J2: Journalism

"Journalism precipitated my downfall," intoned Zues Mabley, from the highest step of the courthouse in downtown Greun.

Because

I spent all last night talking about being a writer (thanks, Tom) today I have no sentence in me. I do, however, have renewed hope for The Last Place I Looked, Zues Mabley, and Resuscitating the Wren.

I2: Inveterate

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what "inveterate" means. I guess that's my reward for whining about being bored.

Inveterate as my Grandfather was in his views about the latest war, I was equally staunch in my opposition; in the weeks since he'd moved in to our house, my mother had left the kitchen table more than once in tears.

H2: Had

Guh!!

This is boring. I can't wait to dive deep into those lists and swim up with my fist clutched around "heliotrope" like glistening, vitamin-rich seaweed.

Had I only a less rigid plan for this process, I might be feeling more inspired.

Thankfully, it's a gorgeous day, and the fantasy novel is swirling as something that might read nicely for the YA (young adult) crowd.

G2: Great

I do hope the words become more interesting as a move further through the list. I feel like this is an exercise in lowest-common-denominator writing thus far. I mean, seriously. "Good" then "great"?


"Good," she spat, her voice low; I could see the small hairs rise at the back of her neck.

F2: Funny

"Funny," she whispered, as her eyes traced the laundry that crowded the floor.

E2: Episodic

Episodic communication is like sporadic belief: it will never take you where you want to go.

And - should Nate's name be Marshall? Or something like Whit?

D2: Defy

Defy convention?

Defy your parents?

Defy the idea that there is a right way to live a life?

Defy nothing, if you don't wish to stake a claim in your own life.

C2: Can't

I can't stand how boring this is when I'm limited to words like can't. (What a cantankerous curmudgeon I've become!)

B2: Belittle

In light of the week's news, he felt belittled, unwanted, undervalued, spent.

A2: Airport

Wow.
I've smoothly looped the alphabet and returned to "A," only to stumble into "airport" as my word of the day. Do I need to adapt this somehow? Use the word in a sentence rather than necessarily requiring myself to begin each sentence with the word?
Is that a cop-out, or a realistic way to free up the language?

I've driven three times to pick her up at the airport; the third time, she never arrived.

Zipper

"Zipper, pull, zipper, pull," she repeated, her hands on his tiny, midly jointed, innocent little boy hands.


... I do look forward to testing myself on some more agreeably moldable words.
Tomorrow, back to "A."

Usurp

Turns out, I forgot U (in sequence) but luckily had done a quickie that began with "usurp." So:

Usurp not power that you cannot hold; Hold not power you don't deserve.

Does that sound at all like it could be a fantasy novel's key quote?

Friday was a holiday!

I wasn't a slacker! It was a holiday, people. Matt and I were in Gettysburg learning way too much about 1860s war.
Tomorrow: "W." Oh, What Will I say?

Victory

Victory Stefanski was the third daughter of third-generation Polish-immigrant parents; her name was more a weak prayer of acceptance, less a defiant, red-and-blue bouquet.

Unexpected, Usurp

Unexpected news came today: Martha Johnson, the old lady who ran the little store on the way to the cabin, died this morning while sitting in her favorite chair.

Terrible

"Terrible" is the things we do to one another in the name of belief, or the belief that other ideas somehow invalidate our own.

(Forgive the proselytizing, it's just what came to mind!)

Slip

"Slip," she said, as if checking the word off a list; as if something that stunned Erik's eyes with its sliding heen and beauty, something that whispered over his mother's fingers and seemed to call out to be touched, could be reduced to a single syllable, a dismissal from her lips.

Relinquish

Relinquishing some of those ideas -- that you should have driven the whole way last night, that he really does still love you, that your mother is a whore -- is the only path to claiming who you are.

Quince, quantify, quintuplets, quazar

It took me four days to accrue 50(ish) words that begin with "Q," and two days to regain my computer and write a sentence that begins with one.

Quince do not grow here, the crusty old man said, quince come from the valleys outside of town.