Any Ben Franklins Out There?

Now that was a fun story!

Thanks to ALL who participated! It was really fun to hear from people who live a distance from our North Carolina, uh, Just Write Office : ) A special thanks to the Bowes Family on the West Coast, who helped keep the last hours of the story hopping! Maybe we'll do it again in 6 months instead of waiting another year....

If you haven't yet read our story (and don't want to wait for the movie), check out the previous post and all the illustrious comments!

I don't want to leave you without a new writing challenge, so here's something you can be chewing on for the next week:

Try your hand at rewriting a well-known expression of wisdom, updating it for today or for your life. Please be very careful to be original and NOT to just use a redone expression you've heard before.

As we often do, we're adding a twist. I will give you the beginning of your saying. The first person who wants to try completing it should

a. Click on "Pencil Scratches"
b. Post the rest of the saying (your way). Start with "...."
c. Add a new "first half" for the next person to complete.
d. (Be careful to use a new "first half" and not one someone else has used.)
e. If these instructions are confusing, look at the "starter" below, then check the first few responses. We've done a few to get everyone started.

Here is the first starter : A bird in the hand.....



Your mind is probably chock-full of wise sayings, but just in case you
need help coming up with a starter, we found a great site with
lots of truisms. They're not all well-known, but you can browse and find that
perfect expression you were trying to remember, or one you'd forgotten about.
(The site includes BIble verses, but please don't rearrange any of those!)
Go to the site, type in a key word or click on a starting letter at the bottom of the page.
http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/wosdirectory.htm

Looking forward to your profound, renovated expressions!

Just - uh - Scouting Out Some Good Writers : )

Okay, I give up. It's getting harder and harder to get words out of you people! Where did you all go?

So, desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Last year, early in the life of this blog, we all collaborated on a continuous story. Folks around here have been asking for another one.

If you helped out with that story, you might remember that we ended up extending our deadline by four days, and by the time it was over we had 75 entries and a pretty crazy-fun story!

We did have some rules, and I think they worked out well, so I am going to use the same ones again. Here they are, with new dates:

1. I get to start it.

2. Try to keep it unified. Let's keep characters to a few, and events well coordinated (in other words, try to keep the story following some logical sequence). Having said that, you can still surprise us, it can take twists and turns, and it can definitely be funny!

3. Unique handicap: (This is a rule.) You can only add one sentence at a time (but you can add a short exclamation such as Oh! along with your sentence), and your sentence must start with the letter the last person's sentence ended with.

4. You can post as many times as you want, but you cannot post just after your last addition. You have to let there be 2 sentences in between each of your turns.

5. I guess it needs an end, so we'll set this deadline to end the story: Thursday, April 24th. If you really, really want to have the final word, you may have to stay up late, because on the 25th the party's over.

(Hope you read these carefully, because if you don't follow the rules, I have to (oh no!) DELETE your comment. Sorry....)

And by the way, if you want to go back and read our masterpiece from last year, go to the April 19, 2007, post, titled Hope You Don't Mind, Snoopy) .. or click here.

Ready for your opening sentence? (Do I hear a drum roll?)

Once again, we will borrow our opening line (loosely) from one of the masters:

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem broke his arm.