Write a piece about - or as - a list.

Ideas

• An abandoned shopping list

• A list of names

• A list of memories

• A list of locations

• A list of regrets

• A list of actions

• A list of lists

Responses 

Listomania 

My father was an engineer. Organized. Meticulous. Structured. His credo: an unplanned life is not worth living. It has made me tend towards the obsessive compulsive.

My father always said the beauty of a list is that you could forget everything - as long as you don’t forget to check the list. I’d forgotten that.

Nonetheless, I seek to wean myself from chronic list making and can think of, among others, the following benefits of doing so:

1. Spontaneity can lead to elevated heart rate and release of adrenaline which, assuming it doesn’t burst the dam, can flush the system with systolic pressure that can cleanse the vessels like Drano.

2. Unplanned chaos can cause mistakes, which yield inadvertent benefits, think spoiled milk evolving into a fine cheese.

3. Lists use up valuable, scarce resources like ink and paper, and in this cyber era, precious bandwidth, and storage capacity.

4. The unconcerned, discombobulated bon vivant persona can be catnip to a certain segment of the always competitive pool for available suitors.

5. Depending on one’s level of incompetence, randomness may represent a significant step up in the quality of your performance.

6. The trauma of eventually realizing the inevitable decline of your faculties can be avoided by living now in a state of willful forgetfulness and confusion.

I could go on. Yet, as I read back up the page, I realize, for reasons I would be happy to itemize, my new plan remains a work in progress. Without my current crutch I feel, dare I say, listless.

Scott MacLeod

Scott MacLeod is a father of two who writes in Central Florida. His work has appeared recently in Punk Noir, Micromance, Rmag, Every Day Fiction, Underbelly Press, Free Flash Fiction, Bristol Noir, Havok, Witcraft, NFFD Write-In, Coffin Bell, 10 By 10 Flash, Frontier Tales, The Yard: Crime Blog, Yellow Mama, Short-story.me and Gumshoe, with more forthcoming. 

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Book of Enemies 

They say you need a good Nemesis in your life. If  that’s true then I’m certainly well blessed.

I’m a writer who writes every hour and minute of the day, but I’ve never written a story.

Not even a poem.

I can’t.

You see, I’m too busy writing down all the names of my enemies.

I write down next to them their crimes, the date it happened, and how they will pay.

Every day, the list gets longer as new enemies are added and some old enemies add to their transgressions.

I never forget or forgive a slight, however slight.

As surely as night follows day, I’ll get round to paying back all those people who have wronged me.

Vengeance will be mine, eventually.

This takes up the vast majority of my time.

Some people told me to focus my attention elsewhere. They will regret saying those things. Their names were duly added to the list of the miscreants.

I’m getting round to revenge.

So far I’m up to punishing my enemies that annoyed me on 4th March 1993.

If you're on my list, and you probably are, you’ll never be taken off. Once you are broken you remain broken for life. There is no forgiveness in my universe.

No way back.

So if you’ve slighted me - no matter how slight - then don’t worry.  I’ll get round to settling with you someday.

You have been warned.

Simon Collinson

Simon is a writer from England. He seeks solitude and shadow.