Day9 100words100days Write a letter to your future self

It turns out that writing to oneself is really easy- 492 words to moi! If technology still functions (meaning we don’t have any of those apocalyptic, no-tech scenarios the movies warn us about), I should re-read this in a decade and a half and see how my life turned out.

Dear Me,

Congratulations on getting your third book published! Considering I did the work, I should share the praise, but I’ll let you have this one. I hope you like what you have created. I hope it and the work that preceded it were worth writing and worth claiming authorship of. If they were, then I’m sure they are worth reading, and remembering, and passing on. (This won’t guarantee that they will sell, so please market them as best you can. Your past self thanks you on behalf of your future self for the money I hope we make.)

The family tree must have grown some by now. And lost a few branches as well. Don’t forget to update that mess of names you love so much. I hope you have a digital copy by this point. What about the friend forest? Does it fare well? It had better. The people I want to grow old with and get cats and dogs with- you’d better not have lost any of them.

Have you managed to read 100 books a year yet? Try to read work that teaches you something.

What are Dubai and Goa like? How has climate change affected them? Have you seen the tropical forest in Dubai? I wonder if thousands of years from now it will be a new source of petrol. (Neither of us will be there to see that though, so we needn’t worry our head about it.)

Does social media as I understand it still exist?

I really hope you have had a chance, and the money, to see the places you wanted to under conditions that were favorable.

Good luck for your plan to take over the world and or rid it of misogyny. And misandry. And, in general, people treating other people like objects. Whichever comes first. Also, good luck with your eco-friendly business, whatever shape it takes!

Dance at people’s weddings (and their funerals too, if it’s acceptable). Carry babies, even though they are going to pee on you. Pet dogs and cats, and watch turtles hatching and scuttling to the sea. Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain. If it tells you that you have been a fool, disregard it. Everyone has been a fool at some time or another. Grow vegetables and plant trees. Make preserves (preserve them properly or there will be a repeat of the Strawberry Mess of 2015). Support a football team (I hope you know the one I mean.) Speak the languages that you know even a smattering of, because, God knows, people do that with English ALL the time. Be happy, healthy, creative, confident.

One last thing: I hope you don’t watch as much TV as I do. Remember what Roald Dahl said: it melts your brains.

With all the sincerest best intentions I can muster, and a set of rose-tinted glasses (even though I do not like the color pink) in my pocket for future use,

Me.

Oh wow- this is absolutely the last thing (can’t believe I forgot to ask earlier)- do we still have The Farrel?

*

Obrigadinha to the Commerce people for suggestions and input, as always. And support in even these little things (which add up to all of you.) Oh dear- a 1D reference. And to the Artsies too, of course.

Tomorrow, i.e. Day 10, brings *drum roll* a description of your favourite exercise routine or class

Day8 100words100days What if we didn’t have to worry about Big Brother, but about Big Sister?

Just 109 words today. I didn’t really know where to go with this one, so I just put down a few thoughts. If they sound like they are coming from feminist.. well, they are

BigBro BigSis

I think about all the big sisters I know (including my own) and wonder how different they are from the big brothers I know.

Is Big Sister watching you? Yes, she probably is. Also, she’s probably watching out for you.

For Big Sister to be the face of the Party, society would have to be matriarchal. But would a matriarchal society spawn something like a Big Sister?

Most of the big sisters I know tend to get a little more involved in their younger siblings’ lives than the big brothers I know.

Honestly, I don’t think the gender matters in this case. Big Brother or Big Sister: I’d choose neither.

*

Day9: Write a letter to your future self. I’ve already done a couple of these, so let’s see how I can switch it up.

Day6 100words100days If Gulliver had had GPS

In today’s 226 words, Gulliver still winds up being a traveller, but only after an encounter with a mysterious box…

Ship’s log:

There is a strange device on this ship. It is like a flat box that cannot be opened, as heavy as a piece of wood of the same size. If I allow my fingers to rest on what I take to be the front, it casts its light upon my face and begins to speak to me. It tells me how to go where I want to, and can even calculate the distance betwixt me and my destination. Surely, this is some sorcery! I should denounce it, I should throw it into the deep blue sea and be done with it. And yet I cannot. I found it when I boarded the ship; it was placed in my cabin, and therefore must be meant for me alone. It has become precious to me. It is strangely bewitching, the symbols on its shining face entrancing.

A storm has begun that frightens us all greatly though we would not unman ourselves by admitting it. The magical black box has told me we are near an island called Lilliput. I would love to visit this place, perhaps to write about it. Will I ever discover unknown lands where strange and mysterious beings dwell?

(Gulliver’s ship is destroyed by the storm, and his GPS sinks to the bottom of the sea. At least he knew Lilliput was coming.)

*

I read a summary of GT before I wrote this. I think I should re-read the book. I probably didn’t understand most of it when I read it half a lifetime ago.

Day 7 tomorrow. A whole week already! For your enjoyment, I shall present to you a parody of the list article genre. You know the kind- 5 ways to grow a mustache, 10 things I wish I had done before I turned 27, 3 easy life hacks (WHAT is a life hack!!!), etc.

day 1 100 words100days: Write a story for a friend

Phewy! I’ve just finished writing the 458 words that make up today’s piece. The end is a little rushed, I know. That’s because I am trying to get this up on the blog before the end of the 4th of March in India. Why this deadline? It’s the birthday of a friend of mine

*happy birthday Ros!* May you get everything you need and want and deserve! May you see the difference you make in the world!

This tale is for you- I think you will get why when you read it.

Once upon a time in a land far under the water, a little naiad hatched out of a mint-green egg. Unlike the other naiad nymphs, she wasn’t a shimmering scaly blue or green; she was somewhere in between, with grey spots, like a mackerel.

At the naming ceremony, the elder naiads called her Moss. The dotted one dashed around their heads, grinning a gummy grin, not realising that her very appearance indicated change.

Growing up, Moss kept herself busy learning about the world around her.She did her best to do her best, but always carried a secret worry in her heart that her best wasn’t good enough.

When Moss and the other nymphs turned a certain age, the elders sent each of them to live with a different tribe. They decided that the best tribe for Moss to be with was the nereids. So she left the freshwater lake she’d called home all her life, and let the gentle river carry her down to the salty sea.

What the naiad elders didn’t know when they sent Moss out into the water was that the nereids had been banished from the Saltiness by an angry Sea Monarch. The nereids now wandered around human towns, each with a tiny bottle around her neck filled with seawater and a little sand.

When Moss learned what had happened to the sea nymphs from some dolphins, the first thing she tried to do was get an audience with the Sea Monarch. But she had retreated into the deepest recesses of the ocean in order to come to terms with her deep rift with the nereids.

Moss, temporarily tribeless, began swimming back towards the river that would lead her home. As she swam, she thought about how horrible it must be to be forced to leave your home forever. She wished with all her heart that she could find a solution, even a temporary one, for the nereids.

And then, of course, she did. (If she didn’t, this story would be quite pointless.) Her solution was inspired by a piece of wood she saw drifting ahead of her in the water. It was from a mangrove tree. Moss realised that the area where the mangroves grew, at the mouth of the river, was neither the Sea Monarch’s nor the naiads. What better place for the nereids to make a home than there?

Needless to say (but I will anyway), Moss was heralded as a hero. I would love to be able to tell you that she never doubted herself again, but that would not be realistic. What I will tell you is that she learned to believe in herself more, and trust in her intuition.

And that, as they say, is the beginning.

*

So, prompt for Day 2: The ideal employment contract (fiction/ non-fiction)

#100words100days

Challenge. Accepted.

What challenge, you ask?

Oh, one that  is simple enough- to write every day for nearly a third of the year.

Ha ha, I hear you laugh, this isn’t difficult for you. You love writing, you say to me.

Indeed, I do. But loving it and doing it consistently are two different things. At least, they were. Till now.

From tomorrow (my last instance of procrastination), I am going to write and publish 100 words a day for 100 days.

That’s an expected total of 10000 words in a little over three months. It could be more, but may not be less.

I’ve put together a set of prompts, 98 of which I will pick out of a box at random. The other two are for fixed days: tomorrow’s and the final day (sometime in June). The topics are varied, and reflect the facets of my personality (cos, y’know, I’m rounded with facets). There will be prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction, opinion pieces (the subjective) and purely fact-based work (the objective).

If anyone out there wants to join me and challenge her/himself, please do! Here’s what I plan to do:

1. Write, edit and finally end up with at least 100 words on the day’s topic/prompt.

2. Post every day on this blog or the other.

3. Give myself at least 24 hours to work on each piece.

4. Repeat x 100

Who knows? I just might produce some exquisite literature or a most thought-provoking article.

For inspiration Inception-style, I’d like to credit the good folk at NaNoWriMo (the idea of a set time in which to write a set number of words) and Heidi, one of the organizers of the Dubai Writers’ Club (her prompts at Write-Ins inspired me to come up with some of my own)

Prompt for Day 1 of 100words100days: Write a story for a friend

100days100prompts

I chose it because tomorrow just happens to be the birthday of one of my best friends. Let’s hope she likes whatever I come up with.