One word (NaNo style!): lane

I walked up the quiet path. The street lamps cast their shadows in the dark night, creating eerie outlines of the homes in Mineral Park. I took Brax's hand and held tight. We were almost to the Council.

Pretty short today, and covers something I've already written. Write your own at oneword.com! For bonus points, use a character from a book or story you're writing. For double bonus points, post your one-minute response in the comments section!

One word: cone

Ice cream is a delicious treat. I love its rich and velvety texture, and the way it drips over my hands and makes my fingers sticky. But today, it is too cold for ice cream. I am wrapped up in a sweater in my freezing cubicle, wishing for a hot cup of cocoa and the warmth of a cozy blanket.

Write your own at oneword.com! Post your answers in the comments!

One word: frog

Not NaNo style because, well, I saw the word and immediately decided there aren't any frogs in the future I created, at least not that my main character has ever seen. Sad. Anyway, once I made that split-second decision, I just started writing, and this is what came out.

On his lily pad, the frog sat contentedly all day, grabbing flies with his sticky tongue. He watched as the people passed, hand-in-hand, strolling around the small lake. He didn't understand that kind of love. He croaked his song, and wondered why no one stopped to listen.

One word (NaNo style!): certain

I am so sure that they are going to find me. Even though I've removed my tag, I don't know how much longer I can stay away. I need to get out of this place, out of the limits, to a place where they won't get to me. It is 38 miles to the border, and without my tag, I can't pay for the rail.

One word (NaNo style): amber

His eyes were close to amber. Joseth's silent eyes, the ones that were forever burned into my brain. As I sat in the allocation room, running name after name against the mortality patrol's database, all I could think about was Joseth. He was the reason I was here, and I knew nothing would ever be the same.


Hm...sounds mysterious, yes? Remember I said all month my one words would probably come from my NaNo main character's point of view! Well tomorrow (which I guess is technically today) I'll be posting a NaNo update, along with an exciting (or possibly very lame) excerpt from my totally unfinished, unedited, and possibly terrible (but just as possibly awesome) novel.

One word: clip

Again, I tried to complete the one word without using the given word. So far these are making for pretty lame writings (case in point: today's total FAIL). Starting tomorrow, with NaNoWriMo, I think I'm going to write all of my One Word posts from my main character's POV...should be fun!

I saw a great blooper reel last night. Watching celebrities mess up is one of the best experiences. So many people hold them up to a higher standard, but really they are just people like us. The blooper reel proves that they are flawed.

One word (3 times): Scissors

(I didn't like my first attempt at oneword.com today, so I tried again. Then, I wanted to see if I could write something without actually using the word they give you as a prompt. Often, my first impulse is to lead with the given word, but I try to avoid that. Inevitably, though, the word creeps up. I think I avoided it yesterday with "shoes," but today's word was trickier. Here are my three attempts!)

I need a haircut so badly. My hair is wild and untamed, and falls ungracefully into my eyes. But I can't afford anything these days. So I lift the scissors to my head and start to chop. I've never done this before...I hope it comes out OK!

Julie cut carefully along the lines of the page. As she chopped, she watched the tiny pieces of paper curl into small tendrils behind the blades of her scissors. Hannah's birthday was around the corner, and this year she needed to make a statement with her gift.

He cut the box open, slowly, carefully. Once he reached the end of the tape, he lifted the sides of the cardboard open and reached inside. He pushed aside the layers of Styrofoam peanuts and newspaper to reveal the best gift he had ever received. Finally, his parents had listened to him, and gotten him exactly what he wanted.

Oneword.com: Shoes

Oneword.com is an awesome site. Basically, you go there and they give you one word to write about, and exactly 60 seconds to write about it. You just start typing immediately and whatever comes out is what you're stuck with. It's great! I do it pretty much daily. I'll probably post my results every day, even if they suck (yesterday's result, with the prompt "microphone," was pretty bad. Fortunately, this blog didn't exist yesterday! Hooray for avoiding embarrassment!) Here's today's:

She slipped her feet into the soft leather of her worn, brown flats. She never wore them with socks, and they smelled terrible. Sour and dirty. She got a weird kind of joy in wearing them everywhere she went and taking them off, then laughing to herself as everyone around her asked, "What is that SMELL??!" It was one of few joys she had left.

Did you visit oneword.com? (I bet you did.) Why don't you post your response here! Or if you thought my 60 seconds today was especially awesome (or especially crappy), feel free to tell me so.