Welcome to the first edition of Cavalcade of Words. This is a new diary series for the Readers & Book Lovers group, which I first announced in this diary from last Wednesday.
This is a diary series for writers, or those who wish to be writers. There will be an alternating format between two different writing exercises. The first is named 100 Words and the second is named 5 Words.
Go below the fold, and I will explain the first exercise, which is debuting this week.
100 Words (or Drabbles, which Ellid has advised me is an alternate name for the exercise) is very simple.
The primary diarist chooses a theme. Everyone else then takes that theme, and writes about it. You can write an essay, a poem, a story; whatever. The format is up to you. One thing: Your entry must be exactly 100 Words; no more, no less.
Here's an example. Let's say the theme is Coffee. The following is an entry which is exactly 100 Words:
My morning cup of joe
Hot steaming and bitter
Much like the land
Which loins produced the beans
Plucked dried and roasted
Shipped driven and delivered
Just around the corner from my house.
Were the beans picked during an interlude
In an ongoing civil war or
As a substitute for some illicit crop?
Did the farmers have to sell their beans
Through a coffee coyote, skimming all but
Subsistence off the top or
Were they able to cut out the middle man
And to keep more for themselves?
What do I care, so long as the coffee
Soothes my soul.
Tip: I used MS Word, which has a word counter incorporated. Makes life easier. I wrote my entry on Word, and then just copy and pasted to Cavalcade of Words.
Write your entry, and then post it into the comments. Name it or don't as you like. Since all writers don't have the same schedule, I (as the initial diarist) will monitor comments until Thursday at noon. After that, I (atid) will choose the entry which I like the best, and will notify the entrant through the DK messaging system. That person will be responsible for choosing the next theme to be written on.
If you read last Wednesday's diary, you know what the theme is for this week. If you didn't, here it is:
them
The word (and concept of) them is to me one of the most interesting and dangerous in human language. Which makes the writing possibilities endless.
It's up to you now; show me what you've got. And have fun.
8:20 AM PT: We will be accepting entries until Thursday at noon.