My first visit to Go Go Gopher was a waste of time. I thought "These people are crazy" and I left after only a few minutes.
But after a few days of absolute boredom in this one-horse town, I decided to go again. This time, I took my cat Patches. She would liven things up for me, maybe help me make a name in my new town.
Patches is a female calico. Anyone who knows calicos knows that that breed is a bit unpredictable, and it's best if there are not more than one of them in a room at the same time, or stuff gets broken.
This time, a whole bunch of knees got broken.
The gophers were in cages around the room. Folks would trap one in their yard, then bring it to this event to get a prize for the biggest gopher. Usually the fellas are weighed, the prize is given, the newspaper publishes a tiny story about it, and that's that.
Well, Patches was very interested in one of the smaller gophers. She's a smart one, she can open doors, and when I wasn't looking, she let her chosen gopher out. He made a beeline for the punch bowl (he must have been thirsty), jumped right in and tipped it over. Bedlam ensued. Folks slipped in the punch, folks started screaming, gophers started going wild in their cages. The one being weighed at the time bit his handler, whose knees buckled. A lot of knees buckled that night.
The headline on the next day's lead article in the local newspaper was "Go Go Gopher Knocks Knees."
My reputation there was sealed forever. I had to leave town.
This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite challenge. Today's prompt is knee problems. I set the timer for 4 minutes and 30 seconds, as I always do, and started letting the story tell itself. But I got confused with the prompts, and took off on yesterday's prompt, which was gopher. When I realized, I had to switch it up suddenly, hence the all-over-the-place freewrite.
Now that was knee slapping and I'm laughing! I just loved your tale. Thanks for the humor to break up the day.
I'm so glad. I got a lot into this one. It was a fun tale to spin.
❤ I love when freewrites flow.
Can't believe you achieved this in 5 minutes. That's brilliant. I could just picture the mayhem lol
Have you given a freewrite a go? They're fun.
I haven't! I must give it a try lol. Do you just write for 4-5 minutes and that's the finished product or can you tighten it up afterwards?
There are no rules!!!! lol
I, however, set the timer for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and write like mad, then add one minute to the timer so that I can wrap the story up and proof read. I often go over time tinkering with the grammar and format, but I don't change the content of whatever came out while I was writing freely. Oh and I spend plenty more time on the tags, image, and adding information after the story. I'd say the whole post often takes me closer to half an hour before I hit publish.
But seriously, there are no rules!! Some of us cheat! My favorite cheater is @carolkean. @felt.buzz has been doing a modified freewrite, wherein he writes a very short story for the prompt. I know these take longer than five minutes.
You will be amazed what comes out of your imagination if you don't get in its way.
I !LUV this "You will be amazed what comes out of your imagination if you don't get in its way." This is so true💗 !PIZZA
Thank you! I hope to see you around freewritehouse again soon.
The point of the Freewrite is to get you to write. It doesn't really matter which train you take just as long as you arrive safely!
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HAHAHAHA this is a great story, I laughed so hard, and needed the laugh, thank you. Is it true? This sort o thing happens to me.
I have moved to a new town, but that's the only bit that is true. I'm glad you got a good laugh!! Thanks for letting me know.
Your writing is so good that I thought it was real. It really is the sort o thing that happens to me.
This was hilarious! I have to admit I did fluctuate between; "this is real....she's making it up....no, this is real!!!!" I guess I have enough (badly behaved and brilliant) homesteading animals to know ANYTHING is possible. How are you @owasco? Settled in yet?
No!! There is so much to do inside the house, I hardly ever go outside! I think I'm suffering from nature deprivation. I haven't been able to find a good, private place to go for a walk. None of the trails around here are maintained or even marked - I can't find the one that is supposedly half a mile from my home. When I lived here as a youth, I just took off over the hill at the edge of town. No one minded my wandering in the woods back there, or burying pets. But I'm hesitant to try that now.
You did not really think that story was real, did you? I love to freewrite. Some kind of magic happens, and out comes a brand new, never before told, story. A story that actually makes sense, to some of us at least. I thought this one was a bit out there, but you're the second person who saw some of their own reality in it, and wondered if it were true.
Thanks for thinking it was funny! I laughed when I reread it. While I'm writing, I just write madly without thinking about it much. The best stuff comes out if I can manage to not think at all.
Hilarious, indeed, a fun read, just what we need - and now YOU need more walking trails, or better marked and maintained trails near you. Hardly ever outside - surely when the dust settles and you clear out the detritus other people left behind for you to contend with, you'll get out more. (And pay homage to a Maine Coon named Romeo.)
I thought male calicos were extremely rare, almost nonexistent, and writing workshoppers denounce "female calico" and redundant, and even WHITE HORSE as incorrect: all "white" horses are actually gray. Riiiiiight. And bluebirds are really black. I don't care if this is scientifically true. We perceive white horses and blue bluebirds, and I'm sticking with that.
When I got to the part about leaving town already, I was really hoping this one is 100% fiction. :) You just couldn't get yourself evicted, and not that soon!
It's 100% fiction! I vaguely remember that calicos are female. Are tortoise shells male?
Those workshoppers sound rather snooty to me. Do we not care what the readers need to know?
I found a great place to walk! Bud Hill! It is a two mile, level road, on top of the highest hill around, and there is still not one single house on the entire road! No wonder that was a favorite spot for teenagers. It's beautiful there, and very isolated. Only teenagers and cops ever drive it, and little old ladies who moved back home.
This one had me laughing, and I loved the newspaper headline! :D