New Writing Game to Keep Me Sane

My day job is soul-crushingly boring these days, and uses up about 2 hours of my 8 hour time there as well as using only about .005 percent of my brain power.

In this economy and in these times I need to be thankful for work even as I try to figure out a way to get better employment for myself between now and fall of 2010 – at which I point I hope to get into a Theatre Ph.D. program. However, I need to find a way to not go absolutely bugfuck crazy while at my current job. So I have a new game to play.

Simply give me a title for a story and I’ll write either a short story or, more likely, a piece of flash fiction (under 1000 words). I will then post the story on Living the Liminal and dedicate it to the person who suggested the title. The majority of these stories will be either science fiction, fantasy, or horror because those are the story forms I most often read and write, although I may branch out to other genres if the inspiration strikes.

I have two titles already suggested from people on Facebook: “The Devious Astrolabe” (Joya) and “staring into a person’s neck hole can be a form of intimacy” (Kris). I’m currently writing “The Devious Astrolabe” and it’s turning out to be a longer story than I expected so I’ll be serializing that one here for the next couple of days.

A note about quality. I’m not aiming for it. Or, rather, I’m not going to be taking time to do rewrites on these stories before I upload them here. Some will probably be worthy of further development, but what you are going to be reading in this series will be very raw and definitely first draft material. Still, I hope they will provide you some amusement and enjoyment. Feel free to leave comments about what you do or don’t like.

So, that’s the game. I look forward to your titles and hope this will be fun for all.

On this day..

• Food Policies Designed to Make Us Unhealthy - 2010
• The Devious Astrolabe, Part 1 - 2009
• New Wilco Album - 2007