The 7-7-7-7 Challenge
By Alexa Piper
Have you ever heard of a 7-7-7-7 challenge?
No? Well, I will give you about thirty seconds to fantasize about what it might be; go.
If you are done with that, let me explain what it really is. (And in case you thought it might run along the lines of 7 times in 7 hours, 7 different positions and 7 different toys, then no, that one’s a different challenge.)
The 7-7-7-7 challenge is a writer’s challenge, and it goes something like this: go to the 7th page of a work in progress, 7 lines down, post the next 7 lines, and challenge 7 more writers. TJ Dodd threw the digital gauntlet my way. (Thanks, TJ!)
Cori kindly offered me her online home for the purpose of posting my excerpt; she’s just nice like that, y’all!
So without further ado, I’ll give you seven lines, taken from the seventh page of a current work in progress:
The tall stranger finally let go of her hand. He left her standing to look around the ship’s interior, dark metal bathed in fluorescent light. Some of the wall paneling had been removed and the circuitry beneath lay exposed. Malin was not intimately familiar with a dandelion’s basic blueprints, but she could see that the vessel had been, well, customized.
Her head whipped around when she heard the ramp’s hydraulics move to close.
“Whoa, wait just a minute there,” she said.
“Wait for what?” he said. “It don’t seem like you got a minute to waste.” His eyes met hers, held them until she submitted, looked down. The stranger was right, and Malin hated that.
And now I guess I get to challenge people! Yay! As I was challenged through Twitter (@ProwlingPiper in case anyone wants to follow) that’s gonna be how I’ll be challenging people. Let’s see what people what the writers are writing I say. 🙂
