5 Word Exercise - 03.20.2014

Five Word Writing Exercise 03.20.2014

Help me out! Comment with your own five-words, and I'll write out a post of some sort for those. See how your words can inspire me, and help to kick-start my creativity!

Friendship, Hoopla, Unexplored, Melancholy, Autumn

Time-Wasting Research: 

• Hoopla is derived from the French term houp-la!, used as an urgent command to another, oftentimes a child, to move. Houp-la, Pierre!
• Melancholy is often attributed to a gloomy or vaguely sad demeanor, but it can also mean sober thoughtfulness. It was once used to label the state of having too much black bile, which was once considered a cause for depression.
• The first result when Google-searching these words is a Goodreads blog page of author and cover-designer Nishi S. Looks like she has a focus on Young Adult Dark Fantasy, but I didn't delve in too deeply. Check it out!

Five Word Exercise - Outline

For this exercise, I'm going to write an outline, a story brainstorm, that uses the above listed five words to varying degrees. If writing to these beats, the story would be incredibly short, yet could easily be the starting point from which a larger piece could form. I doubt I will explore this any further than this blogging exercise.

Setting: Autumn, New England

• Opens on a dock. Man seated, well-dressed, feet over the edge but above the water. Exceptionally well-dressed (wedding? funeral?). He looks over the water down at his own reflection while lost in his thoughts.
• He holds something small, frail, yet important in his hands.
• Flower? Old letter? (written to him, from a woman)
• His thoughts are centered on the one who wrote the letter a woman from his past.
• Old friends, since high school/college (college. Random thought about how most friends have left since high school).
• He was a free-spirit, an artist and an adventurer. Wanderlust. Driven. Goal-minded.
• She was down-to-earth, more focused on emotional satisfaction on the personal level. Quiet where he was outspoken, introverted, yet incredibly observant. Used to write him letters periodically, a fading form of correspondence that holds an unmatched level of personal touch.
• His mind drifts to a specific instance, a public place, a fun place. Outdoor concert? Holiday celebration? Some such shindig. They came as friends but he remembers feeling what he thought was something more.
• Nothing comes of it. Months go by.
• They graduate.
• She leaves for a job in another city or another state.
• He also moves, but stays relatively close to home.
• She writes a few letters, but those fade away after she meets someone and continues her life away.
• He tries a few relationships over the years, but nothing seems to stick.
• He holds fast to the idea that their relationship was largely unexplored. That there was more there than he ever cared to admit.
• She was the one he never acted on, never made a move on, because he dated other girls. 
• She wasn't like other girls.
• Snap back to now. Another man sits down next to the first. A few words are exchanged. An arm across the shoulder for comfort.
• "She was one amazing woman."
• "At least it wasn't unexpected."
• "She's not suffering any longer."
• The letter is looked at one last time.
• "What's that?"
• It's folded up and placed in the breast pocket of a suit jacket.
• "I have to go meet someone."
• "Now?"
• "Soon. Mom always liked her. She used to say that we belonged together."