NS: Getting a Letter

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Velyrhorde encouraged me firmly to post this challenge over here (actually, she threatened to sic a velyr on me. lol)--I've done it many a time, it's suitable for any fandom. This is one of my favorite writing exercises and it's really fun and easy to do. Just write a story with only 26 sentences, each starting with a letter of the alphabet. You can go A through Z or start anywhere in the middle. Anyone game to try?

What's even more fun, don't think too much about it--just choose a letter, think of a word and keep going from there.

I started with J!


"Joshua Smith," Heyes said politely, tipping his hat in a friendly gesture to the woman running the post office.

Kid stood stiffly beside his partner, feeling like he was back in school when the woman peered at him over the top of her spectacles.

"Let me see…" she said, flipping through a pile of envelopes on her desk. "Must be here somewhere. Nope… Oh, wait!" Pushing her glasses up her nose, she slid a ragged, smudged envelope out from under another stack. "Quite dirty. Registered letter to Mr. J. Smith and Mr. T. Jones."

"So, do I owe you anything?" Heyes asked, holding out a few coins.

"Thaddeus Jones, that would be me," Kid said, making a grab for the letter, containing what he hoped was money to bankroll he and Heyes on a job for McCreedy.

"Unusual, seeing a Smith and a Jones together."

"Very common names," Heyes said, smiling broadly. "What do I owe you, ma'am?"

"'Xactly two cents, Mr. Smith," she said, taking two pennies. "You have a pleasant afternoon, now!"

"Zounds, am I glad to get out of there!" Heyes muttered, leading the way to the nearest saloon. "Any money inside the envelope?"

"Bountiful McCreedy," Kid said happily, revealing four hundred dollars. "Cash to get us to the border so we can talk to Armendez again."

"Don't tell me, the bust of Caesar again?" Heyes groaned. "Ever think this is a bad dream?"

"Forget the bust, Heyes. Get me a beer, it's a deed to a silver mine."

"Hallelujah!" Heyes cried, waving at the bartender. "I'd like two beers!"

Comments

[velyrhorde.livejournal.com]

And I still say this is a great writing exercise! I'm so glad you decided to share it with us.

Of course, now the velyr are sad because they love tormenting mingling with their livejournal friends. However, as they are obnoxious lil sods, I only use them for people who need annoying

I'm looking forward to some Alphabet Drabbles, Alphabet Short Shorts, Alphabet Poems, or Alphabet Slash!

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Thanks--lj screwed up my earlier reply. I had originally challenged myself to write this little story as quickly as possible--like under a half an hour including edits, but RL interrupted big time last night.

ASJ works well with the alphabet game since there are two H names and three J names!

[velyrhorde.livejournal.com]

And by the way - hilarious alphabet story!

[velyrhorde.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah --- forgot to mention, heh! The actual pronoun for a velyr is it! We are gender-nonspecific cyberbeings, and you never know which one is actually doing the writing. *gives a very evil grin full of little pointy fangs*

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

duly noted. ;-)

[velyrhorde.livejournal.com]

Yah, we're weaselly lil buggers we is!

[hardboiledbaby]

Hallelujah, indeed! Cute one, Dawn :)

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

You know they'd probably just manage to lose that silver mine somehow. They were not meant to be rich. Thanks, baby.

[velyrhorde.livejournal.com]

Naw ... they'll start mining and find it's not a silver mine after all. Or they'll hit an underground stream and end up with a bottomless swimming hole. Or ...