Inspire me. I'm working on a project… on DailyBooth

gossipguy17

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March 11th, 2010

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Inspire me.

I'm working on a project to write 366 short stories, each one taking place on a different day across a whole year. I'm writing in all different styles, different lengths, different genres, different tones, different characters, different settings. I'm giving everything a go. This is more a personal project than anything else, but if anything comes out of it, then that's brilliant.

But 366 is a lot. Please, give me suggestions of short stories I should try and write. There are some ground rules though.

(1) They must be realistic to the early 21st century - no zombies or aliens or superpowers, etc.
(2) The events must last no longer than one day. Just a single scene is best.

All suggestions welcome.

MartyToes
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whire . . . . . . .
i tried to write write but it came out as whire. GOOD.
ANYWAY!
you should totally write an edward lear style story
like some sort of limerick or rhyming thing.
not sure about the plot

March 11th, 2010
Diceman
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Erm... Gimme a dark horror about a serial killer in England whom leaves wants to be caught and killed (by police) and leaves messages in the bodies as to where to find the next one.

March 11th, 2010
MiraBethy
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A young boy walking briskly down a busy street clutching a piece of paper with an address on it - a bit too tightly.

A 6 year old girl with hair in messy pig tails runs outside of her house at the sound of tires screeching. She looks down her driveway and sees the blood stained remains of...

A skin and bones teenager is vomiting up her sorrows with a toothbrush down her throat. She hears footsteps behind her and coughs up the thing. It plops into the toilet just as HE walks in.

A man in his 40's finally decides to tell his wife about his sexuality and the true goings on next door between Luca and himself while she thinks them to be playing pool. (good way to get some decent balls jokes in if desired)

A girl and boy in their early 20's drop acid and take a walk in the rainforest.

PS: I am most creative at 5 in the morning. It's true! Have fun Michael :)

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@MartyToes Nonsense poetry? I'm on it! =D

@Diceman I like that idea...

@MiraBethy *sloppy kiss* Those are awesome! Thank you!

March 11th, 2010
Cariad
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Mmm, you could do an alice in wonderland style story? Like where the person believes they're in a diff world. I dunno "/ sorry!

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@Cariad Don't apologise, I like the idea =)

March 11th, 2010
Diceman
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You're damnright you do :P
Can be a fun rush-for-time thing. If you need any descriptive gore scenes hit me up... I enjoy writing those a bit too much...

March 11th, 2010
Manvels
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A group of 10 teenagers going on a holiday to Croatia take the CityNightLine train from Munich to Venice and find out at the station of Verona that there is a 'short stop' of 2 hours, 40 minutes and that the locomotive, 3/4 of the train (to Rome) and all personnel of the train and station are gone. (takes place between 2am and 4.40am.
That's what we had this summer, and I think you could write something good about it ^_^

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@Manvels Nice one! It's noted.

I'm doing one that's just the tweets from one account of the course of a day. Wonder how inane and boring I can make them.

March 11th, 2010
lilybet
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- POV of different animals.

- all the people that get in a taxi during a day

- following a 20p piece through various transactions

- an abstract poem depicting the weather/emotions/light/buzzing of human activity through a day

- some people spend the day doing a 24 marathon... haha

March 11th, 2010
PewterWolf13
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Ooooh! I like the @lilybet suggestions about the 20p and the taxi. Why didn't I think of that?!

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@lilybet That 20p one, I've been wanting to do something like that for absolutely ages, but in my head it was always a £5 note. Maybe I will finally do it here! That's sort of the point of this project too, to get out all the little ideas I've had tucked away for ages.

And ideas from boothers help too!

March 11th, 2010
lilybet
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@gossipguy17 ohhh maybe a £5 note makes more sense, i was freeflowing thoughts at you. guess great minds think alike ;)

- the first day of a baby's life

- the last day of someone's life :(

i'll be thinking about this all day now, i'll get back to you

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@lilybet Already planned those two as well =P
Others I have lined up include a journey down a secret tunnel, a lottery win, someone addicted to a MMORPG, an old man who lives completely alone and a student-based epic. The Valentine's Day story is set in the obituary department of a newspaper rather than focussing on love.

Please, if you do think of anymore, I'd be grateful to hear them.

March 11th, 2010
Cariad
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Are you doing ones like specific for the days? So like 1st Jan, 2nd Jan etc, or just 366 stories? Cos you could do like anti days of the popular holidays, or one of the holidays/ i dunno what im blabbiing on about aha.

March 11th, 2010
Sparrow
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Something about corruption in corporate situations would b cool.

March 11th, 2010
Sparrow
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OH MY GOD I TYPED "B"... Michael shoot me now..
IT WAS A TYPO. D:!!!!!

March 11th, 2010
crimsong19
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Hrm ... I can't think of much right now. Bust best of luck!

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@Sparrow I'll go and get my gun.

@Cariad I'm doing it as if it was a whole year. The Valentine's Day is all about death, and the Christmas one will most certainly not be jolly. But I will have a few birthdays and keep Halloween fun too.

March 11th, 2010
hairhater101
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all I can think of is the awkward first love ones such as:

the first time a girl gets asked out by the guy she likes/an awkward first date

finding out that the guy/girl you like thinks that you are such a good friend, but nothing more

point of view of someone else involved in a wedding, like maid of honor/best man/ring bearer/hated cousin of the bride.

March 11th, 2010
kisswithatear
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A story of a car park; the people who go there everyday and their small insignificant lives and how strange things always happens to at least one of them

March 11th, 2010
zoomswhizzkid
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Why write stories when u can write limericks?

March 11th, 2010
Sparrow
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I don't what you mean by that aha, unless you're making a writing joke?

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@Sparrow You told me to shoot you...

@zoomswhizzkid Nice! Perhaps I shall!

@kisswithatear That's a nice idea!

@hairhater101 First loves are always a good idea. A sentence I'm gonna use as a basis for one is, "Much is said of the first kiss, but what about the last kiss?"

March 11th, 2010
Sparrow
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Oh yeah.
Wait ... O_O.

March 11th, 2010
kisswithatear
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A young man gets a letter, it has no address from or any indication of who it's from. The address too has been smeared by the rain and the only legible part of it are the words "Come Home"

What are the man's thoughts?

I've always wanted to write a long epic story about this :D In it he's go on a grand travel since he's never known where his home is, his friend comes along and he after many many miles and hardships he turns to his friend abruptly, he asks his friend "Why did you come with me?"
And his friend's only reply is "Because I wanted to be with you."

Thats the backbone of the tale, it's one I heard when I was very young and it made me happy)

March 11th, 2010
GnarlyPants
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Knife crime. The life in the eyes of a dog. Tribesmen under threat from deforestation. A soldier in the war. The president. Archiologists discovering the unknown. Some women who sleeps with lots of men to find love. Someone on their graduation day.

I'm also a writer but not as top notch as you and coming up with realistic ideas isn't really my thing, I have more of an eye for fantasy. I tried my best for you though.

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@kisswithatear Awww, I love that!

@GnarlyPants Fantasy was never my thing ... I've dabbled but can't really do it. Maybe when I've done all these, I'll do some more fantastic stories. Nice ideas though, I'm making notes!

March 11th, 2010
GnarlyPants
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Yeah. I can't write real life. I don't see things like that. I like to believe that there is a place out there where anything is possible, where things aren't what they seem. If that's not real I have my imagination to take me there.

I'm glad you liked the ideas.

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@GnarlyPants See, while I can imagine those worlds, I find the trials and tribulations of people back here more interesting. Everyone's got a story to tell, and I want to tell 366 of them. =)

March 11th, 2010
GnarlyPants
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Haha. Well I do wish you the best of luck with your project. And I know what you mean about the trials and tribulations thing, but I prefer adding a twist and applying those trials into a world where things aren't what they seem.

March 11th, 2010
ChreeesDunn
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Hmmmm
*thinks*
What about someone who is forced to make a decision which will change the rest of their lives? Could play around with the possible outcomes maybe? Could even be a series of possible endings perhaps? :)

March 11th, 2010
emluca123
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A university interview because those are scary...and it's the first thing that popped into my head.

A road trip. :D

I like Katherine's idea, but the life of a dogger. Haha :P

I have book plots, but i don't wanna share them here (on DB) and i'll probs never use them because i could never write a book.

March 11th, 2010
quiquito
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PLANES!

Sorry, I LOVE planes... they're the coolest thing in the world to me! And they have such potential. If you want things to last only one day, that's great, because usually flights (even long-haul) don't last more than 12hrs (I stress usually). Also, there are so many things that can happen on planes (if you want some technical details just ask!) but also, airports are pretty exciting too!

Tragically, silly airlines like Ryanair and stuff have made it their mission to take all the fun and excitement out of flying, and some crappy airports haven't helped either. But I think in a story, it should be easy enough to recapture the magic that air-travel once had. :D

(I may have other ideas if this one didn't float your boat ;) )

March 11th, 2010
ODDBALL
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I little flood, I'm not sure if they could be developed into proper short stories though :

• The general life of someone enjoying their garden; mowing the lawn, pruning the azalea and speaking to the neighbours. It ends with them tripping over the wire of the electric mover and the scream of a terrible accident.

• A teenager finding someone who doesn’t mind being her friend, but ends up being convinced to steal something. Nothing bad happens to her, but conscience forces her into tears when she gets home. The consequences on the friendship and future stealing are deliberately left unanswered.

• A human Mr Happy/Little Miss Sunshine – the day in the life of someone who is perfectly happy, and how they use current technology/media/relationships to bring happiness to others.

• The day in the life of an abandoned animal, narrating/chronicling the heart-warming (but ultimately short-lived) journey from being starved to rescued, then housed in an animal shelter. Told from the confused, fearful animal’s perspective.

• A homeless person who has travelled around the country but has ended up near his home town, and is accidentally spotted by his mother. Told firstly from his perspective, then hers as she sees him and subsequently struggles to find him again after he abruptly leaves.

• A dedicated student scientist, who is determined to find a cure for some disease, then cracks it – only to find out towards the end that his colleague was playing a prank. His (unsaid) comeback is that he is sleeping with their supervisor in return for getting his annoying peer kicked out of the programme.

• A single day in the life of a Mayfly, recalling its transition and it voicing its tunnelled vision regarding mating, not realizing how little time it has left.

March 11th, 2010
FairyTaleBeliever
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Ohh GG I wish I could help you, but my imagination has gone fly about - let's blame exam stress. (Oh you can take that as an idea for sure. Exam results day is always dramatic.)
But I think you are quite amazing to be planning to do this. By the end of it you will be either incredibly skilled and well practiced as a writer, or have blown your brains out. Personally, I'm hoping for the former :)

March 11th, 2010
ODDBALL
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More because I am bored - er, I mean 'inspired' :

• A celebrity-wannabe who wakes up from surgery to find that her boyfriend has left her for someone she brands a ‘Plain Jane’, then is given the news that her surgery did not go as planned and they need to correct it. She is left thinking about how much surgery it will take to make her feel whole.

• A stoic, reclusive, OCD sufferer finds himself being flirted with by a fellow customer in the local shop.

• The crud a businessperson goes through during the day, increasingly asking why they put themselves through this stress and interactions with horrible people, to be reminded at the end when they get home and see their child resting in a cot.

• Kids on the opening night of their school play, with all the inherent histrionics and mistakes, (both off and on stage).

• A student struggling to open their examination results, doing everything to avoid opening them and being forced by friends and family to finally face the future. The results might be better left unsaid.

• The death of a rock-star – think outside the box on this one, with a really mundane cause of death made surprising by the anarchic lifestyle leading up to it.

• The perspective of a satellite, picking out various communications and connections, developing its opinion on the world below, although it does not quite understand it.

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@ChreeesDunn Or maybe have them have to make a big decision and then fifty stories down the line find out what happened when their story collides with someone else’s!

@emluca123 Nice!

@Quiquito Airports it is!

@Oddball Well there’s half a month just from you! Thanks a lot, some great ideas! I love the one of the kids at a stage show. Maybe do one with primary school kids and have the next story about sixth form students … show how similar they really are

@FairyTaleBeliever I’m hoping I don’t blow my brains out too! Maybe one story will be about a writer trying to write 366 stories =P

March 11th, 2010
Albus
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You should connect some of the stories, for example the first story could follow one girl in particular and you could see what a day in her life is like and meet some of her friends, when she goes to sleep at the end of the day that could be the end of her story and then the next story you write could be on one of the friends or people she came across on her day. You could just keep connecting the stories like that.
If that even makes sense.

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@XanthieRose It makes sense. I will have some characters reappearing in later stories, or their actions will affect something that happens later on.

March 11th, 2010
fishiwan
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A man, tied to a cow, in a field, wearing a matador's outfit.

I like, commas.

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@fishiwan So, I, see. And that's a story idea ... it can't end well.

March 11th, 2010
Sazmerelda
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Open a dictionary on three random pages. Close your eyes and point at the page, and pick the word your finger is on. Then try to write a story which includes these three words.

OR I remember when we were doing poetry for GCSE there were poems by Simon Armitage which he wrote in the time it took to take a match to burn... So you could do something like that...

Or... Do you know any other languages? You could write one in another language...

Or write one which is made up of only dialogue, or which has no words beginning with the letter "o" in it, or one which includes every colour of the rainbow somwhere, or... I remember Anthony Horowitz wrote one of his short horror stories so that if you took the first letter of each sentence it spelled out "I'm behind you" or something, I dunno, you could do something like that...

Ok I'm all out of ideas now. Good luck! Are you planning on writing one a day for 366 days, or just to write them for however long it takes to get 366 of them?

March 11th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@Sazmerelda I'll write them for as long as it takes to do 366. Loving some of those ideas though for constricted writing =D

March 11th, 2010
dailivesinaustria
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no idea if it's been suggested but here's an idea:

two people meeting at the coffeeshop. first just eye contact. they start speaking to each other, like each other a lot. then say goodbye but forgot to exchange any contact information.

March 11th, 2010
hairhater101
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@gossipguy17 Ooh that's a good line. :)

March 11th, 2010
Chimel31
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I am right with @Sazmerelda there, we can't give you ready-made ideas, then it's a mess to split royalties.
Pick up a song you like in a language you don't understand, or a piece of music without lyrics, and write the story it inspires you. It even gives you a soundtrack if you turn it into a video.
Or use several sets of cards, one set for the type of hero, type of story, location, time of day, etc. Write down choices on each card of each set, shuffle each set separately, pick a card from each set, and there you are: Twins, Porn story, Wales, Tea time.

March 11th, 2010
catastropheclaire
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@gossipguy17 I'm a big fan of stories about meetings, and what comes of them. For example, a girl talks to a boy on the train, and makes him feel like his day's off to a good start, so he smiles at a man as he walks by him on the street, the man then goes to work and does well so he gets a promotion, which leads him to give a homeless man some money, the homeless man then decides that he won't mug the woman he meets on the bridge, but instead tells her to have a nice day. She then decides not to commit suicide and goes home to her family, and her kid gives her a picture he made in school. All that because a girl talked to a boy on a train.
Just an idea....really.

March 12th, 2010
Albus
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That is good, I like the second idea you have, how the peoples actions will affect things.
Just out of curiosity, why are you writing the stories?

March 12th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@dailivesinaustria Aww, that's good...

@XanthieRose Why? Well, why not? Because I can

@catastropheclaire I've always loved that idea, but in my head it's always apples. Y'see, someone buys an apple from the market. If it's a really good apple, it puts the eater in a good mood and thus everyone he meets is affected positively. If, however, he was given a slightly mushy, rotten apple, he's gonna negatively affect everyone.

March 12th, 2010
catastropheclaire
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@gossipguy17 go with apples then. Although, I've never encountered a person who's bought a single apple.

March 12th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@catastropheclaire *extends hand* Hello! Now you have.

March 12th, 2010
catastropheclaire
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there's something sort of...romantic about that. not in the gushy love sense, but in an old fashioned, cobble stone streets sense.

March 12th, 2010
Fanchy
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And you ask that when I am drowning under work at the office that I barely have time to pop in here (and ignoring totally all the other social platform lol)

As for a story, how about something like :

"I remember the day when I met my best friend, it was back then the worse day of my life... looking back on it... it was not..... obviously, I just was not looking at the bright side of life I suppose..... It all started when..... "

March 12th, 2010
gossipguy17
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@catastropheclaire I do like cobblestones

March 12th, 2010
lilybet
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@gossipguy17 oh yeah i completely forgot that there would be special days calendar wise. you should look up all the various festivals around the world...

March 12th, 2010
ODDBALL
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@gossipguy17 Just in case you are still looking for a few more ideas, and don't mind me releasing my craziness on your booth :

* Someone nonchalantly coming out at work, whose colleagues respond in such a way that it reveals their secret quirks, (e.g., kleptomania, shonen ai fan-girl, death obsession, someone who goes to ‘ladies of the night’ for comfort, and so on). Not all have to be revealed to the other characters, at the end the office closes for the day as normal, ready to continue tomorrow. Comedic drama.

* An amateur author who goes through various crackpot ideas trying to think of a fun story, acting oddly when he goes out to the shops/pub/cinema, and ends up head-desking – which sparks an epiphany that the story concludes on. Comedy.

* A building collapses and a family are trapped within their house and a small number of tunnels left over from mining/the sewerage system. As they starve they go a little insane, with the father murdering the mother and trying to kill the two children. The youngest is caught in the ground when it shifts/gives way, which is when the father attacks her. As he bludgeons her to death the elder sister takes the opportunity to hit him from behind with some broken flooring – she has to stab him in the neck as the claws at her. Everyone else is dead, and after two days without food (and now water), she succumbs to her hunger by feasting on the bodies. The story ends with rescuers making a opening, allowing sunlight to cascade upon her as she stares, disturbed and afraid. Horror.

* Following the day of a self-absorbed jerk, unable to find fulfilment in anything and being verbally rude. After the reader has built up a negative portrait of the protagonist, turn the tables by suddenly introducing the idea that he cannot be happy because he doesn’t have anyone to care for, that his natural instincts to look after others have been left without an outlet, (e.g., we now find out that his parents are dead, or that his friends moved away). Drama.

Blame the depressing ideas on 'Elfen Lied', or better yet @countofvilareal for introducing me to the anime! Now I am off to listen to ‘Missing’ by Evanescence, maybe you could look through your song collection for inspiration. :)

March 12th, 2010
robertshippey
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How about the story you're suppost to write me? lol
Could be set on 26th Nov. My Birthday :)

March 12th, 2010
countofvilareal
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@gossipguy17 Don't blame me, it is just such a good anime, @ODDBALL just can't get enough of it :)

but for my suggestions for short stories:

1) cliché about a girl falling in love with a guy, he doesnt love her back
2) about lying in the grass, staring at the skies and thinking
3) hard-working kid in india and how he/she survives
4) rich old guy who has no one left whom he can inherit his money, and dying in 24hrs

if you need more, just ask, I'll probably have a lot more up my sleeve ;)

March 12th, 2010
morningdew
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so excited about this!!

hope you show it to us once you're done... cant wait to see what you come up with!!!

March 12th, 2010
morningdew
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OMG @ROBERTSHIPPEY WE SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY <3333!!!

March 12th, 2010