Last weeks prompt: The stalker prompt as I like to call it. Go to a coffee shop, park, anywhere you can people watch for a while. Craft a story around your observations.
Note on this week's contribution: while this is called, lightheartedly, the stalker prompt, the character I wrote is a construction of my imagination. Any likeness to real people was unintentional. Although that may seem contradictory to the prompt, I took pieces from a bunch of people I saw that day and made a completely fictional story about them.
Morning Meetings
She wasn’t conventionally beautiful but she was pretty. She had strong dark eyebrows, long, thick, wavy hair that she didn’t do much with aside from brush, and a good complexion not aided by make-up; a recipe that could have been helped by angular features, or cheekbones to help the eyebrows, but as she stood, her face still held her childhood; it made her seem plain.
She didn’t belong, but she tried to. She said “Hi” enthusiastically to everyone, even if it meant ignoring that tinge of anxiety that only those truly listening could catch. One word responses made her uncomfortable so she tried, sometimes too hard, to keep the conversation going; she would ask about the weather, the game, the weekend, the anything, just to try and form some kind of connection. On good days, she would meet someone like her. Someone just waiting for another slightly awkward stranger to share this mandatory time with. Other days, no matter how many attempts she made, the other person found more interest in Facebook than her.
She was always deflated by those people, like maybe it would be easier to follow their example. The one with the shiny curls, and the perfect make-up; the one that sat down and flipped through page after page on her phone, sending message after message. The one who didn’t have to try so hard to have a conversation; she was already having twenty.
Those days were quiet. There was no awkwardness, no overly obvious small talk, no struggle. That’s when I would notice and look for her and wonder, what if we all just stopped pretending to be busy and instead notice these people around us? What if I asked the girl next to me about the book she’s been reading these past couple days? Would it really be so bad to say the first hello? But I’m not the plain pretty girl, and I wonder how many like me wish they were. ***
As always leave feedback, link-up and grab a button if you have some writing to share!
Prompt 4: Take inspiration from others. Grab a book from your shelf, flip it open and pick a line. Have that sentence be the beginning or ending of your story. Have fun!!!
I need to get out somewhere so I can observe someone for this prompt, I kept thinking I'd go somewhere over the weekend, but then it got so snowy we stayed in most of the time!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great link up! I'm a creative writing student and can always use the practice so I will have to link up sometime!
ReplyDelete-Your newest follower,
Jessica
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete