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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

One Line Wednesday


It took a couple of well placed screws, a 15 year old artifact obtained at a bake sale, and a hasty trip to the liquor store but the nearly forgotten commitment was happily fulfilled.

Don’t you just want to read on? Aren’t you wondering what kind of commitment would require one to assemble such diverse items? And just what came from that bake sale 15 years ago, and, more importantly, is it still fresh?

If this were a typical post, I’d have to give a blow by blow of how the artifact came into my possession. A normal post would, likewise, require an accounting of the role the screws played and what, exactly, was purchased at the liquor store, anyway. Most tediously, an ordinary post would call upon me to weave the entire assemblage together into some sort of witty observation about life, tools, or liquor.

But not today. Not on One Line Wednesday. No, on One Line Wednesday, vagueness, brevity, and misdirection are the order of the day. One Line Wednesday is a simple celebration of the single good line. No pressure of further explanation. No need to worry if your words are “going anywhere.” None of the tricky transitions or epic endings one might expect in traditional prose.

Here’s the lowdown: Each week, I’ll get things started with the single best line I’ve managed to craft in the intervening seven days –maybe I’ll include the story behind it, but I likely won’t, what with it being One Line Wednesday, and all. Each week there’ll also be one of those cool Mr. Linky widgits that you see below (just click it, It works. Really). That’s where you leave a link to your one line post (if you’re an overachiever, feel free to include the story behind your line, but that’s never necessary). Your line can be about anything, as clear or cryptic as you’d like, and who knows—maybe even be true!

If you have no blog, feel free to participate by just commenting as you would for a normal post. If you do have a blog, however, please mention that you are participating in One Line Wednesday, and add a hyperlink to this post. Feel free, also, to copy the official One Line Wednesday image at the opening of this post to illustrate yours, but that’s optional.

But don’t forget the most important thing—have a little low stress fun with the written word. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

4 comments:

The Blonde Duck said...

How fun! I've never heard of this!

Unknown said...

This sounds awesome---I haven't heard of it either, but I love yours and want to play sometime soon!

ballast photography said...

Oh, thanks, guys...it was good to see your comments. This week just didn't do as well as last week. I think I'll try it for another week or two to see if it "catches on."

My husband suggested a slight modification wherein I come back at the end of the day to explain the origin of my line. I said that defeated the purpose, and there is no way I can make a whole post out of my one line Wednesday lines, because they are based on mundane, self-contained event. He said that didn't matter, and I should just tell everyone inspired the line, and that if I don't I'm robbing my readers of the opportunity to see how I take something mundane and make it sound epic, which he claims is one of my mad skills. (Which is kind of how the whole thing got started anyway, at this post http://runningwithletters.blogspot.com/2009/09/one-line-wednesdays.html I'd hyperlink it, but I don't have those skills at all) .

So anyhow, for those who'd like to know:

I forgot that I needed to bake a fairly high-end dessert for an event this week. I remembered a recipe for a low fat cheese cake a friend of mine used to bake for youth auctions at our church about 15 years ago. So I pulled out the recipe, hunted down a spring form pan and went to the ABC store to get banana schnapps. Now you know.

I really hope some of you can play along next week--it IS fun except when its lonely :(

Jen said...

I liked your husband's comments.. its like a writer's work shop for those of us who are not the best writers.

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