Friday, February 24, 2012

Scribophile Sci-Fi Writing Challenge No. 1

There is an online writing group I belong to called Scribophile where writers meet to critique each other's work and support each other's growth. In the spirit of this, we participate in writing challenges to hone our skills and inspire new ideas.

This week I participated in my first Sci-Fi writing challenge. And though this is the first (very rough) draft and hasn't been edited or polished, I don't think it turned out all that bad. So I'll share it with you :)

The Challenge:
A girl is walking through a corridor of a massive space ship when she comes to a large doorway which leads out into ________? Describe what she sees as she steps through the doorway in 200 words or less.

My Response (197 words):
Every day for the past four-hundred and twelve days, June had walked down the same corridor at the same time. The gleaming white corridor connected the ship’s cafeteria and observatory, with nothing worth pausing to look at along the way. Not until today.
       June ran her fingers over the perfect seam between the door and the wall and wondered how many more times she would have walked right by without noticing the door had it never been ajar. Her palms slipped on the door’s smooth surface as she pushed it open. She hadn’t been granted access to this room, but the temptation to unlock a secret in a place she’d thought to already know everything about was too great.
       Every muscle in her body tensed as she stared open-mouthed into the hidden room. The walls were lined with rifles, each clipped carefully in place. But one was missing; a gaping hole in a mouthful of teeth.
       Somewhere outside the room, a rifle discharged, the noise reverberated through every cell in June’s body. Her heart thudded and adrenaline coursed through her veins. As the alarms screamed, June knew none of them would ever make it to New Earth.

I've read a lot of Sci-Fi, but I don't normally write it. My writing ideas seem to remain firmly within the fantasy genre. But this exercise was fun! Maybe I do have a science fiction story in me ... if not a novel-length manuscript, then maybe at least a short story.

2 comments:

  1. "a gaping hole in a mouthful of teeth"- That was my favorite part. With the visual of the room of rifles in my head when I read that line, my mind created an elaborate mouth out of the entire room and rifles combination. Hard to describe what I mean, but a fun visual for me. Thanks :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks :) Sounds a lot like the image I had in my mind when I wrote that line.

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