Writing Exercises at Their Best

I found a decent site for writing prompts in Writer's Digest. It's updated frequently as they have holiday/calendar related prompts. This is one I chose (hoping I'll do a good job with dialogue):

When out to lunch with co-workers, you bump into a close friend who refers to you by a nickname. Because of its unusualness, the nickname catches the interest of one of your co-workers who asks for the story behind it. Start your story with, "This may come as a surprise, but ... " and end it with, "And that's how I got the nickname (fill in the blank)." (500 word or fewer)

Photo credit: flashlightfish

"This may come to a surprise, but...I'm a bit of a goody two shoes, " I reported. "That nickname, Sovereign is in regards to me being a good two shoes, princess type...in fact when Daniel and I used to play Super Mario Brothers, I always played the princess character. And on top of that, my middle name is Severina. Which I guess sounds like Sovereign."

The three of us continued to walk down the street towards our building. Maggie looks over and says, "I guess I see it."

"So, Daniel is your friend from high school and you've had that nickname since then? Who else calls you by that name?" asks Lara.

"Yes, Daniel went to Wash with me. Hmmmm, but the nickname didn't surface till college. Our other friend, Charles made it up. He was into nicknames...and was desparate to find one for me.

"He should have tried harder...though, I suppose it's regal. Get it?!" Lara joked.

I laughed all the way up the stairs and into my office, only waiving at Maggie as we parted ways to our separate wings.

"Gee, it wasn't that funny," Lara said.

"Maybe not, " I replied, "but it got me."

Always unmotivated to work after a bento box lunch, I decided to check my personal email before cracking down on that event budget. Daniel had already sent me an email about meeting up later in the week for coffee. Oh, sent from his Apple iPhone...la ti da, I thought to myself. As I was replying to his email, I began to go over our 15 year friendship. I realized there was more to the story of the nickname and had to share with Lara down the hall.

"Hey, Lara! I remembered more details around how I got my nickname. I was at the mall with Daniel and Charles, and I ran into a family friend who's name was Princess. I hadn't seen her in years, and after small talk, I realized I didn't know her at all anymore. In fact, I disliked how fake we both were in our conversation. 'I used to envy Princess,' I told the two. 'She always had prettier dresses and cooler toys than me...she was always prettier too.' Charles retorted, 'But look who's prettier now? Who's better dressed, and has two fly boys at her side?' Daniel added, 'And you're about 5 inches taller than her too!!' 'Ah ha, Charles added, "looks like you're more of a princess than she is. And we shall call you, Sovereign."

"And that's how I got the nickname, Sovereign."

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Opps...425 words!