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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: The Writer's Challenge (NOT the FaithWriters Challenge) (06/10/10)
Eggs: green eggs and ham, fried eggs, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, speckled eggs, brown eggs, blue eggs, eggs over easy, upside down eggs—couldn’t they come up with a new topic? I didn’t ever want to write about eggs again. How could anyone come up with eight different stories on eggs? It’s the same topic. Don’t they get it? An egg is an egg. It doesn’t matter if it’s a purple egg--same story, the end.

Writer’s challenge for sure. Why had I joined this crazy writer’s club? I knew the answer was to inspire me, but I could have gotten a dozen inspirations at the grocery store with much less frustration. I just didn’t get it. Try as I might every story came out the same. My challenge was going to be eating another egg ever again, and what’s that, ‘upside down egg’? I looked at the egg, and despite everything in me, could find no up or down side to it…and green eggs and ham, Sam-I-am, going crazy I think.

My chickens, they’ll inspire me. I took a walk to get a deep breath, and strolled to the barn, okay, drug my feet thinking of scrambled eggs; that’s what my brain felt like--scrambled indeed.

I looked around my chicken coop. Henny-penny was off her nest. I was surprised as she’d been sitting on it round-the-clock since I’d bought Rowdy Rooster; that was about when we got to eggs over easy in class. I’d bought Spot when we got to speckled eggs. She was supposed to lay speckled eggs. I had needed inspiration on that one too. It hadn’t worked, but she did have pretty speckled eggs.

I had collected eggs. I had fixed fried eggs, boiled, scrambled, and even made a quiche though that wasn’t on the list...yet. I was still frightfully uninspired.

I looked at Henny-penny’s nest. It overflowed with eggs: speckled, blue, white, and brown. It really was pretty with all the different colors. I picked one up. They were warm. Henny-penny wasn’t far. I crossed my arms and stared at the nest but nothing came except the same thing: eggs, eggs, eggs. I looked at them some more. There was no up, down, or sideways. They all looked the same except for their colors. Admittedly, the blue eggs had tasted a little sweeter, or so I’d thought at first. Now my ‘egg’ taste buds were numb, so wasn’t even sure of that anymore.

I was going cross-eyed as I stared at the eggs. I swore one moved. I rubbed my eyes. It had. It jumped. I turned it over gently and laughed. A little beak showed through a tiny crack. It had been upside down. The little beak continued to peck and I sat it down gently and it rolled-- ‘eggs over easy’. I laughed and thought I should get more sleep. I turned it back over so it wasn’t upside down and continued to watch the little yellow ball of fuzz poke its head all the way out. Its shell was still attached. I thought of Humpty Dumpty, a cracked egg, walking eggs, eggs in a half shell, eggs with legs, egg shell clothing, peeps, and basket case—that was me.

I was inspired at last. The writer’s challenges beware. I dared them send me another egg topic. I had it now--fodder for the villains who came up with these topics. They were villains no more but my heroes. The lesson learned.

Henny-penny returned to her nest and sat contentedly while the little yellow fuzz ball poked its head from under her wing. I named it Thoreau, not knowing if it a he or a she, but figured in the grander scheme it did not matter. What I learned was it wasn’t about the writer’s challenge, but the challenge of looking at things in a new way. In the complex things in life lay the simpler things, and when put back together again it remained the same. The fun was that some people never saw the complex and some never saw the simple. As a writer I was allowed to open new worlds and step beyond the bounds of the constrictions of everyday reality, to use my imagination and even make up new worlds that only lay in dreams.

In the end, I had to return to reality and write it down. The chicken or the egg-- no answer--but the chicken didn’t really care if there was. She just wanted fed.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Rachel Burkum
06/19/10
Cute! I think we all can relate to just not being able to come up with something new. Blessed are we who finally stumble upon that inspiration!
Dee Yoder
06/20/10
It's all in how we view the challenge! Love this take on the writer's use of perspective to inspire a story.
Mildred Sheldon
06/23/10
I enjoyed the writer's dilemma. How many writer's have face similar situations. Putting pen to paper is challenging and sometimes dauting. Keep writing and God bless.