For the week 3 entries, even though there were a lot of basic similarities considering the rather specific prompt, I think all of the other entries were very good. I ended up having 1 favorite, 2 that were right behind, and 3 that were tied for 4th.
In contrast to the specific week 3 prompt, the week 4 prompt gave us room to explore all kinds of creative space with our entries.
The prompt from Week #4: Besmirched, Befuddled & Besieged
My entry:
Befuddled
A man wearing a white suit and carrying a silver briefcase walks into the office.
Pam: Hi, can I help you?
The man ignores her and continues walking until he gets to the desk facing Meredith's. He sits, opens his briefcase, removes a folder, and begins working on the computer.
Most everyone in the main office area stops working and starts watching this man.
Meredith leans to the side to look at him, looks down, then looks again.
Phyllis: Oh my god... TOM?
Kelly, who's standing at the watercooler, gasps then faints. Stanley looks at her, rolls his eyes, then resumes working.
Phyllis: Tom, is that you?
"Tom" remains silent and continues working.
Kevin grabs his M&M jar and holds it close.
Dwight removes something from his desk drawer, gets up, and walks toward Tom.
Jim: Dwight, what are you doing?
Dwight approaches Tom, holding an unfolded shovel above his head.
Jim moves quickly and grabs the shovel then stands in front of Dwight.
Dwight: Dammit, Jim! I have to destroy his brain.
Jim: No, you don't.
Dwight: Jim, if he bites you, I'll destroy your brain and take great pleasure doing so.
Jim: Fair enough.
After a few minutes of everyone watching in silence, Tom closes his work on the computer, puts the folder in his briefcase, gets up, and walks out of the office.
Michael opens the door to his office, unaware of what happened.
Michael: (Laughs) You guys aren't going to believe... (Looks around) What's going on?
Pam: I... I have no idea.
Minutes later, Michael comes out of the conference room.
Michael: Pam, get Bill Murray on the phone, now!
Creed (TH): Me? Why does everyone automatically suspect I'm involved every time somebody comes back from the dead? (Pause) Ok, don't tell anyone, but it was a guy I know from Toronto who could pass as Tom's twin. He owed me one, so I said we'd call it even if he came here to liven things up a bit. (Pause) Who's useless now, Amelia?
Meredith (TH): (Smoking a cigarette) Well, he's no Sam Wheat.
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The first idea I had about using Tom was a lot more complicated than the story here. The complete story would take at least 1,000 words, and if at all possible, I'd like to finish the story in one or more of the remaining prompts. I've never seen Ghost so I don't know how memorable that character's name is, but it seemed like since that's one of Meredith's desert island movies she would refer to him by name and not "that guy from Ghost" or "Patrick Swayze's character from Ghost."
I said I was going to try to wait to post my entry this week until Saturday or Sunday, and I made it to Friday. Although I didn't meet my goal, I did better than I did the first 3 weeks. One thing that will help me to hold off posting is that the extra time I spent tweaking my entry before posting it made it a ton better than it was originally was. Even if it still sucks, it's a hundred times less sucky than it originally was.
This week, hardly anyone posted their entry until the last few hours before the deadline. I can't imagine doing that. Besides worrying that someone else would post a similar and no doubt superior entry based on the same idea as me with no time to come up with something else, with my luck my Internet would probably go out and then I'd miss the deadline. I sent in my votes a little bit ago for week 4 and I had 3 favorites, and 5 more that I also liked a whole bunch. It's funny how in the test threads so many people are self-deprecating about their entries, that the entry sucks, or they won't get any votes. The other contest participants are all insanely smart, creative, and funny, and they're still very humble about their talent. As a non-writer who's not nearly as smart, creative, or funny as everyone else, I know that I have no chance of winning a prize in the contest, and I'd be pleased to find out I got a single vote over the course of the entire contest, or at least know that no one sent emails asking that I be blocked from the contest for my lame entries that are wasting people's time. Anyway, the week 5 prompt was posted yesterday, and so far I've had probably a hundred ideas for it, although I don't think any of them have been particularly good.
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