Creative Copy Challenge #76
Posted: September 16, 2010 Filed under: Copy Challenges 41 CommentsToday’s words come from Justin Matthews. Great word choices!
BET YOU CAN’T do this writing prompt. Take the 10 random words below and, in the comments, crush writer’s block by creating a cohesive, creative short story tying all of them together! And remember: after (if) you finish, highlight your words and click the bold button to make them stand out and help you determine if you forgot any words. (If you’ve missed previous writing prompts, we BET YOU CAN’T do those, either.)
- Tertiary
- Ephemeral
- Intensive
- Conceited
- Duty
- Snarky
- Get on it
- Nebulous
- Tremendous
- Instantaneous
NOTE: Don’t copy and paste from MS Word. Use a program like notepad that removes formatting or just type in the comment field itself. Also, finish your submission, THEN bold the words. Thanks. (And don’t forget to tweet this and share it with your friends.)
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Resources you should check out:
Thesis: Best Damn Theme on the Web
Collective Ink Well: Personalize Your Thesis Theme
Third Tribe Marketing: Marketing done the right way
Story Structure Demystified: Best damn writing book out there
Writing Prompts - Creative Copy Challenge 
Who is this nebulous, gray-haired person staring back at us in the mirror?
“Not the younger, conceited, get-on-it bastard you used to be,” replied the tertiary voice.
An ephemeral thought of what our younger self looked like flashed over our mind.
Nothing like Just For Men commercials and snarky comments from intensive young-bucks at work to instill tremendous angst within a proud man.
Instantaneous panic sunk in followed by calming indignation.
It was our duty to stand up straight, stick out our chest, and apply the dye.
@Shane-loved it, loved it, loved it-especially the line Instantaneous panic sunk in followed by calming indignation.:-)
@Cathy: Thanks. I’m glad you liked it. Truthfully, it’s hard for me to put my all into my own submissions because usually I’m so busy with other work(and reading the other submissions 🙂 ), thus I’m not always as proud of what I write as I’m sure I would be if I had more time to polish. Just wish I had more time. Don’t we all!
Shane; excelent. Remember – more time is what make you hair turn gray and more often AWOL
@Shane-I can’t imagine what you would come up with if you had more time-I already love your stuff! 🙂
@Cathy: Coming from someone who has some serious writing chops of her own, I’m flattered you would say that. Thank you kindly.
Yep, Shane…getting old’s a bitch and then you die!! My first clue was the first time somebody called me “ma’m….that was a real doggie downer!! If you really want to inflict pain on yourself review your old driver’s licenses, one after another…you go “when did THAT happen?!!
“Sorry, Kal. You’re tertiary.”
My heart sank into the ephemeral fog of depression. Bounce back, Kal. Bounce back, I thought. My teacher had warned me the training would be intensive, the absolute hardest thing I had ever gone through. Something that would test every single limit I thought I had.
Like a conceited, stupid teenager, I thought I could handle it. This was my duty, it was what I was built for – what I was good at. How could he tell me I was…tertiary?
“Well, I guess I won’t need this anymore,” I said, and tossed my protective helmet to the ground. His response to my snarky comment was instantaneous.
“Pick it up recruit.” I bent down to obey and he landed a tremendous blow to the back of my skull. The room swam and a nebulous blackness crept in on the edges of my vision. The copper taste of blood filled my mouth.
My instructor bent down, his angry hot breath hurting my ear. “If you think for one second that you’ll become one of our primary weapons, just because of who your father was, think again. You won’t even be secondary. Tertiary is all you’ll ever be. ” He stood. “Now stand up and do the exercise again. Get on it.”
I sighed, and complied.
Twitter handle: @pfallerj
@Jeff: Welcome to the CCC, man! Excellent 1st submission. I’m glad you made it over here.
Everyone: Jeff just won a contest over at Leah Petersen’s site with this fantastic post. Check it out and welcome Jeff to our addiction.
I’ll add your name and url to our CCC Community Links page next.
Thanks! I’ve been meaning to do this but I thought it was time based and I always thought I missed it. Good to know, now. Thanks again for judging!
@Jeff: No, these challenges stay open for many, many moons, so you’re welcome to do the rest, too.
@Jeff-Welcome to CCC!
CCC is the tertiary symbol for the writer in all of us. This will be no ephemeral addiction you have entered into. The fun is intensive and we are all just a nary bit conceited that we have the best community out there.
Put aside any boring duty you’d rather forget and come on over to CCC again and again. We welcome all – even contest winners – okay, we may have a snarky comment or two, but it is all in good fun. So, get on it, and break out the creative prose. We are waiting to read your best shot and our welcome is warm with no nebulous response.
We know you’ll think CCC is tremendous and you’ll find instantaneous relief from all that ails you.
Welcome to CCC!
@Cathy: Cathy Miller…Word Slayer!!!! 😉 Well done.
Jeff; Welcome. Your piece reminds me of basic training. Nice
Long ago, 65 million years or so, the Cenozoic era began. It means new life and so it was. It began with the Tertiary Period that lasted until almost 2 million years ago.
Certainly not an ephemeral time, the Tertiary Period covered the earth with warmth and intensive rain. Lush forests covered the land and the earth sang with rebirth. Before this time, earth lost its mighty dinosaurs and much of the earth’s life choked into extinction. It was this time where mammals like whales, deer, bats and even the small mouse thrived where the dinosaur could not.
Nearing the end of the tertiary period, the celestial beings blew a cool breath down on earth, plants bloomed, and thick blades of grass carpeted the earth. The earth flourished in conceited delight of abundance. Mountains formed as snow tickled the glaciers, signaling the start of the ice age.
Thus began the second period of Cenozoic, the Quaternary, which is still in place today. The gods wrapped the mammals in thick fur coats as their duty for survival. The time saw the birth of a new kind, as humans developed. The mammals and earth welcomed all and tried not to notice the snarky arrogance of a few.
As more and more arrived, the earth felt the strain with all who tried to get on it for a careless ride. The earth warmed with a fever as it felt the nebulous formation of injury from the tremendous strain. As it fights the battle of its life, the earth’s hope for instantaneous relief lies only in the hands of those who care. Do you care?
@Cathy: Love where you took these words, Cathy. I loved studying these periods and dinosaurs in school. I remember quite well a huge project I did on the whole concept.
@Shane-thanks-yeah, me too, when I saw Tertiary, the long-buried memory just hopped out. 🙂
Cathy;
Absolutely beautiful. I remember those days well, as I was almost bitten by a dinosaur
@A–you are one of the best things about CCC-LOL!! 😀
@Shane-typo alert-it should read: signaling the start of the ice age-not that start- sigh… in your spare time 😉
@Cathy: Fixed.
I care, Cathy…I care…call me a “tree hugger”….wonderfully descriptive and visual. Wrong era, but I envisioned the setting of Avatar.
@Margaret-I know you do-me, too.
“And tertiary,” she continued, as though her first two conceited points were not intensively snarky enough for the tremendous sense of duty she had to be nebulous and ephemeral, “Get on it. Instantaneous.”
Right on Jaced. Short and made sense.
@jaced-now who would believe you could take those 10 and nail it in 2 lines-well done!
@Jaced: Man, I miss your word slaying! So glad you’re back to show people what the short form is all about. I remember those earlier challenges where you and a few others went at it. Such fun that was to watch. Write on.
Thanks, people! It’s great to see CCC still going strong after 76 jams. I’ve missed the energy.
I live my life in a nebulous state of tremendous and intensive ephemeral creativity. I might sound conceited when I tell you that I love being an artist and get an instantaneous rush when I step back and admire one of my gorgeous floral confections.
I feel it my duty, however, to point out that while my right brain always gets intensive use, my soul and spirit and gut instinct come in to join the party and any organizational skills and mundane details are tertiary in the pecking order that governs my life. My friends understand this and love me for my whimsical gypsiness but jealous competitors are quick to make snarky comments about my lack of discipline . I say “get on it” to them to up their game or get off the pot, and “get on it” to myself to work on that left brain stuff that when left unattended sabotages all the accomplishments I am so proud of!
Margaret; Nice word engineering. I can just hear the left side of your brain singing that old song now, “All of me, why not take all of me, Can’t you see, I can’t do without you.”
Now you’ve got me seeing Steve Martin and Lilly Tomlin!
@Margaret-who needs discipline anyway? Right on! 🙂
It was in the middle of the night. It was raining. It was cold. The snarky duty officer approached the sentinel,
“Halt,” demanded the sentinel, “What’s the pass word?” It was an intensive moment.
With a tremendously booming voice, the conceited, tertiary lieutenant answered correctly, “Grandma’s bra.”
“Advance and be recognized,” the sentinel quivered.
The duty officer’s reaction was instantaneous as he advance to within inches of the sentinel’s face. “ Sound off like you have a set of balls soldier,” he continued with the same breath, “This is strategic government property and I don‘t want some namby-pamby, girly sounding twerp guarding it. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir,” returned the sentinel.
It was an ephemeral encounter and as the duty officer walked away, “Now get on it.”
To him it was nebulous and stupid, but the sentinel continued to patrol the perimeter of the garbage dumpster anyway.
The password was indeed secret, A…..was it “victoria’s secret” 🙂
@A-I am so glad to find out our garbage is so well protected. 🙂
Aactually that sentinel patroled the White House, and victoria never had a secret.
thanks all
LIKE THE OLD SAYING GOES…
Do not worry about the concerns of today. The dirty house is an ephemeral concern, for tomorrow it will be a dirtier house.
Nothing is so instantaneous nor so lasting as our dislike of our current cell phone company. Except our certainty that switching will solve all our problems.
The duty of the father, tho’ it change through the years, will always be to take care of the dead rat in the cellar. Get on it, good man.
The smart man watches the news. The wise man watches the trends. The fool regards these as secondary and tertiary guides, for he is far too busy talking to people in the real world. He watches out for his friends, and his friends watch out for him.
A child is a tremendous strain on the day she is born (ow!), a tremendous pain on the day she turns two, a tremendous drain on the finances from twelve through 23, and until she’s 109, always the greatest gain you will ever know.
What is more nebulous than Friday’s paycheck? Easy to doubt its existence when so quickly it blows away.
Take heart, for the endlessly flat economy levels all; today’s conceited college grad, laughing at your beat-up Toyota in traffic, is tomorrow’s snarky McDonald’s worker.
One may never differentiate between a right-leaning Democrat and a left-leaning Republican, intensive though the efforts may be, just as one may never find a rhyme for orange.
@Kelly: You just keep amazing me with your flow and style. Keep writing! That’s an order! 🙂
Thanks to Justin. I absolutely loved where these words took my brain. Silly fun!
Avenged In Blood Part 33
“This is a tremendous opportunity for you Mr. Stamper.” Mueller said. “I respect you for eliminating my competition in this town. Now it is mine.”
I could only be wary under his intensive stare while trying to choke down snarky comments that would probably get me killed. I could not figure out what he wanted from me.
“I know you will blame it on duty, “ he said. “but it was a big deal for me.” Mueller nodded to goon #1. He came over and cut the ropes that bound my hands to the chair. Mueller continued, “I want to offer you a position in my organization. You have particular talents that I could use.”
A tickle of some ephemeral finger of caution wormed its way into my spine. There were going to be…issues. Was “Pipes” Mueller really conceited enough to think that I would take any offer from him? I couldn’t work for him, I wouldn’t. Maybe I could use him in the future, before I destroyed him like I had Cabrese.
“Go on.” I said. He nodded and continued. “Something to drink?” I shook my head. “Fine.” He said. “I want you to work for me. You will be one of my enforcers and…do what you do.” There was just the most nebulous hint of a threat in his voice.
An instantaneous hit of adrenaline made me alert and cocky. “I will never work for you or anyone else. I will not be a tertiary employee of evil men. I will not be used like that. I am an independent contractor. You want me, you work with my rules.”
Mueller sat silently without expression. “You do know who you are talking to don’t you?” He asked. “I do.” I calmly replied. “And that doesn’t scare the bejezzus out of you?” He asked. “No.” I replied meeting his stare. He smiled then. “I like your guts kid.” He said. “Wally, “ He barked at one of the guards behind me. “A drink for me and Mr. Stamper. We have business to discuss. Get on it.”
What was I getting into now???
@Justin: Stamper’s got some jublets for sure! I love this guy.