I'll take the other thing.

[in_the_blue]

I miss the days when I used to host writing challenges right here in this very journal.

So. Now that the seventh Harry Potter book has been written... I think it's time for a different kind of writing challenge. I used to host the short-short ficlets, 300 words or less, open fandom.

Today, I'm going OC. And that doesn't stand for Orange County: it stands for original character.

Ready? 3, 2, 1, let's... get inspired to write original fiction, folks. The theme for the challenge is change: take 500 words to introduce an original character and demonstrate some measure of change for him, for her, for it.

---

Rules:

• Fandom: original only


• Word count: 500 or less


• Main theme: change


• Ratings: No restrictions.


• Duration: Challenge opens now (August 30) and closes at 11:59 p.m. in whatever time zone you inhabit on Wednesday, September 5.

Post your ficlets as comments to this entry. Feel free to do as few or as many as you want, and if you see one you really like, be sure to leave a review or a comment. Remember, original fic only. I'll crack my knuckles and get going as soon as I get a few hours' sleep.

---

NOTE: All ficlets in comments here are the property of their respective writers. Consider them copywritten with all rights reserved. If you want to quote, copy, or redistribute, please get the author's permission first. Otherwise, I'll have to lock this down. Thanks.

Comments

506 words: Original.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

“Please?” she asked, every day of their stay in Maine.

And each day, he just shook his head and made plans to do something else. Something that would take them off of the small island and into the park, onto the mainland, on the ocean, at the shops in Freeport, even.

He’d do it just to distract her. He was a doctor, a successful doctor with an over-busy practice and not nearly enough time to breathe, much less take this vacation. He’d pay for it later in overbooking, days and days of fifteen-minute-or-less appointments. To relocate here?

That would be career suicide.

Still, he did have to admit that he loved it here. Every time they came on vacation, he toyed with the idea, never voicing it aloud, of staying. His wife did more than toy with the idea, openly talking about how nice it would be to raise children here, how quiet and peaceful it was. She was an artist, and he knew that she got most of her inspiration for the entire year on their month-long stays in the small island community.

She often ended these speeches with a single word. “Please?”

And he couldn’t tell her no, but he could dismiss the idea as impractical, too impractical to merit more than an incredulous shake of his head. She’d sigh, and that would be the end of it for another day.

Even if he did feel guilty for it, even if he did ask himself each day why he wanted to go back to the practice so badly. He didn’t even know most of his patients’ names, couldn’t name more than one or two when he was away from the office.

As the end of the month approached, along with their departure date, he felt more and more depressed. Why didn’t he stay? he asked himself. Why couldn’t he?

He couldn’t answer those two questions. Money wasn’t really an issue. It wasn’t like there was much time to make a life back where he had his practice. They’d put off having children time and time again, and they’d been married ten years. He always had to work.

Why couldn’t he try it here?

His wife came out and sat on the chair beside him on the shoreline, and together they gazed out over the stormy blue sea. “It would be so nice to live here,” she sighed.

“Mmmhmm,” he said, noncommittally.

She sighed again, and didn’t speak. He wondered if she’d finally given up, if the heart had gone out of her speeches after a month of trying. He looked over at her.

“You know,” he began, “they don’t have a doctor at all over here in the winter months.”

“That’s so.”

“It’s got to be hard trying to get over to the main island when someone’s sick. And it’s got to be scary for parents with children.”

Silence. He heard nothing but his wife’s steady breathing and the lap of waves against the shore.

Then: “Please?” Her voice was trembling a little.

“Yes.”

Re: 506 words: Original.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

See? Shelle (no "seashell" pun intended), you are so good at this kind of thing. It's only 506 words and you already gave us a past and an uncertain present -- what is this relationship like? what's the marriage like? do they have anything at all in common? -- and a future. I don't care that there aren't names and I don't care that we don't know more than we do about the circumstances of their lives. Write it. Write more of it.

Re: 506 words: Original.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

*beams* I'll have to. Now they're in my head.

Thanks *so* much, from the bottom of my heart. ;)

Re: 506 words: Original.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

You know, if you haven't read The Time Traveler's Wife yet, I think you'd really love it. Stylistically, this made me think of that work.

(And I really liked that book for the most part.)

Re: 506 words: Original.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Thanks G! I'll have to try that book out. ;)

FABULOUS!

[slaversbane.livejournal.com]

My hands are still shaking from the tension. I found myself rubbing my forehead as if I had to make this descision!

I CAN HAS MORE???!!

Dammit. I was saying yes when she said please the last time.

You got me. Now I have 3 hooks in my mouth...more to come I imagine

Re: FABULOUS!

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

*beams* I'm so very glad you enjoyed it! And as I told G, now they're in my head, they'll make all sorts of racket till I write them!

*has totally not been researching, nope...yes, I have*

DOOO EEET!

[slaversbane.livejournal.com]

Lasso up, write 'em down, ride 'em out, move 'em up, tie 'em down... rawhide. *whipcrack*

Can't wait to see more!

Re: 506 words: Original.

[govcampbell.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I loved the tension, it was really poignant.

Re: 506 words: Original.

[acusa-dora.livejournal.com]

I really like that you can feel his dissatifaction with his life--it's so real. I just wonder if after 10 years of putting his marriage off, what will it be like when they do have time together?

Re: 506 words: Original.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

*grins* I wonder, too. :) They've both got some changes to make, don't they?

Re: 506 words: Original.

[proudofthefish.livejournal.com]

Woah this was really cool

Re: 506 words: Original.

[arasnaem.livejournal.com]

Yay! That was my reaction at the very end of this piece. It actually reminded me of Everwood, if he had agreed to move before his wife died.

Excellent piece showing the willingness to change--both for others, and for ourselves.

Re: 506 words: Original.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

I knew he woudl dl it. :)This made me feel all warm and fuzzy.