Three-Word Scenario: My first gift for him

I’ve mentioned my these three-word scenarios before. It’s a fun exercise for me, a great way to keep my brain actively coming up with new ideas while I’m revising a novel. I’ve decided to keep all my scenarios under 200 words.

My sweetie picked the three words this time:

The scenario I came up with is more the start of something, or perhaps the ending of an m/m romance between friends, a sweet moment in time that could lead to more.

Christmas Eve. Out first together in a real home.

Outside it was raining, the ground covered in mud—not the snow I’d always imagined—and Tommy was late getting home from work. I shouldn’t have been this happy. I shouldn’t have been sitting on the floor of the living room staring up at the Christmas tree with its blue twinkling lights and candy canes, smiling like peace on earth really was just a wish away.

I carefully secured the end of the wrapping paper around the 1970’s alien action figure set. A garage-sale find that had taken me four Saturdays of walking through one suburban housing development after another, scouring through boxes of old toys in search of the little plastic green aliens. Tommy’d had the same set as a kid. Since we’d both run away from less-than-stellar homes as teens, neither of us had any childhood mementos to remind us of the few good days we had in our youths.

The smile grew as I imagined his face when he opened the box.

My first gift for him. The first time I’d had money to spend on something this frivolous. Only, to Tommy it wouldn’t be that at all.

Word Count: 200 (just made it!)

Dang, now I have a new story I want to write.

Leave a comment if you have an idea for a 3-word scenario I can use in the future. I’d love to hear your ideas.

This scenario was cross-posted at Loose End this week.

 

3-Word Scenario: My Friend Harry

(c) istockphoto.com, Squaredpixels 2010

Back in December I did an interview at author Julie Hayes’s blog and one of the questions was: Take these three words and give me a 100 word or less scenario using them: concert, documented, broadcast

Below is what I came up with. Maybe the idea to a new story, I don’t know. I thought it might be fun to post these 3 word scenarios from time to time as a creative exercise. A way for me to play around with new ideas that don’t have to become anything more than an idea (or maybe they will).

My friend Harry used to work as a producer for broadcast TV. But he told me when he finally accepted he was in love with his best friend, he gave up the career he’d always hated, moved to New York, and started a band. See, I’m his best friend. A guitarist. I think Harry would do anything for me. He’s even landed us some sweet concert gigs, and he’s documented our journey as a rising band for our website. I watched the footage last night. There’s a lot of me in it. Maybe he really does love me this time around.

What do you think?