by Mayumi-H | May 23, 2012 | Short Stories, Songbirds
It’s week 43 for the 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups (100WCGU)! The prompt this week is:
“…The flame flickered before…”
I wrote this one quickly – on my 20-minute morning train – but I quite like it. Usually, I fret over the words much more than I did with this one. I don’t know if that means I’m getting better at writing these, or if I “hear” the voices of my Songbirds so much more clearly than the voices of other characters, or if the prompt just worked out right for me, this week. Whatever the reason, I hope you enjoy!
“That Unexpected Spark”
Flame Kiss, by Martin Eftimov
She didn’t know when it happened, only that it wouldn’t let her go.
Perhaps, it had begun in the old DVD store, when she’d first seen his lopsided smile. Or in the library, when he’d sat beside her, listening to a history of angels. Or in that moment of desperate terror, when she’d thought everything hopeless…and then felt his arms surround her.
Or, perhaps, it happened the first time she kissed him: an unexpected spark of feeling for a friend who could be something more.
The flame flickered before, but that kiss had made it flare.
Sally wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Other writers I follow always seem to be able to do so much more with those 100 words than I can do. I suppose it’s just my style, that I tell things slowly? Regardless, I enjoy these challenges, and I look forward to more. (I just wish I could write like other people, sometimes.)
How did you interpret the idea of a flickering flame?
by Mayumi-H | May 16, 2012 | Short Stories
The prompt for this week’s 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups (week 42):
You are to write a piece with these words in it:
LIBERTY EMPIRE APPLE YELLOW ENORMOUS
I’ve been trying to stretch my writing muscles with these, lately, so I decided to see if I could write a bit of action, this time around.
“Liberty and Death”
Fin shoved her ahead, and Cora slipped, across mossy stones slick as rotted apple pulp. But still she ran, the clangor of metal and voices chasing after:
“Retrieve the princess! Death to the Empire!”
Until, suddenly, there was no passageway left.
She spun, but her warning died in her throat. For spilling at her feet was Fin, broken and bloodied, his spear clattering beside.
Cora’s body shuddered.
Her pursuers were ready for a girl, a monarch’s delicate daughter. They weren’t ready for the angry, yellow-eyed monster that rose, enormous, before them.
“Here is your liberty!” it bellowed, spewing liquid fire.
Do not piss this girl off.
For some reason, this prompt made me think of revolutionaries and rebels. The problem with revisionist history, though, is that, most of the time, you don’t get to see the other party’s point of view.
This doesn’t necessarily follow any kind of conceived timeline or history for the Fin and Cora characters, by the way. I’m just spitballing ideas, here, seeing what – if anything – works.
How did you fulfill this week’s prompt?
by Mayumi-H | May 13, 2012 | Fearless, Short Stories
Not prompted by any challenge, but I wanted to write something in honor of Mother’s Day over here.
Her Motherly Reason
Maggie stared at the clock. Six sixteen, three hours since the shot had sounded, calling Jim away. She knew it was selfish (the crew needed their coxswain), but today was Mother’s Day!
She sighed. Mother’s Day without her husband. Rubbish.
The door creaked; she sat up. “Jimmy?”
“…Mummy?”
Maggie blinked. “Ross? What are you doing up?”
Carrying the tea tray, he padded in, his grin showing off a gap of lost baby teeth. “I made you breakfatht!”
Cold cereal and water wasn’t quite the scrumptious breakfast she’d imagined for today. But she smiled anyway, and hugged him, her motherly reason.
A childhood friend’s mother told us this story. One Saturday, when Jenny was a little girl, she brought Mommy breakfast in bed: dry Boo Berry cereal and water. Mommy thanked Jenny for being so thoughtful, gave her a hug, and then sent her on her way to watch her cartoons. Then Mommy put the cereal and water under the bed, to clean up later.
Boo Berry Cereal. The type of breakfast only a child could love.
That story’s stuck with me for many years. There’s something very pure and charming about a child being so selfless and kind, to go to the trouble of making his or her mom breakfast in bed. Of course, a kid’s idea of a great breakfast is not necessarily the same as an adult’s, not to mention that a young’un usually can’t make much more than cold cereal. But the sweetness is there.
I decided to translate this little true story into backstory for my hero.
In my novel, the main character starts out the story being pretty selfish. His impetus for doing things in the first few chapters is to satisfy his own ego, or to get a modicum of revenge on a woman who spurned him. But, over the course of the story, he comes to understand that the world – and its wonders – are greater than himself. I didn’t think he could do that very well if he was a complete prick through and through; there has to be some compassion and selflessness already in him, even if it takes a trauma to make him remember that it’s there.
What about you? Do you like writing backstory for your characters?
by Mayumi-H | May 12, 2012 | Process
I was going to spend this entry talking a little bit about self-edits, but I’ll save that for another time.
Instead, I thought I’d share a link to this post from over at The Red Pen of Doom, wherein Mr. Guy takes his titular pen to my entry to Ms. Joey’s Spring Into Action Flash Fiction contest from a few weeks back. Go take a look, and learn from his edits and comments. Don’t worry; it’s totally safe (Ms. Joey made us keep things PG).
Pretty darn slick, huh?
Now, if you’re like me, you probably get very nervous when you post anything original, because you’re putting yourself out there for anyone to mock. But, in this case, I remembered that one of the main points of my current novel project is overcoming fear, so I made myself submit that flash fiction piece.
“Aaah! What have I done?!”
The result? I had a lot of fun stretching writing muscles I hadn’t exercised in a while (namely, writing adventure). Even better, though: now, not only do I feel very honored to be made an example of by Mr. Guy, but I think I have a better idea of how to write that potential story!
The moral of this very short anecdote is, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Even if it’s just something small. You never know who might be reading.
Remember, it’s up to you to beat down those trolls who tell you you can’t do it!
Trollhunter. Find him. Watch him. Learn from him.
by Mayumi-H | May 9, 2012 | Short Stories
We’re up to the 41st week in the 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups series! This week’s prompt is from the picture below. (Do be sure to check out some of the other entries, while you’re over there!)
Old bones exhibit in the National Museum of Scotland.
Photo by Julia Skinner
I have to admit that I originally took the prompt to be “bones,” and so wrote something a little bit different. But, with a modicum of tweaking, I think I was able to make this story fit. What do you think?
“One Last Leap”
Another doodle-y doodle
Tomorrow, the cloud prince would come. To take her away from the sea, the only life she’d ever known. And the only love.
With naked toes grasping the bluff’s edge, Cora shook her head. Tomorrow, she’d be dead.
A better fate than any mountain palace was the wave-tossed tomb below. There, in that watery hollow of forgotten bones, she’d first felt Fin’s forbidden kiss, and known she’d never love another. She wished him here, if only to feel him one last time.
But she couldn’t wait. Tomorrow was coming.
Closing her eyes, she stepped free…and heard him call her name.
Revisiting Cora and Fin, here, from another short fiction attempt. I changed Cauda’s name to Cora, because it, too, has a relation to water (in Scottish, it means “seething pool,” which is appropriate for her character). And, because it’s easier to pronounce. (I liked the look of “Cauda,” but even I had trouble keeping straight the pronunciation.)
I also don’t want to create a precedent for myself, adding drawings to these flash fiction stories, but I had to try my hand at an underwater moment, since I’m struck by the beauty of it so.
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