Dirty Dozen Fridays Writing Prompt

Set your timer and for the next fifteen minutes and write something using these twelve words. The order of the words can be switched around as necessary. The choice of whether you write fiction or non-fiction is up to you. And don’t use all the words in the first paragraph.

  • confidential
  • department
  • ivory
  • evidence
  • loam
  • glasses
  • plaid
  • 11
  • dealings
  • prohibited
  • grids
  • forlorn

Do not use them all in one paragraph either! Spread them out — one per paragraph (or page) would be a nice challenge.

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  1. It wasn’t as big an issue as Amy made it, Ally reasoned, pedaling faster on her way home. It wasn’t like the information was top-secret, confidential stuff. Or, at least she didn’t think so. Whatever the case, though, Amy totally overreacted and Ally deserved the apology, not the other way around.

    Her house came into view, suddenly, and Ally slowed until she skidded into the garage. There was no one home, and she sighed irritably. Her mom worked in a pretty cool department in the museum – she brought her work home, and it lifted Ally’s spirits to see all of her mother’s crazy designs.

    The polished ivory of the counter clinked as Ally’s keys hit it, more sharper than she had intended. There were dried peanut butter fingerprints on the table, and she rolled her eyes. That meant that her little brother was at afternoon kindergarten, and that he would be showing up soon with her father. She cleared the evidence of her brother’s brunch and fell onto the couch, grabbing the remote control of the television and putting her legs up on the coffee table.

    Her eyes chanced the window, where their completely, utterly imperfect garden today contained clumps of loam. Apparently her father had been trying to fix it up this morning, but made it worse. He had also forgotten his glasses, which her laying innocently on the computer desk.

    There was a sudden screech of a car on the driveway, and Ally sighed, her eyes closing, as the door opened and small feet pattered inside.

    “Hi, Ally!” Kevin said, throwing his sneakers in the general direction of the closet and grabbing the remote control from his older sister. She had to smile, despite being a little annoyed. Her little brother was the best. He was pretty cute, and loved to play with her. The feeling was mutual, though, even through the fact that Ally had stopped playing with Hot Wheels when she was six.

    “Hey, Ally. Why’s the t.v on?” her father asked. Ally sighed.

    “It was only until you guys got home…”

    “Well, we’re home now. Turn it off. You’ve got homework to do, and May will be coming home any second,” he said sternly, though Ally knew he didn’t mean it harshly.

    “Yes sir,” she said, mock-saluting him and running up to her room, where she changed into her plaid pajamas for comfort. She proceeded to make her way back to the kitchen, where her father was busy trying to find his glasses. “On the computer desk,” Ally rolled her eyes, and fell onto the bed in the den, opening her books.

    Kevin was already there, his gaming system in hand. May, her 11-year-old sister, was also sitting on a couch, her fingers messy with ink. “Hey May,” Ally said, grinning at her little sister.

    “Hello,” she said distractedly. Ally and May’s dealings were strictly limited to simple greetings and farewells; any more than that was prohibited by their parents. With the two-year-gap between them, outsiders to the family didn’t know why they weren’t close. Ally and May knew, though – they were opposites in every way. They didn’t get along at all.

    Ally turned to her math homework, staring at the grids with a forlorn and confused look. Just as she was about to pick up her pencil, her father’s voice rang out, “I’m going to work, kids! Your mother will be home in a little, and so will I.”

    “Bye!” The three of them said together.

    Author’s Notes: This was just a simple slice of life; I wrote what came to me. It’s not meant to be pretty or make sense. It’s just a piece of sporadic writing. It might be grounds for another story – you never know – but for now, it’s only written for enjoyment. It took me twenty minutes (five minutes over the limit), but I got something done. I used all of the prompts, at the very least!

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