I’m here, she wanted to say. Can’t you see me?
After what seemed an eternity, he floated down to her nest and alighted on a branch. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” she said. “Looking after our babies.”
“Those aren’t our babies, you ninny! Our nest is over on the next fork.”
She leapt up in horror and looked beneath her and counted. One, two, three, four, five! “I thought something was wrong. I knew I only gave birth to four eggs, and believe me, sweetheart, I felt every one.”
yes okay. eggs over medium cooked for ten minutes at 250 words.
They’re all so wonderful! Who knew eggs could be such a hot topic. I aspire to be writers like you fine people.
Here’s today’s contribution! http://www.dirtandnoise.com/2008/08/incredible-edible-egg.html
I’m going to cheat and have my students in writing class do this prompt… ;)
Oh, I wanted to, but I just couldn’t do this one without being incredibly cheesy. (My effort actually involved scrambled cheddar cheese eggs. Had to scrap it.)
mine is here:
http://katydidnot.blogspot.com/2008/08/dozen-eggs-to-go.html
Note to self: Do NOT read slouching mom’s piece before attempting to write your own. Keep your eyes on your own paper.
I’ll give it a go next week – and NO PEEKING.