This meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Words for Wednesday are now provided by a number of people and has become a moveable feast.
Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given a choice of prompts,which can be words, phrases, music or an image. What we do with them is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem or treating them with ignore. We can use some or all of the prompts.
Some of us put our creations on the post and others post on their own blog. I would really like as many people as possible to join the meme, which includes cheering on other participants (definitely the more the merrier). If you are posting on your own blog, please let me know so that I, and the other participants, can come along and applaud.
The prompts are here this month.
This week's prompts are:
- Sunless,
- Drawn,
- Forgotten,
- Brisk,
- Thousand,
- Gold,
And/or
- Delicate,
- Walk,
- Aggressive,
- Word,
- Witch,
- Stop,
Have fun.
WANTED:
ReplyDeleteDEAD OR ALIVE
1000 PIECES OF GOLD TO THE MAN WHO CAPTURES THE WITCH OF DINGLEY DELL!!!
My word, that IS an impressive reward. Sherriff Dutton is getting quite aggressive about it. A girl can't go for a walk in any direction without seeing dozens of them plastered on every tree and every building.
It seems to run in his family. I think it was his grandfather (or possibly his great grandfather) who first started agitating about witches. His plans came to a rapid stop when my familiar and I visited him one sunless day.
Mind you, the picture on the posters is so badly drawn that no-one would ever recognise me. I am a delicate, dainty and beautiful little thing, not the huge and ugly old woman with warts that his 'artist' has drawn. I think I will just ignore him, and see just how long it takes for all this to be forgotten. Again...
Excellent! Witches always get a bad rap.
DeleteIf she is keeping to herself and harming no one, he needs to mind his own bees wax, as we used to say.
DeleteYou do this so well, Sue, I am almost intimidated. But I will give it a shot in the morning.
DeleteDavid M. Gascoigne: Intimidated? You? I hope you never feel that way. Your writing and that of so many people who play this game frequently humbles and awes me.
DeleteExcellent!!!!!! Big Hugs EC!
DeleteLove what you did with the words :)
DeleteWell written EC! And thanks for the propmts. I so hope to use them.
DeleteCharlotte (MotherOwl): I really, really hope you can. I love your continuing story.
DeleteI did it, not very well, or indeed interesting, but here's my Words for Wednesday
DeleteWow, such a price on that delicate witch's head. Well done.
DeleteCharlotte (MotherOwl): I have read and thoroughly enjoyed your Words for Wednesday. Like so many of us you are far too hard on yourself.
DeleteJulia: Thank you - and it is lovely to see you in the blogosphere again.
DeleteLove it! You wove the words together seamlessly.
DeleteI wonder why witches are so often depicted as old and ugly. If I had magic powers I'd give myself a bit of a magical makeover!
Ha! Love it. The sheriff will be looking for a long time...
DeleteDiane Henders: He will - as his grandfather and great grandfather did.
DeleteThis is great! I love the "again". Life tends to be circular at times.
Delete"Stop, witch A word if you please."
ReplyDeleteThe delicate looking woman in black paused and watched the official approaching with an aggresive swagger.
In the sunless dawn she realized she had forgotten how long it had been since she had walked in the golden light of a sunny day or, for that matter, how long anyone had walked these streets without being accosted.
Briskly, she turned to the officer. "A thousand pardons good sir if I have breached protocol."
Her manner appeared to take the wind out of his sails.
Let's hope she puts him in his place and he stays there.
Deleteonly slightly confused: I really like this. I suspect the witches polite manner is the silk glove over than iron fist though. That official had better be careful...
DeleteWho can deal with a polite witch.
DeleteGreat write!
DeleteWell written. It sounds like the beginning of an intriguing story.
DeleteFab. I suspect he's in more danger than he knows.
DeleteI think witches are more polite than not. Like life__one bad apple and all that!
DeleteThanks. Good luck every one
ReplyDeleteCloudia: Not playing this week? Sigh.
DeleteGood write-up, Sue!
ReplyDeleteThe Happy Whisk: Thank you.
DeleteThese are really good words. Later.
ReplyDeleteSusan Kane: I am really, really looking forward to seeing where they take you.
DeleteSiempre que sea para promocionar la lectura y la escritura, me parece una excelente iniciativa.
ReplyDeleteSaludos.
Manuel: Thank you. Perhaps you will join us some week? You would be very welcome.
DeleteYou sent me off to fairy-land with these words. They will be up as usual at midnight my time, and i'll try to link directly then.
ReplyDeletemessymimi: I am soooo looking forward to you always positive take on the prompts.
DeleteA thousand forgotten souls, trapped on an island, drawn by the allure of gold, moved briskly toward the sunless sea.
ReplyDeleteAlex J. Cavanaugh: I really like this - gold has stolen far too many souls over the years.
DeleteVEry clever Alex. I liked it.
DeleteConcise and beautiful! Great job.
DeleteGold, the love of, or lust for the possession of changes a base metal doesn't it.
Delete
ReplyDeleteSunless, night is
drawn over a day
forgotten.
Brisk memories swirl and gleam,
a thousand pieces
of gold,
/This is exquisite.
DeleteElizabeth Varadan, Author: Susan Kane is right. This is an incredibly beautiful use of my prompts. Thank you.
DeleteBeautiful!!!
DeleteGorgous. Memories are indeed as beautiful and precious as gold.
DeleteLovely!
DeletePS: Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Varadan, Author: It was my pleasure.
DeleteLife is not delicate, was Lizzy's thought. No, she decided, life is aggressive. It walks, no strides, around her. No words could describe the swirl of time within her. No, Lizzy decided, this will never stop. When one is a witch, nothing ever stops.
ReplyDeleteSusan Kane: Lizzie is right. Life is very rarely delicate and sometimes a bulldozer. I hope that Lizzie finds peace within that perpetual swirl.
DeleteAs Grandpa says, "It's a great life if you don't weaken."
DeleteLife has an ebb and flow, though sometimes the flow is upstream with no paddle while wearing weight.
DeleteLoved all the reading! Thanks EC! Hope you are safe and well! Big Hugs!
ReplyDeleteMagic Love Crow: As always, huge thanks for your support. We are fine and I hope you are too. Hugs to you as well.
DeleteDelicate and aggressive together? I'll see what I can do.
ReplyDeleteRiver: I have every confidence in you.
DeleteBravo EC, excellent.
ReplyDeleteMargaret D: Thank you.
DeleteEven though it was a sunless day, he wondered why she had not drawn the curtains. It was her habit to open them the first thing every morning.Perhaps she was sleeping in, or maybe she got busy doing something else and had just forgotten them, or maybe there was something wrong and she needed help. No she's fine he thought, but that was offset by the brisk notion that something was amiss. Then, as a thousand hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention, he felt something ominous or even sinister might be happening.
ReplyDeleteHe saw her only the day before. She was wearing a sundress, bare feet and a tiny gold pendant around her delicate neck. Her hands were filled with cut flowers from her yard and there was nothing to indicate anything unusual. As always, they exchanged greetings, a little small talk and she smiled at him with her infectious grin, but that was about all they ever did, unless he was walking his dog and then she always made it a point to pet Winston and ooh and ahh over him.
Why could he not shake this feeling? It made no sense , still he couldn't help himself. He began to walk down the sidewalk toward her house, but with each step his mind kept screaming louder and louder and his walk became faster and more aggressive until he was in a full run.
As he got closer he heard a strange noise coming from her back yard and leapt over the gate at full speed. When he rounded the corner of her house and could fully see the yard, he came to a complete halt. He stood without saying a single word as he saw her standing with a long wooden paddle stirring a cauldron over an open fire.There were bundles of dried herbs and some dark glass bottles with dropper tops.
"Oh my God", he thought to himself. "She's a witch."
She saw him standing there and said "Hey John"
He was caught somewhere between curiosity and sheer panic, but he did manage to say "Hello Melinas" Why had he never realized before her name even sounded like a witch's name. He stumbled over his words, before saying "I heard noise and thought you might need help so I came running over."
"Perfect timing" she said. "How about handing me those lavender buds. I think the soap is just about ready for me to add them."
And, feeling like an idiot, he thought "She's making soap? I gotta stop watching horror movies"
Anne in the kitchen: Big smiles. Mind you, even witches (or some of them) use soap...
DeleteI tried something different this time and used the words in the order they were listed. The tale is different from what I would have come up with if I had written something using the words randomly. Oh well. I do love the open end though. is she a witch or not? only she knows
DeleteI think witches as a whole get a bad rap. Which reminds me, it's sadly been a long time since I made soap.
DeleteNot all witches use soap I don't think, not the ones with the hooked warty noses.
DeleteSoap making is pure magic!
DeleteHeeheehee! What a relief! Fun story.
DeleteLove it! What a great twist! :-)
DeleteThanks EC for this week's words:
ReplyDelete"These sunless days she always felt drawn, her face dry … and now forgotten as Covid19 drags on … why can’t it get on with it and briskly pass. Oh for a thousand pieces of gold she’d wish it away. The world needs its compassion back – considering one and all – not leaving people hidden away in statistical numbering."
Take care and all the best - Hilary
Hilary Melton-Butcher: Hear, hear. I really, really want to see compassion replace statistics and economics.
DeleteYou take care too please.
The only thing I could hope for from this mess is that people would develop a bit more compassion. They didn't have much to spare before it started.
DeleteI have found people with compassion lately. They have been volunteers and have helped me tremendously.
DeleteHow i hope this whole thing changes society for the better.
DeleteHopefully we are learning the lessons of compassion we are meant to learn.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWith it being a short week...that's my excuse, anyway...I’d forgotten it was Wednesday...and the word is Wednesday’s Words should have been attended to by me, and submitted, a thousand and more minutes ago!
One quick glance in my mirror told me to brush my hair before going for a brisk walk around the yard. I looked like a drawn, old witch. If my neighbours saw me looking the way I did they’d definitely stay at arm’s length! They’d probably run off screaming!
I gave myself an aggressive scolding as I tidied up my appearance. I knew I shouldn’t have slept in so late, but I had been feeling a little delicate after a very late night. On top of that, I wasted most of the day just fiddling around, not doing anything of importance.
My feelings of lethargy came to a full stop when I saw rays of gold finally beginning to poke through what had been for most of the day a sunless sky.
Being an ornery and generally not very sociable old owl, I'd be fine with the neighbors running off screaming at the sight of me. My neighbors aren't awfully fussy, though, so they never do.
DeleteI'd rather they ran screaming than just ignored me LOL.
DeleteThe Ornery Old Lady...you sound similar to me! lol I steer clear of my neighbours, and don't go seeking their company...I'm a very reclusive soul..by choice...and love being so! :)
DeleteLee: I love it. And do most of my wandering outside early where I don't scare the horses (of my neighbours).
DeleteAh, the lethargy is quite understandable if you were up late and the day is gray.
DeleteI think lethargy is a natural by product of this current self imprisonment, I mean distancing.
DeleteCobbled together with possibly a run on sentence:)
ReplyDeleteDue to this sunless day with its brisk, raw wind shooting a thousand darts in my bare skin, I look drawn and haggard. I’ve also forgotten what the gold lining is in this ghastly weather. I've apparently forgotten my metals as well, since I meant silver.
Ha--I look drawn and haggard on my best day. I've always thought the "lining" of clouds tends to look more gold than silver.
DeleteSandra: Big smiles. Like The Ornery Old Lady I look drawn and haggard on a good day - and much prefer silver to gold.
DeleteWell told! A gold lining would be more fun.
DeleteThis made me smile. I used the word "drawn" in a similar context.
DeleteIt is spring here bordering one summer so the days of looking drawn are gone for a little while. But they will return and so will that look!
DeleteWhen first I was imprisoned by Covid-19, it didn't seem so bad. After we all, we have to put a STOP to the spread of this awful pandemic. And at that time we weren't in total lockdown and I could still get out for a BRISK WALK. It was such a welcome escape from this tiny SUNLESS little apartment.
ReplyDeleteI had almost FORGOTTEN how thrilled I was when I first signed the lease on this place. I was independent at last, able to make my own decisions, without the judgemental sneers of that WITCH of a stepmother I had to deal with. Where my dad's head was when he hooked up with her is beyond my comprehension. He and I get along so well and I love him, and I thought I might have a WORD with him about it, but really, what's the point? Maybe it's just that stepdaughters and stepmothers are not fated to get along in any kind of DELICATE fashion. I just wish she wasn't so AGGRESSIVE though, jumping on every little thing if it's not quite to her liking.
In any event this little bastion of independence to which I was DRAWN has become a bit of a dungeon. I realize that countless others are in the same position as I am, but that doesn't do much to raise my spirits. I thought that having my own place was pure GOLD. Now I wish a THOUSAND times I was back home with that huge garden to roam around, sit in, smell the flowers, listen to the birds.
It would even be worth dealing with the wicked WITCH if I could have that again!
Excellent use of the words! I have a mobile home which I thought was wonderful when I first got it, but now it's a horrible millstone that I'm trying to sell.
DeleteOh yes, a garden is a wonderful thing - almost worth an evil stepmom ;)
DeleteDavid M. Gascoigne: I love it. I am endlessly grateful for my step-motherfree garden.
DeleteVery clever. It sounds like the beginning of a contemporary Cinderella retelling.
DeleteHow i wish you could have moved back home for the duration. It's awful to not be able to go out at all.
DeleteWonderful use of the words and a timely tale!
DeleteBravo!
DeleteThe second sentence should start "after all" not "after we all."
ReplyDeleteDavid M. Gascoigne: I read it that way to begin with.
DeleteI've got a snarling, seething bit of poetry this week. So for those who prefer their poetry pretty, best give this one a miss.
ReplyDeleteBlue Dream
The Ornery Old Lady: Thank you for joining us. There was definitely been days (and will again) when I sing the chorus to your angry poem.
DeleteI have a friend who emails me now and again and signs if from Cell 127.
ReplyDeleteJo: Ouch. I hope your friend can escape from time to time.
DeleteRight now my mind is a blank. Later I hope.
ReplyDeleteJo: Not a problem. I hope you can join us - but thank you for cheering us on.
DeleteWonderful words! Thank you. You can find my flash-fiction piece hre: https://curiousdaydreams.com/2020/04/15/words-for-wednesday-forgotten/
ReplyDeleteAnstice Brown: I love it. The world NEEDS witches like yours.
DeleteThis one is mainly for Sue.
ReplyDeleteAlcalador sat in his sunless cave and settled down among the thousands of gold treasures on which he liked to sleep. The world had presumably forgotten his existence and he could sleep in happy contentment. Before he could drop from somnolence into sleep, he heard delicate footsteps outside – he called stop but whoever approached continued to do so in a more aggressive manner. Was this someone who was drawn to the rumours of great wealth, he hoped not but had had to deal with such before. Eventually a figure appeared in the entrance to the cave and he uttered one word, “Witch” for he recognized her, she had been to visit him many eons before. “We have to have a talk about what is going on in the world, which only we can fix, Alcalador” she said. She approached him at a brisk pace and sat between his giant legs, he debated whether to roast her to a crisp but decided to listen to what she had to say, the world could well be in trouble.
Jo: I love it. And yes, the world does indeed need that dragon and that witch.
DeleteI couldn't read the last part of version one; I guess that shows my preferred ending. There are so many forms of family violence...
ReplyDeleteKim: I am so sorry. And yes, there are far too many forms of family violence.
DeleteI really like the variety of entries this week. Here's my effort:
ReplyDeleteIn a foul mood Jem hacked his way down the long FORGOTTEN lane to WITCH End. SUNLESS, dank and gloomy even in high summer, the old way was now engulfed by a THOUSAND brambles and was now almost impassable in places. How different from his childhood days, when he would WALK along to birdsong and rabbits scampered ahead along the well-trodden way. He took an AGGRESSIVE swipe at the over-arching saplings sprouting thickly along the high banks, blocking out the sunlight. ‘Right,’ he muttered grimly, ‘It’s time to STOP this decline and bring the old way back to its former glory.’ He spun around and set off at as BRISK a pace he could manage back to his cottage.
By the time his mug of tea was brewed Jem had DRAWN a picture in his mind and had the beginnings of a plan. First, he would send WORD around the village asking for volunteers. He reckoned that after a summer of clearance and hard pruning, followed by some judicial Autumn planting, the old way would be alive again with nature’s GOLD - clumps of daffodils and DELICATE primroses, butterflies and bees, and maybe, in time, perhaps even a rabbit or two.
SpikesBestMate: Loud applause. This is lovely and I really, really hope that Jem's plans succeed.
DeleteThank you so much. I am really enjoying the Wednesday challenges and look forward to reading all the submissions. You have some really talented followers.
DeleteSpikesBestMate: The contributors (yourself included) make this meme wonderful.
Delete