prompts and practices

today before work at the comic shop i decided that i would do a writing excerise out of a book i haven't looked at in awhile. it's called prompts and practices by judy reeves. it's a cool book with a calendar for all 366 days out of the year. and with each day there is a little idea about what to write about for that day. it doesen't say how or what you should write. whether it's a poem, short story or prose. it just gives an idea and lets you run with it however you want. i really enjoy this book and it has some great ideas. for whatever reason i haven't looked at it recently so i thought i would open it again and see what today's prompt was. today's prompt was: it was a summer of blue-black nights. so i wrote this as my practice:


Kari sat on the front porch looking out into the world. Her chair was an old rickety thing that her grandfather had made when he first moved out west. Every time she rocked on the chair it creaked with a groaning of days long past. Even though her mother yelled at her not to sit in the chair, for she was scarred that the chair would break, the old chair was Kari’s favorite in the whole house. While rocking in the old chair Kari looked out into the wide open prairie of the west. Her family owned all the land around her to the point that she couldn’t see another house close to her. The closest person was 80 miles away in any direction. Kari liked it that way. It was like the land around her was her own personal ocean of green prairie and blue sky. Night time was her favorite time to site in the chair and look out into the world. The night was lit up with the stars and the prairie had a glow about it from the stars also. The world seemed so peaceful those nights. Tonight the sky was darkened. She couldn’t see the stars that well and the moon wasn’t shining like it normally did.
Kari heard the back door to the house slam and heard the old Chevy coaxed into being driven away. She ignored, for a moment, the silent sobs she heard from inside the house from her mother. All Kari could think about was that the sky wasn’t as beautiful as it normally is. Kari stood up and sighed. She opened the front door and walked into the house to help her mom with whatever she needed.


i must advise that i've just written this and it has had really no editing. but this is what came to my head when i read the prompt. there is a little symbolism with the sky not being as beautiful as it normally is with her family not working out as it should, but nothing too heavy handed i think. i like the short story i wrote and maybe one day i'll came back to it and expand on it. but for now i like it as it is.