If it's the 17th, that can only mean a WRITING CHALLENGE!

[in_the_blue]

Third month in a row. Ready, set, get out those pens and/or fingers to the keyboard...

Here's this month's loosely-defined DRABBLE challenge and the guidelines.

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Rules (remember, they're more like guidelines):

• Fandom: any, so long as it's one you know well.


• Word count: 300 or less


• Main theme: the concept of empty or emptiness.


• Ratings: No restrictions.


• Duration: Challenge opens today and closes at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, June 25. Just for fun.

Post your drabbles as comments to this entry. And yes, please comment on other peoples' work. Feedback is a reader's gift to a writer.

On your mark, get set... go.

Comments

[sylveraven.livejournal.com]

This is unbeta'd. I apologise. Forgive me. But I had to give it a go, as the theme fits so well with LC's mood at present.

Title: Revelation
Fandom: Forever Knight
Character: LaCroix (who else?)
Summary: LC torments his listening audience. As per usual.
Word Count: ...I don't know. My word count doesn't work, and I kept losing count past 100... I doubt it's more than 300 though. Count it, if you like.

There is a soft click-hiss as the microphone turns on, and the Nightcrawler leans forward, ready to begin.

"A relatively unheard of Spanish philosopher* once said that life means to have something definite to do - a mission to fulfill - and in the measure in which we avoid setting our life to something, we make it empty. Human life, by its very nature, has to be dedicated to something. So what are you dedicated to, Gentle Listeners? A better life, a better future? More money, toys, sex, and all of the above? A life spent with the purpose of gather more possessions, more wealth, more fame. Tangible evidence that you are not empty. That you are something more.

"You are not fooling anyone. You are still empty. Floating from moment to moment, existing in a world of store-bought comforts. The gaping chasm of uselessness within you has so filled you with your own pain and loneliness that you are incapable of action. You live a life without purpose, without meaning, surrounded by false friends and meager accomplishments. You name will not go down in history. You will not be remembered. Ten years after your death, only your children will mourn you. Ten years after their death, you will be forgotten. An existence of materialism and pointless actions, forgotten in two generations. An eternity, gone in the blink of an eye."

LaCroix trails off, and the microphone clicks off without a thought. He leans back, pressing steepled fingers against his bottom lip as he stares out at the writhing crowd on the Raven dancefloor, without seeing. An eternity... 2,000 years, gone in the blink of an eye.

Never truer words were spoken.


*this would be Jose Ortega y Gasset. Read his work. It's great happy fun!

[lucius-lacroix.livejournal.com]

So, I went back and tried again, and I came up with a word count of 282. So ha! Just to prove that it really was less than 300 words.

Or something.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Word count is mostly relative. Guidelines, you know?

I had to read this one about 4 times. It's very... humbling from a character standpoint.