Three years ago I set myself a challenge, write exactly one hundred words each day for one hundred days. It was a bit of a struggle sometimes, a great struggle in fact, but I did it! It was an interesting undertaking, and in fact for a week or some I continued to do it, but then it lapsed as I moved on to write other things. I published it as a little book – and at the time I donated the teeny-weeny “profit” I made to the Captain Tom foundation. He was the very elderly man who, during lockdown, challenged himself to walk one hundred steps a day, with his walking frame, to raise money for some charity. He had expected to receive donations from local villagers, but in fact his story went viral and he ended up raising far more than that. A wonderful achievement, and he was rewarded by a knighthood from the Queen. Sadly, as with many things like this, there was some financial jiggery-pokery – not by him but by others managing his affairs.
However, I took his example and I wrote my 100 hundred words a day. Now I have a similar, smaller challenge – I enter a monthly competition with a similar challenge, to write 50 words on a set subject. Unfortunately, last month for some reason I missed it, but I have entered this month’s, which is to write the fifty words, the subject- “Diary”.
This is what I wrote for “Cinema”:
I kissed Steve McQueen in a cinema in Weston-super-Mare, yes really I did! I was eighteen, he was considerably older. I’ve never forgotten that brief encounter. TBH, it wasn’t a big deal for Steve, he never mentioned it, on the other hand we never met and had that conversation.
Here’s a link to my 100/100/100 book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-words-100m-blogs-days/dp/B09FC6C2R5
… and here’s a link to the Scottish Book Trust: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/50-word-fiction
Lois Elsden 