Illumination Writing Challenge
A Story in the Music
Stretching a prompt to the limits
Paul Myers MBA may not realize it, but this post from the other day inspired a writing prompt. At least for me:
Paul remarked that some of the musical analogies he used in his story inspired a rhythmic-thinking harmonization to his flow of thoughts. To me, that sounded like a bit of inspiration and so I decided to write this story in sort of a Mad Lib format using bands and song links to fill out some of the key words in the story.
It is silly; I am not going to lie. But it was also a lot of fun to write and I got to listen to clips of all sorts of music. So, Paul, I hope you don’t mind, but you are my protagonist in this short tale:
One Saturday in the Park Paul Myers MBA was walking along grooving to the fresh hip-hop beats of ShaboozeY, when all of sudden he spotted something Shiny in the bushes.
Paul headed over to investigate, much like the FBI investigated Louie Louie, but he didn’t need two years to determine that the Object of His Desire, was in fact, a Time Machine. It was covered with Daisies, but it was clear what it was.
Paul’s first thought was maybe he could sell it for Cash Cash, and buy some Gasoline for his Bitchin’ Camaro; but then he had a Crazy idea. Maybe the time machine could Work? What if Paul could go Back in Time?
Where would he go from here? Would he even consider a Flash Forward, or would that be too Complicated? Paul had A Million Dreams (this one is pretty cute, with Pink’s daughter singing), but he wondered if he should take the Risk? What if he got Stuck in the Past, or worse, had to stay Living in the Future?
Besides, Paul had his January Wedding to consider, and besides, he was Working for the Man and wasn’t sure he just go up to his boss and say, “I Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behavior”. The last time he went in to see the Boss it had been a real Kick in the Teeth and his butt still Hurt from how he was Dressed Down.
Well, it’s is all Fun and Games to think about heading off to have The Time of My Life, there are Obviously other things for Consideration. Maybe things like Time Travel are best left for the Beautiful People or those in Hollywood.
Paul couldn’t Stand around Paralyzed by Inaction All Day, as he had Better Things to Do like write awesome articles such as these:
And
Paul left the time machine right where it was in the Forest, accompanied only by The Sound of Silence. I mean, if Paul left, we would just sit around saying, “What About Us?”
I, for one, am Glad You Stuck Around!
I hoped you enjoyed this silly little adventure and maybe listened to a few clips. Music always seems to brighten my day and I wish the same for you!
Anyone want to try their hand at a music-themed Mad Lib? After I got started it struck me that it might be fun to just pick one band and construct a story around their song titles. But I was most of the way through this smorgasbord-of-music story before that thought struck, so maybe something for next time.
What say you: P.G. Barnett, Sherry McGuinn, Tree Langdon ♾️, Desiree Driesenaar, Rasheed Hooda, Joe Luca, Arthur G. Hernandez, Charles Roast, Holly Jahangiri, Britni Pepper and Infiniti?
If you like this, you might like some of my other recent writing:
A recent poetic response to a prior challenge:
And another more spontaneous poem:
Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.
