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Came across an interesting storytelling game this week, it’s called Five Card Flickr and has been pretty fun to play so far.
Basically you go to the site and it deals you a hand of random pictures from Flickr, you pick one and then it keeps dealing you another set until you’ve chosen five pictures. Once you’ve got all five then the challenge is to tell a story that features all of them.
Here’s the set of pictures that I ended up with and the story I made from it:
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HOW PSYCHEDELIC COFFEE CHANGED MY LIFE
My heart froze when I turned the corner and saw the long yellow strips pasted across the cafeteria door. ‘BIOHAZARD – STAY OUT’ The words stuck in my brain but I didn’t seem to fully understand them.
Through the glass window in the door I could see chairs and tables overturned in chaos with people in biohazard suits moving slowly between them. I pounded on the door and screamed ‘Hey! Hey! What’s happening??’ to the nearest person in there but he just looked at me and slowly shook his head.
I thought back to the coffee that I’d had earlier …the cafeteria coffee. It had looked kind of funny hadn’t it? The surface of the coffee did seem a bit too swirly and there was an unnatural sheen to it. but it had tasted fine hadn’t it?
Or maybe it didn’t, I couldn’t really remember because I was too stressed out flipping through library books trying to find an idea to steal for the wretched ART 112 final. I had always been embarrassingly bad at art and the idea of my GPA hinging on a single art test filled me with dread.
But of course I might not ever be able to take that test, I thought, my life could end that night or even sooner. I didn’t know what else to do so in my panic I started off running towards my dorm room. On the way the things around me started to bubble and swirl, it was like the whole world was being twisted around me in a fiery dance.
I stumbled down the hallway bumping into people and pushing my way forward past everyone who was laughing or cursing at me or who knows what else. Finally with both hands I grabbed the doorknob and wrangled the door open and closed as fast as I could.
By this time I could baredly see anything as my sight was squickly fading into blackness. I collapsed at my desk and the words of my thoughts built up around me. ‘Oh God,’ I thought, ‘will I ever be able to become a teacher of inner-city children?’
My grades were so bad that I always assumed if I didn’t graduate from college it’d be my own fault, not because of something random like a tainted cup of coffee. My thoughts went on like this until my heart finally lost hope and I passed out.
I woke up to the sun rising and with the most intense headache of my life. Even worse my hands felt arthritic and locked up, what the hell? The desk in front of me was completely empty except for an exacto knife and a small speck.
I picked up the speck in disbelief, it was …a coffee bean. Except it wasn’t a regular coffee bean, it had been intricately whittled down and carved into the shape of a tribal mask. The level of detail was absolutely incredible, I couldn’t believe that my own hands could actually make something like that and yet there it was.
I had survived the night and ended up surviving all my days afterwards too. The biology class experiment that tainted the food in the cafeteria was bad enough to make headline news but it was taken care of with a somewhat miserable week’s stay in the hospital.
And my art final? I passed with flying colors thanks to the intricate coffee bean mask which dazzled my teacher to no end. I never was nervous about doing art again after that and took this confidence into my career and newfound passion: teaching art to inner-city schoolchildren.
—–
Well that was difficult but fun :). If you want to try writing a Five Card Flickr story then go to http://5card.cogdogblog.com/play.php?suit=5card. It doesn’t have to be anywhere near as long as mine lol, in fact the average one is just a paragraph or two. If you write one let me know, I’d love to read it :).
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Holy cow honey!! That story is absolutely amazing. Very well written and it really captures the reader! I will be the first to vote that you do those on a regular basis.
Please keep them coming!
Love ya,
Jenn
Honey,
Thanks I really appreciate you reading it and saying such nice things about the story :). I gotta admit it was super difficult though, I don’t think writing fiction is something that’s ever come naturally to me unfortunately.
It probably won’t be that often but I will try to do more. Maybe I’ll make it a habit to review story prompts or something.
Love,
Anita
Oh my God!! YOU ARE A GENIOUS!!!!!!!!! Anita, you make this look easy and very good story, you´re such a great writer!!!! You know that I´m your Fan!!
Nairim,
Well thanks! I have to say that between yours and Jennifer’s comments on this post that I’ve had quite the self esteem boost when it comes to writing :D.
Anita,
In my personal Opinion, in wich I think Jenn gotta agree is that you dont need a bit boost from us when you write because you are already natural! I remember the first time I read one of your blogs on Myspace. I had to share to a friend because I found someone with this ability to comunicate and express her Ideas as natural, consistent, harmonious and peaceful as you always Do, wich is not an everyday event.
Your writtings have substance, own soul, spirit.
I don´t get tired of saying this, you are the writer I wish I was. So we´re are you fans!
Nairim,
Wow I don’t even know what to say, that’s just so nice! When I was a kid and lived in Indonesia for a few years I remember that the highest technology thing we had in school was…get this…an abacus lol.
It’s so amazing to me to go from clicking away on an abacus just to do math all the way to now clicking away on a keyboard and it can be read by someone here or anywhere in the world. And even more amazing that people actually do read it :D. It makes me extra appreciative of it all, so thanks for reading and also for the nice comments :).