An Off the Cuff Proposal

I propose a challenge where the entries must be "Off the Cuff". This means that the challenge is to write a short essay, that was written without editing, other than punctuation, spelling, or, adding a necessary word to have a sentence make sense. A first draft.

We all obsess and go over our stories with the finest comb we can muster, and second guess ourselves, we rack our brain to find someone to edit, and give feedback. But, what if we just wrote an essay, off the cuff, and without looking back, sent it in?

I looked for an image of a man's cuff, with the fancy French cuff links, but got irritated trying to find one I liked, thought I had one that was royalty free, or at least had the info I should include, but, instead my own cuff came up, and I just kept it. (I think the great team at Vocal found one, or else someone agreed to be a model, and they replaced my image.) Thanks, Vocal!

Now, this challenge would require honesty on the part of the writers who submit, but, it would lose the gist of the fun if people aren't willing to just write what comes into their head, and out of their fingers, and onto the keyboard. Just write! That does not mean you can't back up, fix a word or two, but, the idea of the challenge I propose, is to write what comes to mind first, using the first words that came to your mind. In fact, just now, I went back to the earlier sentence, and added the keyboard words. But, if I had not thought of that now, it wouldn't be fair to sneakily save this in a draft, go back, and enter the new thought words later, then with my tail between my legs, submit.

Yes, I know that the best writers that get published, they are painstaking to be sure that what is finally written is what they intended to say, but they all have to start somewhere, and do something to get the words on the page.

I am new to Vocal, and actually a bit new to trying to write for the purpose of being published, and I know that a lot of people on this website are actual aspiring writers. They want to make a living at their craft, or be in a publication that others will read, and not just the usual suspects, so some may not want to have what they consider a rudimentary draft scrutinized by other people, who expect perfection. They probably won't participate!

I am going to be honest, I am running out of words to flesh out this essay to meet the 600 word requirement. If this is not published, that is OK, I just wanted to find a way to throw out an idea.

Well, turns out, when Vocal says they want 600 words Cookie, they want 600 words!

So, let me find some more words, off the cuff.

I think it would be interesting to see what our writing community will do, with the constraint that they have to write the first words that come to mind, no looking at a thesaurus for a better word, no more getting up in the middle of the night to prune, comb, and iron out each word or phrase. Spontaneity is the word in this challenge, should Vocal decide to accept it, and the writers bite. I am spontaneiting with the best of them right now. I am not sure that word I just used is a real one, (I made it up). It seems only fair, that if I ask you to be spontaneous, I should be also.

If the vocal crowd reads this, please give me a heart, to let Vocal know you like the idea, and will most likely participate. Vocal, if you publish, I will post this on the Vocal Facebook page.

See you soon at the shop around the corner!