If you have ideas for Prompts, Crunches, Sprints, Relays, Stretches, or other writing exercises in the future, please leave them in the comments! If you would like to write your own take for this exercise, please comment with a link so that I can see what you wrote and support your work, maybe even share your version with my subscribers. Please let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, or constructive criticisms as well!
Enjoy!
Crunch: Write About “The Suff”
It was a brand new computer. Tim bought the laptop hours ago—spent twenty minutes going through the start-up screens, spent another forty minutes changing some configurations to match his idiosyncratic computer habits.
It was a blank slate, a fresh start. He told his wife as much: First, the tools; then, the masterpiece.
He didn’t start actually writing for a few hours, when he finally had a quiet moment—when he had finished organizing the space around his desk, was finally feeling that creative spark coursing through his veins—that he sat down and opened the laptop.
And there it was. A file, simply named “The Suff.doc”.
He dragged it to the recycle bin, opened a document, and began typing away happily at the beginnings of the novel that had been living in his mind and half a dozen notebooks over the last fifteen years. The beginning of the culmination of a dream!
He minimized the document to open a browser to research some obscure detail—but he noticed it. The file was back. The Suff.
Curious, and irritated, he opened the file. The Suff was an untitled story in nine pages. The story was…incomprehensible, amateurish. An author, working on his magnum opus.
Tim scoffed, and discarded the file a second time.
= = =
“Has the coroners report come back?”
“Yes, he confirmed all nine pieces in that dumpster belonged to the same body.”
“Have we identified the victim?”
“DNA matches a missing persons report filed nine days ago.”
“Great work. We’ll get this over to the sheriffs office.”
The detective sat down and opened his laptop after receiving the coroners report. There, on his desktop, was an unusual looking file…
The Suff.doc
(284 words, I defy The Suff by spilling the banks of my word count )
The Promptee Has Become The Promptor
Your feedback helps to improve my writing. I would really appreciate a comment on your thoughts on this writing exercise. Consider telling me your thoughts about:
Where do you think The Suff comes from?
What is your weirdest computers-misbehaving story?
What is your favorite cold-weather comfort food?
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! Come back next week for another writing exercise!
Did you know I recently launched a new serial, called DUEL? Check out the index here!
Thank you and God bless!
"Amateur!" 😂 This document of Jeff's has taken a life of its own. It's the next Slenderman.
Great suff--I mean, stuff!
SUFFERING is nine letters—just sayin