Eight is NOT Enough

Did you know that Mark Hamill played one of the 8 Bradford kids in the TV show Eight is Enough? He left after the pilot to go play some obscure movie character called Luke Skywalker.

But that’s not the 8 I’m writing about. My 8th out of 8 micro-fiction stories submitted to www.curatedmicrofiction.com was selected for publication. You can read it here. It’s not my favorite one I have written. I think I need to escape from the Literary/Creative prompts and get back to my humor roots.

I plan to keep submitting these until my streak is broken, or I find no value in doing them. I currently find them to be a useful exercise in editing. I took a look at the humor prompt for the current challenge and said, “Yuck.” You can read it here. I wasn’t sure where to go with that prompt. This was the first draft of my first idea.

Dalrymple Diaper Service was teetering on insolvency. Meg was sure that her idea would lead the company back to profitability. Clay Dalrymple’s misogyny was only surpassed by his poor business decisions. That’s why Meg gave her plan to Bob to present at the staff meeting as his idea. She needed the job.

Bob was sure that Meg’s plan would get him the title of Vice President. As for Meg, he contemplated making her his assistant to prevent any leaks about the true source of the plan. And he knew she could fully absorb the job responsibilities. What he didn’t know is that Meg had a plan about her plan.

Beth sat across the conference room table and gave Meg a wink as Bob presented her plan as his. Points. Sub-points. Counter-points. Exclamation points! Meg’s presentation had them all. Bob concluded and asked, “Any questions?”

Meg stood and addressed Mr. Dalrymple, “Did you like it?”

“It’s brilliant,” replied Dalrymple.

Turning to Bob, Meg asked, “And did you create this all yourself?”

Bob blushed and answered, “Yes,” with a twinge of uncertainty as if he had been asked if he was a good person.

Meg turned around while Beth reached over the table and pulled down the zipper on Meg’s dress as the employees gasped.

“Then how is it I have your plan written on my back in marker?” asked Meg. Beth admired her printing. She had even incorporated a mole on Meg’s back into the plan as a dot over an i.

“You see, Mr. Dalrymple, this plan is mine,” declared Meg.

“Well, I sure as heck knew it wasn’t that nitwit’s plan,” replied Dalrymple. “Listening to his ideas got us into trouble. Let’s fix this mess, so we can get back to cleaning up in the dirty business of diapers.”

Wow, “Yuck” indeed. That is a whole lot of unfunny, hot garbage writing. So, I kept some of the first paragraph and rewrote everything else in a complete different direction and loaded it with jokes. I count six jokes in the 300 words which is a lot to squeeze in. Yes, the jokes are all corny, but they loved and awarded my story filled with Dad jokes, invented words, and fart references. We’ll see if they like some genuine corn from Illinois with this new story.