Hi! I hope you’re having a good week. Here’s a new story challenge for you:
Can you tell a story in 50 words? You must use the following words somewhere in the story:
- WILLPOWER
- GUITAR
- TAX
- SLIP
- GOOSEBERRY
- EAGLE
- CAMERA
Last week’s prompt was to tell a story in 33 words using the following words in it somewhere:
- TOUPEE
- HICCUP
- MASTERMIND
- CRUMBLE
- SQUIRREL
Here are your hilarious stories:
I was watching Mastermind and was convinced a contestant had a fluffy orange toupee? Just then the question master hiccupped. The audience crumbled into laughter and a squirrel jumped off the contestants head!
Chris Page:
The mastermind who had invented the anti squirell bird feeder back in the nineties was seen to lift off his toupee and then crumble. He realised there was a hiccup in the design.
Brian sat eating his blackberry crumble trying to mastermind a plan to get rid of the pesky squirrel. He hiccuped and adjusted his toupee. He prepped then the trap with peanuts and waited.
I adjusted my toupee. A hiccup caused me to lose sight of the squirrel. What kind of mastermind loses sight of their quarry during a hiccup? I felt the plan crumble before me.
He was kicking the cabbage around like a football. The referee remarked it was like poetry in motion, but when he wanted to kick it around the maze, his friend told him to quit or he would end up in hospital.
Nicola Daly:
‘I’m a criminal mastermind,’ said the squirrel sticking the toupee on his head as disguise. Just then he gave a loud hiccup. ‘Oops!’ he said. ‘That’s what comes of eating too much crumble.’
I hiccupped straight bourbon. Yes, my case against the mastermind of the crime of the century crumbled on a word, becoming as useless as a toupee on a squirrel. I poured another shot.
–
He thought himself a mastermind, his merest hiccup a stroke of genius, his real ideas god-like in meaning. When the squirrel tore off his toupee, his façade crumbled briefly, and I took advantage.
Squirreljan:
The plan he’d masterminded had gone without a hiccup. He’d screeched, scaring the man so his toupee fell onto the bird table. The squirrel ran off and the magpie scoffed all the crumble.
Carol Miers:
The criminal mastermind walked away in broad daylight, the cash squirrelled away, a successful heist. Until there was a hiccup, when her toupee slipped, the disguise crumbled, then the Police chase began.
Cathy Wattam:
With my new phone, I tried to video the squirrel wearing a toupee but there was a slight hiccup. I’m no mastermind with technology and instead, deleted Auntie Susan’s prize apple crumble photo.
One hiccup and off shot my toupee. Unfortunately I was camping in the woods and a squirrel carried it off up a tree. I crumble at the thought of appearing on Mastermind hairless.
Richard Felix:
The mastermind squirrel perched, eyes glinting, plotting his heist. A hiccup interrupted his thoughts, causing his toupee to shift. As plans began to crumble, he realised: even genius has its moments of folly.
Burt was a dating mastermind. A new toupee, the works! But, she didn’t call back. Maybe it was because he hiccuped and sprayed her with crumble at desert. He felt like a squirrel!!
***
Esther Chilton 
Pingback: Can You Tell A Story In… – Tessa Dean – Author
https://tessadeanauthor.com/2024/06/13/can-you-tell-a-story-in-7/
I didn’t have willpower regarding the tart taste of gooseberries. I slipped my guitar strap around my neck, and it hit my camera, which was already hanging there. I used my camera to snap a picture of the eagle, hoping it would sell for enough money to pay my taxes.
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You’ve done great there, Tessa!
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Oh to slip away like an eagle, dropping off a sheer cliff face – just sheer courage, sheer willpower, no more playing gooseberry or overtaxing myself for others. Oh to hide away from cameras, away from sight, from society.
Yeh, I know, violin strings, plucked guitar strings.
Exit Stage right.
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Excellent! 😁
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Down there? Looks a bit taxing. One slip and I’ll be flying like Eddie the Eagle.’
‘Or you could just go splat like a gooseberry. Go on. Just needs a bit of willpower. I’ve got the camera ready.’
‘Is there anything to hang on to?’
‘Er… This guitar string?’
‘Grrrrr!’
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That made me laugh. Thanks, Nicola.
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Adam drummed up the willpower to play his guitar and avoid paying the incomea tax. His wife appeared in her slip eating a gooseberry crumble. She handed it to Adam and ran off to photograph an eagle with her camera.
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Sorry, was trying to edit and hit send!
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So easy to do!
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That’s a good one, Kim 😊
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Thanks, but I’m a few words short! 😉
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I’ll let you off!
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She’d visited the Scottish Festival since being a lass. Now after years of willpower learning the guitar she hoped to play here without a slip. The eagle eyed might spot a camera on stage, like an intruding gooseberry, recording the moment. Stagefright? Yes but preferential to her tax office job!
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Hi Adele. Many thanks for your story. You’ve handled the prompts very well 😊
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Please provide a password that uses uppercase, numbers, symbols, and lowercase letters.
Utmost importance, words cannot include “willpower” “tax” “guitar”.
She thought desperately, but all she could type was “Slip-a-Gooseberry-into-an-Eagle_using_camera-12?”.
Not Acceptable came back the reply, too many letters, exceeds password rules.
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Very funny 😆
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Thank you!
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If only I’d maintained the willpower to avoid the camera, but I strummed my guitar suggestively and winked at the photographer. Her eagle eyes were willing me to slip up and show my face in full. The next day’s headline read, ‘Tax Evader, Tom Gooseberry is discovered playing in Havana’.
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That’s so clever. Great stuff, Janice.
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I was ready to photograph the eagle .Devoid of willpower I quizzed my’ friend’, why she had to play gooseberry? My husband seemed more interested in her guitar playing than helping set up my camera .
The green monster arose, I let slip, I had deliberately forgotten to post her tax return .
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Very funny, Sheila. I hope you enjoyed writing that one.
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The day an innocent camera shot by a guitar player ended up in a magazine called Willpower Slip, the tax department knew they’d won.
For decades, Flying Eagle Cartel evaded paying thousands in taxes, claiming to use only organic ingredients in their Gooseberry Soap. The crop dusting photo proved otherwise.
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That’s just brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!
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