Here are gathered a collection of personal writings, created either from prompts found on the internet or random inspiration or even resulting of assignments from various classes I followed over the years. They’re organized by year, starting from the most recent to the most ancient.
2024
The Dead Collection
Ariane is hard at work removing some mushrooms from what she’s looking for in the Paris Exclusion Zone when she hears a noise in the bushes. Surely, it’s only the wind… Short story written for NYC midnight 500 words challenge with the prompt horror/memorizing/a mushroom. Received an honorable mention. (Read more)
On the fence
It’s said some people work better under pressure but trying to debug a program created by a dead mad scientist while being chased by the agents of a shady organization might too much pressure… Short story written for NYC midnight 500 words challenge with the prompt action thriller/debugging/a wooden fence. Ranked 8th place of the group. (Read more)
adventures in tea tasting
In the context of my 2024 creating writing class we were asked to remember our best or worst food experience and to recount it from the point of view of a character as different from us as possible. Being a thirtysomething woman with no children I went with a middle-aged divorced dad trying to find ways to connect with his teenage son. (Read more)
one truth & one lie
One of the assignments from my 2024 creating writing class was to describe two objects we owned, with the twist. One of those objects needed to be a complete fabrication. I’m very happy to report there was no certitude in the class as to which was the real one and which was the fake one. Can you guess? (PS: no the picture is not a clue, it’s just the prettiest one I found on unsplash to illustrate this post) (Read more)
the man in the metro
Another assignment from the creative writing class I enrolled in 2024. It required we observe the people around us, pick one and write a story about what we imagine their life to be.
The man I used as a base caught my eye in the metro because his behavior stood up among the commuting montrealers. And since writers are nothing but rapacious scavengers, I took a few notes about him and ended up with this short text. (Read more)
what’s in my name?
In 2024, I’ve taken a creative writing class at Concordia Continuing Education. Over the course of 10 weeks, I went back to basics when it comes to story, structure, plot and theme and wrote a serie of assignments. The first one of which was to write about your own first name. How did your parents chose it? Do you like it? Do you use it? If not, why and what do you use instead? (Read more)
2023
init.
In 2023, I enrolled into a poetry class. The goal was to produce the first and second draft of a poem, using one of those created during the class. I went with the still life exercise that was aiming at describing an everyday item in a poetic way. (Read more)
I’ll leave behind the palaces
In 2023, I enrolled into a poetry class. One of the exercises required to take the rhymes of an existing poem and to create a new one using them. (Read more)
2022
The ritual
I honestly can’t remember what was the prompt that inspired me to write that. I can only tell you there was one. (Read more)
Tell don’t show
During a workshop, one of our colleagues challenged us to reverse the good old “Show don’t tell” to a “Tell don’t show” to produce a small text. Here’s the result of that experience. (Read more)
2019
the thing in the attic
A short horror story written for my own entertainment back in 2019, combining autobiographical elements and some nightmares I made over the years. (Read more)
Alizé Gabaude 