Writing Exercise: Damn hyphens

A couple of weeks ago the below three words were chosen at random to create a short story:

• Hyphen
• Irish
• Bottle

With only five minutes to come with something, often times I find that I have no idea where I’m going with a story when I get started. It’s surprising to see where you end up when the timer goes off.

Max put down the bottle of Irish whiskey and stared at the word he just wrote.Damn hyphens, he thought to himself. They were his nemesis; always unsure when he should use them, but when he had enough to drink he stopped caring, so he poured some more into his glass and made short work of it.  He sat in his chair waiting for the alcohol to do its job, but it was no use. Max was more agitated than normal and he knew why. It was the woman he met today. She was beautiful with her long dark hair and blue eyes that seemed to pierce his soul.

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