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I came up with this idea to challenge myself to stay out of any "comfort zone" and practice description. The idea is to take a random word (I use Random Word Generator, but use whatever you like) and write a paragraph or two whose main idea (and title) is that word. Then (here's the tough part) use each letter of the word sequentially as the first letter of the first word of each sentence.

Simple Example: ANT

Adam leaned close to the mound of loose dirt and focused the beam of light from his magnifying glass on the tiny hole in the center. Never again would these ones pinch his skin and inject their fiery venom. The odor of crisping ant carcass wafted below his nose.

OK, now that I've sickened myself....
The purpose is to focus on description. Go places you wouldn't typically go. Like burning ants (sorry'bout that, but I think it reinforces what I'm saying).

It doesn't have to be good. I just want focus on the challenge and hopefully improve my writing. Of course, remember that the first letter of the first word of each sentence must be the corresponding letter in the random word.

Then, leave a random word challenge for the next person.

I really have a lot of fun with this, so I wanted to share it with my FF peeps. Hope you enjoy it, too. It's tough, sometimes, but it is worth it.

I'll kick it off.

Next Random Word Challenge: IMPASSE

Impasse

In the crude light of early dawn, Wes stared up the steep face of the cliff. Moss covered much of it, providing a spongy texture for relief during the climb. Parakeets squabbled in the forest behind him, placing bets on either him or Gravity. Australian wildlife typically favored the non-human competitor.

Scents of ripe Kakadu plums and Molucca raspberries lingered for brief moments between the forest's breaths. Soon the birds would have them picked clean. Even he would have a handful of the sweet fruit before scaling the impasse.


Next Random Word Challenge: DOCKING

DOCKING

Dad slid the lock on the door. Over the hill, we could see the dead walking. Cornstalks parted to their trespass. Kneeling, I peered through the boarded up window, rewarded for my search by a face looking back at mine. In that instant, I recognized her as Mary Higgins from math class. Not exactly a friendly person in life, as one of the crucified, she still kept her place in the clique as leader of these vermin. [B]God, they were everywhere.

Next word: incalculable

Great game, Slingink, though admittedly, I didn't get all of the five senses in:(

Sorry, can't seem to get the bold to work right for me on here.

I don't think that the words should be that long to do the excersize.

incalculable

I stood there on the top of the mountain. Neither I, nor my friends had thought it would look like this. Clouds covered the valley, but we still could see the enemy approaching.
And there was this droning in the air. Like an oncoming train it was coming towards us.
Could it be that fate has hit us on the head today? Uninvited, as she was? Luck had run out for us.
And that was our problem at the moment. Beyond the marching army was our certain death. Life was all we could clung to now, there was no other way. Except for what Tuban could provide: Black magic.

Next word: clash

Clash

Clouds twisted above Sahn into a single wispy grey ring in the twilit sky. Light diffused itself in the center, opening the black gate to other worlds. As he tapped the Hainni stones together, a gale snatched him from the terra and flung him skyward. Sahn dropped the stones, unsheathed his twin blades, and howled. He could smell the musk of the Malinum soldiers, the stench of the impending clash.


Next Word: EYESIGHT

Great idea. My descriptions have always been horrible but here goes...

EYESIGHT

Evening faded to morning, revealing the path to Gylnswood. Young saplings, glistening with morning dew, started to give way to the larger, older trees visible in the distance. Even here, atop the hill, the scent of ancient pines and damp earth was enough to make him forget the long road behind him, and the ache in his muscles.

Silence was broken, here and there, by the soothing songs of morning birds drifting merrily on the lazy breeze. Intoxicated by the chirping melodies, he almost missed the fawn that frolicked from one cluster of trees to the next. Greater game lay ahead, however, and he left his bow slung comfortably over his shoulder. Humming a tune of his own, lower and more somber than those of the morning birds, he set off down the hill. Today he started his hunt.


Next word: Prevail

Prevail.

Part human, part throwback to apes, the tounlers lived deep in the jungle. Rain was their constant companion and insects their frequent torturers. Very self-reliant, they prided themselves on being isolated one from the other. Any given day, they could be seen in their treehouses or down among the lush jungle floor, its exotic perfumes a tease to their senses. In the event of attack, they quickly joined together as a deadly force for their combatants. Long have their drums beat into the night to tell their stories, their triumphs and losses.

Episode.

Episode

Eve sprawled in the tall wet grass and welcomed the cool rain. Purple waves sloshed in the heavens above without the threat of lightning. Into her mind rushed a flood of memories of intimate moments with Adam. Sweet kisses in the garden, warm skin pressing together as one. One sensuous soul. Did he not expect her appetite for sensation to get the best of her? Even she understood the consequences of that fatal episode.


Next Word: AMPLIFIER

Amplifier

Amid the wreckage of her parents marriage, Reese found solice in a 1957 Les Paul Gold Top. Music from her own two hands wove itself into her mind and rinsed away those crumbling facades and their flat intentions. Part of her pleasure bloomed from the notes in dissonant chords, before she slid her fingers along the strings to resolve the rough tones into a harmonic release. Listening for the cross-over moment, she pushed the change from ill to ideal.

In her depression, she influenced the way the guitar spoke. For years it kept the best conversation. It never deceived her; it never spoke ill of others; it never dealt shame. Even when she neglected it as she had during the past month.

Reese snatched up her guitar, determined for a healthy talk, and cranked the volume on the amplifier.

________________________________________________________


Amplifier was difficult! I really fell apart on the description and struggled to put together correlated sentences.


Next Word: SPIKE

SPIKE

Spread out before Ethan were his nine glowing flat screens, laid out in rows and columns of three, showing a variety of stocks in different degrees of spikes and troughs. Packed and ready to leave, Isabella was done and ran her fingers across the craftsman style millwork for the last time. Inside the front door, she handed her bags to the taxi driver and looked back over her shoulder at their empty house.

“Kiss me before you go,” Ethan said through the French doors of his office.

Even in life, she thought as she laid her single house key on the floor, he can’t tell when it’s time to cut his losses and get out.

The next word is WINNER.

Kerry

Why couldn't Matt just back down? It wasn't like he was going to win. Nothing would shut him up, always labouring the point over and over. Narrow minded idiot. Emma couldn't find one thing attractive about him as he shouted at her from the kitchen, which begged the question why she had ever agreed to marry him. Retorting quickly to one of his cruelest digs at her personality, Emma wondered if she would be out of the lawyer's office tomorrow in time to do a little shopping - the street had some great shops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This actually came together quite nicely, except the last sentence which I had to have several goes at. Next word is ASSESSMENT.

ASSESSMENT

Adrian looked to his left, noticing an oddly familiar face in the aging, beaten up maroon sedan next to him. Sure that he knew the elderly, gray-headed woman from somewhere, he tapped his horn and waved. Startled by the loud, unexpected noise, the frightened old lady tensed her thin, frail body and gasped.

Embarassed at the reaction he had caused of the feeble old woman, Adrian watched in horror as she lifted a wrinkled hand and grasped her breast, her other hand slipping from the wheel. She slumped to one side, her vehicle careening wildly between lanes in uncontrolled fashion.

Still watching in disbelief as the car beside him swerved back and forth, Adrian suddenly felt a sharp pain in his knees followed by the deafening noise of plastic and steel crumpling around him. Moving at a brisk thirty-five miles per hour, the inattentive youth had failed to decelerate at a traffic signal, wrecking violently into an eighteen wheeler in front of him.

Enveloped in smoke and wincing in pain, Adrian peered through the left side of his shattered windshield. Nothing short of a poorly written comedy could have painted the picture of what he was watching in the distance. The old maroon sedan, dead woman in tow, was still weaving along briskly as he painfully struggled to free himself from the smoldering remains of his silver Mercedes.

Next word is GROUP.

**EDIT** Broke this up into several paragraphs instead of one long one. Also fixed a typo. Hope that's not cheating.

Gunfire echoes in the distance, bleeding wisps of black smoke into the angry orange sky. Rough, stony earth succumbs to the march of our battalion, crushed under a horde of black-booted feet. On all sides my brothers surround me, weapons at the ready as we advance on the jagged ridge. Under a tattered, battle-worn flag of blue, we swear loyalty to each other with silent nods. Pity the enemy before us.

That was harder than I thought.

Next: Regret

REGRET

Roger stood by the shoreline, looking out onto the cold water. He threw a rose into the water as he thought of his lonely life. As the rose floated away, it disappeared. Emerging from the icy depths was a woman. Green eyes staring at him and his breath stopped. Graceful and beautiful, Roger smiled at the memory. Rigid and still, he stood as he watched the lost love. Emotions running high on both sides as each passing moment brought them closer together even if it would be brief. Roger lowered his head and cried about the missed moments of his life, about the ones he hurt. Time was the enemy and the enemy will always won.

Next: Memory