Scribble Challenge

Weekly No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge, and last week’s winner

Uncategorized

April isn’t really the cruelest month, it’s actually National Poetry Month. We should celebrate. Between the tornado sirens and the Arkansas River floodwaters, there needs to be some moment of peaceful, poetic delight. Otherwise, we would all sound just like ‘ol T. S. – and have you ever really heard him? Well, I don’t know many voices that can conjure up such large-scale depression. On with the delight, then.

The first exciting bit of news is that we have a winner in last week’s Scribble Challenge. Aedh’s poem “Tulips” wins hands down by following Cruelanimal’s lead a few weeks ago and scaring off the competition. Congratulations, Aedh! Be sure to copy/paste the coveted No Tellin’ Winner’s Blog Badge to your own blog. You’ve earned it.

This week’s Scribble Challenge needs to be something celebratory and April-y. And I’m convinced it should be poetry in some form or other, in Honor of National Poetry Month. Write about dancing. It can be anything from your first junior high dance to Britany Spears doing The Stumble. You can write about your high school prom or your first trip to a strip club. Hopefully they didn’t occur on the same night, but if they did, write about that too. Write about the ballet or the mosh pit, I don’t care. Surprise all of us. To get you rolling, I’ve included a couple of inspiring dance videos. Now, go make poems.

Weekly No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge, and last week’s winner…

Uncategorized

Last week’s scribble challenge asked you to write a “Dear John” letter in fifty words or less – much like poor Carrie’s infamous Sex in the City post-it note break-up. The entries just poured in. Four in all. The momentum is building.

While all of the entries were heartbreakingly sweet, Candace is the winner with her delicate “Stick a Fork in Me, I’m Done” break-up note. If you haven’t checked out her blog Crazy Texas Mommy, you must do so immediately before the Feds shut her down. Congratulations, Candace! Copy/paste the coveted No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge Winner blog badge over at your place so the Feds will know you’re no flower to be trampled underfoot!

I’m a day late posting results and a new scribble challenge. Forgive me. The dreadful tornadic weather and too much rain did something funky to my buried DSL line. Communication with anything but the neighbors has been spotty at best. The AT&T repairmen are cute though, and they can come on over any time they want to.

This week’s scribble challenge is a retrospective sort of shindig. There’s a special place in my heart for angsty, finger-snapping Beat Poetry, man. Dig? That’s the form, cats, and the subjects to choose from are the political race and Dolly Parton. You can even combine the two – sort of a country-music-meets-Wolf-Blitzer. With a goatee, man. To inspire you, I’ve got a little beat poetry from High School Confidential below. So go write something and post it in the comments or give us a link so we can find the poem on yours. Groovy.

Weekly No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge, and last week’s winner

Uncategorized

Stand back, ladies and gentlemen. We had three – count ’em three – entries in this week’s challenge! This is a real contest now. While the Viagra-ku entries were all equally stunning and sexually empowering, there can only be one winner.

Last week’s No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge winner is Tim author of the three-part Viagra-ku, ” A 70-year-old Man Attempts a Seduction.” Completely enchanting, Tim, and only a little disgusting. Congratulations! Copy/paste the award badge to your blog and let everyone know you’ve arrived.

This week’s challenge should be interesting because it has narrow parameters. This week, I challenge all of you to write a “Dear John” letter in fifty words or less. These can be cold or impassioned, handwritten or text-messaged, post-it noted or slung through a window tied around a rock. Give us a little scenario if it helps – the letter itself should not be over fifty words, but the scenario can be as long as you want.
Post your entry in the comments section or post a link to it from your own site. After last week’s 300% increase in entries, I’m understandably excited about this one.
Ready? Break!

First Weekly No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge

Uncategorized

I’m just full of ideas today. Yesterday I challenged my creative writing students to come up with odd titles to inspire us in class. The titles are trickling in and I decided to post a few of my own. I went completely blank.

That happens sometimes, especially when I’m grading papers. Then I remembered Crazy Texas Mommy ( a blog you simply shouldn’t miss) and her recent unpleasantness with mysterious blog visitors. That made me look at my blog stats and voila – there were my titles.

When folks stumble upon this blog, they generally do so by putting a string of words into a Google search. While they’re usually looking for something other than my blog, sometimes they stop by anyway. My blog stats handily give me a list of terms and strings of words they used to find me. Here are my favorites:
  1. Is Brandy a trashy name?
  2. jello salad recipe for funerals
  3. ACT test poems
  4. pageant hair
  5. fuck southern women
  6. side dishes with turducken
  7. missing pin in a jumperoo
  8. poems telling someone you hate them
  9. If there’s just one piece of advice I could give you
  10. Miss America lipstick pageant
So the challenge is this: write something using one of my searches and post it in today’s comments. It can be anything, really – a poem, a rant, a story, a twisted memory, a bad country song lyric. I’ll even invite rap lyrics because I can’t imagine NOT doing it. Use one as a line or a title. Or don’t and surprise me. You dream it up, post it by next Friday, and I’ll announce a winner on Saturday.

The winner will receive no monetary prize because, well, it’s awfully close to tax time. Instead, the challenge winner will receive a gorgeous blog badge (see above) that tells the entire electronic world what a stunning writer they are. With an award like that on your blog, you’re almost assured instant literary success, an expanding fan-base, and a ticker-tape love life. It could happen.

Enter as many times as you like. Tell all your friends. Take the challenge.