The Freestyle Writing Challenge

/ saraletourneau

Fellow writer Sarah J. Higbee nominated me for this Freestyle Writing Challenge back in June. As you can see, it’s taken me a while to get around to it, but I always intended on following up. 😉 Thanks Sarah, and sorry for the delay!

Here are the rules of the Freestyle Writing Challenge:

  1. Open a blank document.
  2. Set a stop watch or mobile phone timer to 5 or 10 minutes.
  3. Your topic is at the foot of this post. DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH YOUR TIMER!
  4. Once you start writing, do not stop until the alarm sounds!
  5. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spelling and grammar using spell check. (The challenge is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought-flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write with correct spelling and grammar.)
  6. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation or capitals.
  7. At the end of your post, write down “No. of words = ____” to give an idea of how much you can write within the timeframe.
  8. Copy and paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new topic for your nominees, and copy / paste these rules along with your nomination (at least 5 bloggers).

And Sarah’s writing prompt was…

If you could travel at warp speed to any part of the solar system, other than Earth, where would you want to go and why?

solar-system

Any part of the solar system, huh? Hmmmmmm. I don’t remember thinking about traveling through the solar system as much as traveling around the world or visiting fictional places. But when I was younger, I was fascinated by the moon, and astronomy was my favorite branch of science. I loved seeing pictures of the different planets and their moons, and how they were so different from Earth in size, color, defining features, and what astronomers thought was below each planet’s atmosphere. Maybe it was secretly adventurous side of me thinking, “Wow. That’s so cool!”

Would I pick any place in particular? Ha, no. I’m going to cheat and say that I want to go EVERYWHERE. 🙂 I’d take some kind of warp-speed space cruise that would travel the whole breadth of the solar system. (That would take, what, maybe hundreds of years before I come back despite how fast we’d be going? Oops…) But I’d love to see all the different moons, Saturn’s rings, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter’s eye-like storms – and Pluto! Isn’t it neat that NASA (I think it’s NASA, right?) sent a probe out that far to take pictures of Pluto? I remember feeling slighted when it was downgraded from a “normal” planet to a dwarf planet – or was it to a non-planet status? I don’t remember…

No. of Words: 221 in 5 minutes

My Nominees for the Freestyle Writing Challenge

Here are my nominees for the Freestyle Writing Challenge:

Your topic, should you choose to accept it, is…
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Pick any fictional world you’ve read about. Now, pretend you open a book about this world. On the last page, you find a moving / animated picture of the world – and you touch it. When your vision clears, you’ve been transported to this world. Where are you? What happens as soon as you arrive there? 

Also, this isn’t part of the prompt, but I’m curious… Can anyone guess which computer game series inspired my question? 😉

29 thoughts on “The Freestyle Writing Challenge”

    • You’re welcome, Rachael! It looks like you posted your challenge already, so I’ll check it out when I have a chance. 😉

      About your thought process: Ha ha! I thought mine was pretty scattered, too. I couldn’t make up my mind about a specific planet or such I’d like to visit, and then I started bouncing all over the place. So, don’t feel bad about yours. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. Pingback: Freestyle Writing Challenge | Writing Rachael Ritchey

  3. Congratulations on going for this one, Sara:). I loved your approach – wanting to pick out all the awesome bits throughout the solar system. And your wordcount is impressive, too. I LOVE your freestyle writing challenge subject – what a lovely prompt! Though I confess to not knowing the computer game – my guilty secret tends to be solitaire…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thanks, Sarah! I tend to balk when writing under pressure, especially when it’s timed, but the word count was a pleasant surprise.

      I honestly couldn’t pick just one place in the solar system. There’s so much of it that would be incredible to see. Funny thing is, I was watching the movie WALL-E last night; and there’s a part where the little robot is in outer space, and he skims his hand across Saturn’s rings. The particles swirl and dance behind him. It’s so pretty, and it reminded me of this prompt, and I thought, “I wish I could do that.” 🙂

      I’ll look through the rest of the comments to see if anyone else has guessed the game. If not, I might be slightly evil and wait to reveal it during my next Times Flies at the end of the month. *hee hee*

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. This is an interesting challenge I hadn’t heard of! Thanks for nominating me, Sara. 🙂 And hey, Pluto may be a smaller planet, but I still say it’s a planet, too.
    Hmmm…I don’t know what game you referred to. It’s gonna drive me bonkers until I know though! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. Strange — I thought I was already following you but apparently I wasn’t. Although that’s fixed now.
    Wonderful answer to the prompt! I think I would choose a nebula — my current WIP is about a space crew that goes to a nebula. XD

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. As a perfectionist, this looks a bit scary! I’m up for the challenge though, so thank you for nominating me. 🙂 I was kind of miffed as well when Pluto got downgraded to a dwarf planet. I felt sorry for it. And the pictures from the New Horizons probe were amazing. This si the space nerd in me coming out – but I was so excited when the probe finally got there and we finally got pictures back. 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Pingback: Freestyle Writing Challenge | Phoenix Grey

  10. Pingback: Time Flies!: August 2015 | Sara Letourneau's Official Website & Blog

  11. Pingback: The Freestyle Writing Challenge, Part 2 | Sara Letourneau's Official Website & Blog

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