I don’t participate in a lot of writing prompts. Mostly those on mindlovemisery’s menagerie as I have ties to that writing prompt ensemble.
Sometimes I remember other blog writing challenges and then forget them again. My short term memory is getting shorter. The koi in the koi pond have longer memories and attention spans that I do these days.
I might “jump” from blog to blog, following trails and threads. I land on “new to me” writing challenges – some I add to my “writing prompts” internet collections, and then promptly (excuse the pun) forget.
Via pensivity101, I landed on Stine Writing’s Six Minute Challenge. The object is to:
“Set up a timer or sit near a clock so you can keep track of the six minutes you will be writing.
You can either use one of the prompts (photo or written) or you can free-write.
Get ready and write for 6 minutes, that is it! Can you write a complete story? Can you think of a new Sonnet? Can you write 400 words? 400? 500? There are no restrictions on what kind of writing you do, but you should try to be actively writing for six minutes.
After you are done writing, include your word count and then post back to this page #Simply6Minutes or include your link in the comments section. Pingbacks are enabled.
*Feel free to leave your work completely unedited. I believe it is good to see, especially for new writers, that even very seasoned writers don’t write a perfect first draft.*
Have fun, challenge yourself if you’d like, read and respond to others’ posts.
Thank you for participating!”
The prompt picture is a humorous one of a dog wearing several party hats, and a ball in his mouth.
But what caught me eye even more so was Christine’s opening line:
“Welcome to the 6 minute challenge! Today is my birthday so I had to find one to help celebrate!”
Which is what will form the basis of my “semi-free write.” I will, as Christine suggests, only lightly edit what comes out.
In 1982, I shared a house with two other people; our birthdays all fell in the first week of November. We dubbed it “Pagan Week” and spent some silly times celebrating. The activities I remember best are:
We played “Who would you have over for supper.” Create a dinner guest lists of people living or dead, real or fictional we’d have over for supper. A great mix and match sort of exercise. Like inviting the Marx Brothers and Carl Marx, or Hegel. Alice Cooper and Alice in Wonderland along with the Mad Hatter. I imagine we had splurged on some wine or beer for that occasion.
We had magic mushrooms, preserved in honey. (On the east coast, they were dried and made into a tea.) We ate them as part of a meal – just can’t remember with what. Then, later at the tavern, we tried playing “pong” – remember this is the early ‘80s. Well, we laughed more than any of us managed to return “the serve.”
The tavern was a birthday party sort of affair. There were several in the neighbourhood – this was a bit more upscale than we usually frequented. No fights, no stripper (the strip bars are another whole story), no terry cloth table tops, no bikers playing pool. I know it wasn’t the Kon Tiki bar (and that is another story, too).
It’s also the week that my husband, then one of my housemates, and I confessed that we loved each other. Despite ourselves. And because of ourselves. It was the week we moved in together in the house we already lived in. Pending all of us being kicked out by the landlord who wanted to renovate and then charge higher rent.
Pagan week. Crazy times. Crazy lives.
And, as an aside: A shares her birthday with my paternal grandfather; I share mine with my maternal grandfather; in looking up some “family lore” about my great uncle Earle who was MIA in WW1, I learned that his brother, Grover, who served from 1914 to 1919, was born on my husband’s birthday. Another set of coincidences – like the 3 of us sharing the same birthday? (word count: 360, paragraph removed: 112)
Another aside: our current landlord (our rental house is on the same property as hers) birthday is in, you guessed it, the first week of November. While she doesn’t share a birthday with my family members, she does have a house in Florida in the same small town as my husband’s mother once had a winter-time trailer . . .
cake image via emojipedia.org
feature image: prettydesigns.com (via search): coffee cake
November 7, 2021 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the nod Lorraine. Great post.
Happy birthday to you. My husband is 66 today.
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November 7, 2021 at 2:02 pm
Happy Birthday to your husband. I always thought the rather large number of birthdays in early November are a result of Valentine’s day being 9 months previously, lol.
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November 7, 2021 at 2:31 pm
Interesting and probably right actually, like September after New Year or nine months after the footie finals!! My worst month for birthdays used to be March but not now as when I left the relationship, most of those ‘relatives’ no longer counted!
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November 12, 2021 at 3:49 am
Yeah for the November relations then.
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November 7, 2021 at 12:04 pm
Reblogged this on Stine Writing and commented:
Ah, November birthdays! They are the best aren’t they? Lol!
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November 7, 2021 at 12:03 pm
So I am curious…what day is your birthday? My mom’s was the 5th, my son’s was the 10th, my best friend’s the 11th, my now husband the 14th, my best friends husband the 1st, my old elementary best friend also the first, and a woman I worked with years ago with my same first and middle name also on the 2nd with me! Oh, let me not forget my good friend on the 4th. I could probably continue to come up with them! Lol. Thanks for participating!
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November 7, 2021 at 2:01 pm
Mine is the 6th. A dear friend is the 12th. Another friend is the 21st. Within my husband’s family, there are two November birthdays, one I believe is sometimes in the first week.
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November 7, 2021 at 11:37 pm
Very popular month for the top of the line citizens! Lol
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November 12, 2021 at 3:48 am
Thanks! Came across another just tonight.
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November 4, 2021 at 8:37 am
I’ve been thinking about you and D. this week since it’s the new month – and well – hey all these Undays 😂😂😂 and lord only knows, my brain is a bit on the frazzled edge, but the precise dates are filed somewhere in the goop – at any rate, what does it matter so much if you “UN?” Still, it’s okay to celebrate as you wish – hopefully with some fine food and beverage of choice – it doesn’t have to be extravagant, but at least a nod in the “wish you may wish you might” direction …. so Happy Unday to you and D. 🎂🎂🎈🎇🎈🎈🎇🎇🎂🎈🎈
As for the slew of birthdays coming up – let’s see, with you + D. that makes 2 + Jules (Paige) = 3 + Trent = 4 + Selma = 5 …. and that’s not counting the above mentioned, nor your LL (whoot! no wonder you come to “crazy” with her sometimes! All that moody, broody scuttling Scorpion ‘darkness’) – and then like wow! yeah, that is such a bizarre string of coinkydinks!!
As for past celebratory moments? Sounds like a blast! And um, yeah, you definitely have me curious about those stories?! (I suspect they’re not for all ears though 😆)
okay, so once again — all happy days – for the “undays” – and may you remember to make some extra special wishes – and my wish for you is that they come true, and that each new day is worthy of something as brilliantly wonderful as you 😃
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