Weekend of the Black Mouse Writing Challenge
This weekend brings with it a new writing challenge. I am calling it the Weekend of the Black Mouse for reasons I will reveal after a few more words. This challenge will have one of the standard requirements of a 2,500 word thread that may be a job thread, reward item acquisition thread, skill/experience thread, etc. The thread must be completed with at least 2,500 words.
In addition to that requirement, I am adding three things that you must add into your thread in some manner; preferably with some significance.
The first requirement is that you must have your character interact with an NPC of some sort. This interaction must be more than a simple, "Hello, how are you today?" It should be more involved with some deeper conversation and action. While I am not going to quantify what constitutes "deeper conversation" I would like to see something more than simple greetings or stopping by a shop to buy something type of interaction.
The second requirement is that you must include some mention/interaction/encounter with a red ball; a simple child's toy that they throw around and toss back and forth between friends. The red ball should be featured in some part of your thread. It doesn't have to be the primary focus at all but your thread must have a red ball in it.
Finally and most importantly, you must include in a moderately significant way, a black mouse. As with the ball, the mouse doesn't need to be the focus of the thread (it can however) but it does have to have some amount of significance.
A writing exercise that I've found extremely useful for breaking minor cases of writer's block is to introduce a couple random elements into your stories that you would otherwise not even consider. Things like the red ball and the black mouse force your mind to reach in directions it may not have gone before as you try to assimilate them into your stories. Some of my strangest and most satisfying, non-Mizahar as well as Mizahar-related writing has come from such exercises.
So remember to keep track of your word count within your thread. Also, this is IMPORTANT, as you post in this thread your desire to participate in the challenge, you will need to post a small summary (when you have finished your thread) of how you used the ball and the mouse in what you wrote. This will serve as a highlight for readers to be looking for how you included those elements into your thread as well as force you to think about how you included them.
Challenge begins at 9:00 PM Pacific Time Thursday July 27th and goes until Sunday 9:00 PM Pacific Time Sunday July 29th.
