Have you tried writing an acrostic piece?

@JudyEv (342105)

Rockingham, Australia

February 2, 2016 10:34pm CST

Renatus Revocatus suggested a discussion submitted by @IreneVincent. It was written acrostically meaning the first sentence started with A and each sentence thereafter started with the next letter of the alphabet - second sentence with B, third with C, etc. We did an acrostic short story in our writing group once so I'm submitting that. Perhaps you'd like to try one too. It's okay to fudge a little for the X.

Letting Go As the young boy trudged his way to school, his thoughts were far away. By the time he returned this afternoon the vet would have put down his old dog, Clancy. Clancy was crippled and nearly blind now. Despite knowing it was for the best, Zac didn't want it to happen. Even at this moment, the vet could be pulling into the drive. Feeling the tears starting to come, Zac sniffed loudly. Gravel flew as he kicked savagely at the dirt. How could they make him go to school today? I should be home with Clancy, he sniffed. Just then, he saw a vehicle approaching. Knowing it was the neighbour's car, Zac hunched his shoulders and walked on. Luke Palmer slowed his ute and pulled to a stop beside the ten-year-old. "Might I ask why the long face?" he asked. Not able to speak, Zac shook his head. "Oh, come on," said Luke. "You can tell me." Pulling to the side of the road, Luke turned off the engine. Quickly he hopped out and fell into step beside Zac. Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a grubby handkerchief and handed it to Zac. "So, I guess poor old Clancy is on his last legs, eh?" The boy nodded and sniffed again. Under Luke's jacket, something wriggled and Luke reached in and gently hauled out a black and white pup. Very gently, Luke held up the pup. Without looking at Zac, Luke said 'Old Bess had her pups a couple of weeks ago but she doesn't have enough milk for them all." Except for a furtive glance, Zac ignored the pup. "You couldn't look after him for a while for me, could you?" asked Luke casually. Zac looked at the pup, put his hand out slowly to stroke the little head and nodded as the tears started to roll down his cheeks. JudyEvans © 2014

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55 responses

@1hopefulman (45120)

• Canada

3 Feb 16

Very well done!

8 people like this

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@1hopefulman (45120)

• Canada

5 Feb 16

@JudyEv I once did a poem to I love you.

3 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Thank you. I read yours on the other post about acrostic writing and thought it was good too.

6 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

5 Feb 16

@1hopefulman Have you still got it? You could put it up here.

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@LadyDuck (472114)

• Switzerland

3 Feb 16

Well done Judy, I never even tried to write an acrostic piece.

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@LadyDuck (472114)

• Switzerland

3 Feb 16

@JudyEv I do not know, I am not sure that I can.

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@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

@LadyDuck I wrote my piece first without worrying about it being acrostic. I made my story 26 sentences long. Then I went back and tried to arrange each sentence so it would start with the correct letter. I used the name 'Zac' as an easy way to cover the letter 'Z'.

7 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Do you think you will try? It is nowhere near as hard as writing a limerick!

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@jstory07 (139976)

• Roseburg, Oregon

3 Feb 16

The story was good every letter from A to Z.

7 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

It took me a while to get it right.

5 people like this

@sofssu (23662)

•

3 Feb 16

I have done an acrostic story a long time ago in school .. this one is beautiful !Love it.

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@sofssu (23662)

•

3 Feb 16

@JudyEv I should If I can sit down for an hour or so.. Having to help my son with his French and Math while cooking dinner is driving me crazy..

I will give it a go tomorrow.

5 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@sofssu Hopefully your son's English teacher will give him an acrostic for homework!!

3 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading. If you've already done one, even a long time ago, perhaps you'd like to try another.

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@AbbyGreenhill (45494)

• United States

3 Feb 16

I remember when Yahoo Voices did a poetry month I think it went on for a month - you had to do every type of poem there is and acrostic was def. the easiest for most people.

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@AbbyGreenhill (45494)

• United States

3 Feb 16

@JudyEv I'm not good at poem, I just pretend~

5 people like this

@IreneVincent (15962)

• United States

11 Dec 16

I wish I could find a good writing site, with challenges and other things. There used to be one that I loved and then it disappeared.

2 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Any kind of poem would be hard for me but I can see that acrostic would be the easiest.

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@garymarsh6 (23404)

• United Kingdom

3 Feb 16

Excellent what a great piece you have written!

7 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

Thank you Gary. It can be hard to make it sound natural and not stilted. My original aim was to write something that people would read and not cotton on to the fact that there was something different about it.

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@Auntylou Thanks Janet. Are you going to have a try?

3 people like this

@Auntylou (4264)

• Oxford, England

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv And I think you succeeded!

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@jaboUK (64354)

• United Kingdom

3 Feb 16

So clever Judy and very readable. The trouble with this sort of thing is that they often make no sense, but you have avoided that admirably.

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@jaboUK (64354)

• United Kingdom

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv I like the way that you've come at this, from the opposite way to how most people would do it. You've written your story first, then looked for ways to start the sentences. That is why it's succesful, in my opinion.

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

As I said to Gary, I didn't want people to think it was anything other than a short tale. I'm glad you approve. I value your opinion.

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@bangun Thank you.

2 people like this

@mom210 (9115)

• United States

3 Feb 16

Great job on this

5 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Thank you. We had some interesting tasks set for us at writing group.

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@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

12 Dec 16

@GinerNut That's a good one too - open to all sorts of interpretations. :)

3 people like this

@GinerNut (187)

• Barcelona, Spain

11 Dec 16

@JudyEv our old standard was 'there's a body at the door '

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@TheHorse (220245)

• Walnut Creek, California

3 Feb 16

Have never tried it. I've written a couple of "square poems," though.

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@TheHorse (220245)

• Walnut Creek, California

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv Oh, I'm very square. Maybe I'll do a square poem challenge. They have a particular structure.

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@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@TheHorse I'll look forward to it.

2 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

What's a square poem? Haven't heard of that term - although we called people 'square' sometimes when we were teenagers.

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@DeborahDiane (40320)

• Laguna Woods, California

3 Feb 16

I have seen simple acrostic poems, but never a story as complex as this done as an acrostic piece. Well done!

5 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Thanks. They're quite fun to do really. I think I wrote the story with 26 sentences then went back and started each sentence with the appropriate letter.

4 people like this

@Auntylou (4264)

• Oxford, England

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv That is a clever way to do it

2 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@Auntylou It seemed easier that way. It had to be 26 sentences to start with which was a bit tricky.

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@Lucky15 (37374)

• Philippines

3 Feb 16

wow! this is nice ma'am :) nice can be understatement, great must be :)

5 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Thanks for the kind words. It is a bit of a challenge to write an acrostic piece.

3 people like this

@fishtiger58 (29820)

• Momence, Illinois

3 Feb 16

That was outstanding. The story was excellent. I'm pretty impressed.

6 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

Gosh, I'm impressive!! How good is that?

Thanks for the kind words.

4 people like this

@nottoooldtowrite (2715)

• Philippines

3 Feb 16

Nice one. I will try to do an acrostic piece.

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

That's good that you're going to try one. I'll look forward to reading it.

3 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

@nottoooldtowrite Well done! Have you posted it yet? I must keep an eye open for it.

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@nottoooldtowrite (2715)

• Philippines

3 Feb 16

@JudyEv I already made one. It was fun though hard.

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@deadreak (653)

• Dagupan City, Philippines

11 Dec 16

I really want it on how you build a story from the beginning to the end, Smoothly you did the acrostic piece. Wow! I wish could that too, there is an excitement in writing acrostic piece its because you must think how are you going to build a story using the alphabet. I love the story i'm impress.

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

12 Dec 16

Thank you for the kind words. I think I mentioned in one of the comments that I just wrote 26 sentences first to tell the story then went back and tried to start each sentence with the correct letter.

2 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

12 Dec 16

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@deadreak (653)

• Dagupan City, Philippines

12 Dec 16

@JudyEv well you did it. congratulation and its was amazing.

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@allen0187 (58582)

• Philippines

11 Dec 16

Great writing prompt here. I'll go ahead and try it one of these days.

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@allen0187 (58582)

• Philippines

11 Dec 16

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@IreneVincent (15962)

• United States

11 Dec 16

@allen0187 It was good wasn't it? So worth reading.

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@IreneVincent (15962)

• United States

11 Dec 16

It's really a good piece of writing.

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@Carmelanirel2 (8084)

• United States

3 Feb 16

I may have tried poetry in my class, but poetry isn't something I prefer to write, I like writing novels better. However, if I had a choice between a poem and short story, I would pick a short story anytime and you did a wonderful job with yours.

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@Carmelanirel2 (8084)

• United States

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv I don't even like writing in journals and I had to do that in one of my classes. I was able to, but didn't enjoy it. However, I do have notes I take for my stories, and some ideas for future books, but it isn't anything like journaling.

2 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

Thank you. I am not good at writing poetry and novels are too long to attract me as a writer.

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Shane Chan Chooo

@iamshane487 (1139)

• Manila, Philippines

3 Feb 16

I love it! I'm inspired to write an acrostic story, but I don't think I can level this piece of you. So beautiful!

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

3 Feb 16

Thank you. I hope you have a go as it's good fun and not all that hard.

2 people like this

@GreatMartin (23672)

• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

4 Feb 16

Not my thing--my mind is all over the place when I write--anything!!

4 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

I enjoy your writings - acrostic or not.

2 people like this

myLot Prince (LOL)

@trivia79 (7828)

• El Segundo, California

3 Feb 16

Nice work! Acrostic with a story!

3 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you liked it.

2 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@trivia79 I don't think we ever did anything like this when I was at school. We used to write 'compositions' though which were just little stories.

2 people like this

myLot Prince (LOL)

@trivia79 (7828)

• El Segundo, California

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv yep! i liked it very much! i remembered back in my high school days, we also wrote about acrostic of our name in a bond paper with some designs on the border hehehe

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@quarternoes (236)

• Indianapolis, Indiana

4 Feb 16

I gotta try this.

3 people like this

@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

Hope you do. It's a good challenge.

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@JudyEv (342105)

• Rockingham, Australia

4 Feb 16

@quarternoes Haha. I cheated by having my boy called Zac. You get wise with old age.

Or maybe it's cunning rather than wise.

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@quarternoes (236)

• Indianapolis, Indiana

4 Feb 16

@JudyEv Working on the, "Z" now...lol

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