The time has once again come to grab your feathered quill and stare in agony at the unfathomable terror of the blank page. Yet another writing contest is upon us.
I’m going to follow the format of the first one this again. For the uninitiated, here are the rules.
- At the end of this post and in other people’s posts you will find lists of three things, each accompanied by FOR or AGAINST. You must choose one from somewhere in the thread and write a short piece arguing why we should have that respective opinion about that respective item.
- Put your entry in a spoiler, which you can add using
[details="TITLE_GOES_HERE]TEXT_GOES_HERE[/details]
or by clicking the cog in the post editor and choosing Hide Details. - After your entry, add three new items, each with FOR or AGAINST attached, for others to use.
- You can enter as many times as you want.
- I will choose the winner and perhaps runners-up two weeks from now.
- I reserve the right to remove posts dealing with or suggesting topics which may cause controversy or offense. The point of this is not to argue your actual opinions, however mad they may be, but to argue like a madman about something ridiculous.
As before, here’s another example of my own work here.
Eye on the Ball
Consider, if you will, meteorites.
In February 2013, a small asteroid entered our atmosphere and exploded above the town of Chelyabinsk, Russia. A white fireball sliced across the sky with the power to shatter windows miles away.
This was a small one. At the same time, a significantly larger asteroid ran the gauntlet between our planet and the moon. An asteroid that size would have likely wiped out most life on Earth. Stray rocks like this pepper our solar system, playing interplanetary pinball where the stakes are our lives. If one hits, we’re toast.
So I ask: how much money do you think all the countries of the world have spent on measures to prevent such a thing happening?
As it turns out, in all of history across all nations, we have spent the equivalent of one third of Wayne Rooney’s annual salary. What the hell are we doing? Why are we pouring so many resources into letting a bald man kick a synthetic dead pig around a fake grass rectangle, when we should be watching the violent lumps of rock that actually matter?! It’s capitalism gone stark raving bonkers! Ah yes, we may have perished in a fiery post-apocalyptic hellhole, but at least we got some entertainment out of people with sculpted plastic for wives running about like ninnies and pretending to fall over for sympathy!
So, make your choice: lower salaries for football players, or death.
As you can see, this piece’s prompt was FOR lower salaries for football players (that’s soccer for Americans). I believe my information was correct at the time of writing, but I won’t stand by that. It’s for fun, it’s not meant to be accurate.
Please also read the previous contest with this format for more inspiration.
Finally, here are three topics to get you started. Good luck!
FOR: Snakes, everywhere.
FOR: That sudden, earth-shattering moment when you remember Harrison Ford is one day going to die.
AGAINST: Writing.