The Commuter Challenge


1 October 2006

The October 2006 Challenge

by CC @ 13:20

Write a ghost story suitable for reciting at a ghost-story-reciting-type-situation: say, around a campfire with a flashlight held under your chin, or in the drawing room after a formal dinner while trying to top each others’ gruesome anecdotes over snifters of cognac, or late at night during a pyjama/slumber party with all your pre-teen girlfriends. So it should be more suitable for narration than for reading on the page (or at least as suitable), and it should be of an appropriate length. Shoot for anywhere from 500 to 2500 words. Try not to let the reading time go for more than ten minutes or so; a comfortable reading speed is around 150 words per minute.

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6 September 2006

The September 2006 Challenge

by CC @ 14:06

Write a response, sequel, retelling, or companion poem to some famous poem. It should be in a similar format, and ideally it should be about the same length, unless you’re responding to something like Faust or Beowulf. (In this case, though, it might be preferable just to respond to a famous passage, rather than the whole poem.) Use your own judgement as to what constitutes “famous”.

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1 August 2006

The August 2006 Challenge

by CC @ 00:01

Write a sonnet about superconductors. Fourteen lines, strict meter, and please choose any accepted rhyme scheme (there are several possibilities that way). Don’t know anything about superconductors? Neither do I, but that just makes it more interesting and challenging. Think this challenge is too easy for you, and you can rattle off such a sonnet in a half hour? Then take the month to craft a really really really good sonnet about superconductors.

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