Pick Five Words

I belong to a small writing group that meets on Wednesdays from 12:30 - 2:00. We meet at the local Council on Aging building and I'm the youngest person there. I think the average age (not including me) is probably 70. One member is 94!


The way it works is we get a weekly prompt and we write something about it. We read these aloud to the group, laughing and enjoying one another's work. After that, we pass a bag of words around and each pick five random words from the bag. Once we have them, we compose a paragraph or sentence using the words we've chosen. We get some pretty crazy results. 


I attended another writing group a couple years ago and they did something similar. Instead of five, they chose ten words. We were given 15 minutes to write a short piece using all 10 words. The following is what I wrote. My 10 words were: 10 words drawn were: nightmare, explode, toe, pocket, sharp, young, surrounded, either, return, pull. See if you can spot them below.

 Amanda Sharp walked down the street in her fancy, new red shoes. They cost a bundle, but the young woman was determined to look her best at her job interview. With a special spring in her step, she rounded the corner and ran into a man. Knocked back a step, she stumbled. He caught her by the elbows, setting her on her feet once more.

"What a nightmare!" Amanda thought. "Now I'll be late for my appointment."

The man apologized and pulled the door open for her. He was really quite handsome. Distracted by his good looks, she didn't pay careful attention to where she was going. She caught the pocket of her jacket on the door. It swung shut, hitting her big toe. Her foot exploded with pain and she cursed inadvertently.

Worried that she was seriously hurt, the man helped her to a chair. Once he was assured she was alright, he excused himself.

"I apologize, but I have an appointment in five minutes. Are you sure you're okay?"

Amanda, who was now surrounded by everyone in the office, told him she was fine.

"I'll check on you later," he promised. "I'll return after my appointment."

Amanda examined her beautiful new shoes after the man left. They were scuffed and dirty. Fortunately, they had taken the impact, protecting her foot, or she would have seriously injured her toe.

Distressed, she almost didn't hear when the receptionist called her name.

"Oh, that's me," she said. "Sorry."

Walking into the office, a familiar face greeted her. The man she'd collided with stepped forward with a smile.

"Either you need to be more careful or I do," he said with a grin. "Congratulations. You're hired."

I liked this so well, I decided to write a novel using this as the beginning. It's at 22,700 words and growing!