Saturday Story: Her Homey Cafe (For FTP & Writing Prompt)

Creative Writing Prompt Image

Karen loved her café. Her grandma had made it so comfy, it felt like a warm old kitchen. Her modern mom wanted to change this place into a fancy restaurant where people can buy expensive small dishes. She fought hard to keep it as her grandma had left it.

“You see how empty this place looks like,” she used to say, “What people want to eat in a place without a single Tablecloth”. Karen thought that the marble pattern looked better than any tablecloths. And it was not always empty, the regular always came back with smile on their face.

Total: 100 words for Tablecloth (100)

Saturday Story : A Bet (For FTP)

“Here you go!”

“What the …?”

“You lost, remember?”

“I know! But, Come on, Hon!”

“It’s your bet. Here’s the wine to help you swallow it.”

“Fine! Give me that!” The crunching sound of the fried grasshopper in his mouth makes him want to puke. He regrets challenging his wife.

Total: 50 words.

Unrequited Desire

Writing a flash story is not easy, I have tried but it’s very difficult. However, the more the difficult the art is the more I need to practice. My friend, Alice Audrey always writes great flash every week…I envy her talent.

My first flash was a less than 300 word piece called Looking For a Better Life which is one of my favorite story (a write is allowed to chose her/his favorite, right?). My latest one is a less than 100 word piece called A Gold for my country.

I came across Red‘s blog called M3. She posted a flash challenge where we have to write a story with desire as its theme and not more than 100 words. You can check her Flash here. The challenge is called Flash in Pan.

When I saw this week’s Creative Ink’s Writing Prompt…an idea came to me. Probably not a good story but I quite like it because I had a lot of fun writing it. It only has 66 words.

Red On White : A Prequel Short Story

It’s been a while since I feel inspired by Writing Prompt at Creative Writing Ink. Lately, the images they chose were rather boring…I couldn’t come up with anything. This week is quite interesting.

At first, I wanted to write something about love…a poem…but it didn’t go well. I guess it’s hard for me to write about love when it doesn’t connect to my own life. After looking at the picture for several minute, I remembered my old short story and somehow it can be connected.

I thought, it could be like Memento (an amazing movie by Christopher Nolan)…I can make the story backward.

Here goes my Prequel

Red On White

Sari was a bit surprised to see an envelope was attached with sticky tape on her front door. The envelope had no sending address and stamp, there was only two letters on it, dear Sari. Underneath her surprise, there was a thin layer of happiness. She imagined it from someone who admired her. It had the word dear before her name.

Creative Writing (Finally) : Conscience

Yatta!!! My creative mind is back!! It might not be my best but at least it comes back

I have been losing inspiration since my Mom died and then followed by my dear pet, Kame…losing two of my precious family members really snapped my creative mind. I couldn’t think of any story to write.

Seeing this week’s writing prompt at Creative Writing Ink somehow triggered my brain a little.

Conscience

Eugh…what a dirty old man. Stay away from me.
Why does he have to stand so close to me?
And what’s with that look?
STOP IT!!
Stop it you creepy old man!!

Short Story: A Fairy Tale

I have just realized that I have been writing too many thriller lately…with lots of murder here and there, once again I should say please blame Mr. King for that

I think today is a good day to write something sweet (as sweet as I can be), something that involve friendship and unconditional love between 2 creatures…no, I am not talking about pets (tho I would love to write a story about human and pet’s love one day…but not today).

The idea first came from Katie’s amazing photo (I borrowed her name for the main character…I hope you don’t mind, Katie )…she is a great photographer, I enjoy her work a lot!… She took a picture of this Fairy figurine and somehow I feel like seeing living creature instead of dead statue. I built the baseline of the story but I needed a set and how they connect with each other. Few days later, Creative Writing Ink published their weekly picture for writing prompt…and just like my previous story (one I really like…in fact it was one of my favorites) Behind The Hood, 2 photo/pictures create one story.

As always…Please criticize my work. I am still amateur and what an amateur needs to improve her skill is lots of critiques. Thank you in advance

I have a bit of problem with the title…if you can suggest a better title, I’d appreciate that a lot.

 A Fairy Tale

Image Copyright © Katie Johnson

“What’s that?” asks John.

He surprises me and makes me lost for words for a moment. I am caressing a small figurine that I have kept since I was five. “Ow…it’s my good luck charm,” I put it back to my pocket. He is always in my pocket for the past twelve years.  Today is my graduation day and I am about to deliver a speech as the best student in my class.

“Yeah…I need a good luck charm too if I were you,” replies John. He gives me a little wink. I can only smile back at him; he has no idea what this figurine means to me. He won’t believe me if I tell him anyway.

My 6th Shorts: Behind The Hood

I have never thought that writing short story is addictive. As I have said in my Short Story Page, I often have idea of a story but never really put them in paper…who would have thought that once I did it, I will become addicted. Been wanting to write new story but I was so busy, one thing came after another and writing a story requires full concentration. So glad I have something in my mind and time to write it.

Ever since I saw Debbie’s painting of Androgoth, I have this vague idea of a scary story…it hadn’t taken real shape yet till 2 days ago. And then I saw this week’s picture in Writing Ink, everything clicked together at the same time. I have my character and I have the place. I am also going to borrow my friend’s name for one of the characters…Caroline, I hope you don’t mind I borrow your name

I will not put Debbie’s painting in the beginning of the story as it will give more dramatic effect to put it in the end of the story. Writing Ink’s picture is perfect in the beginning.

I should warn you that … it’s a thriller story, so brace yourself

Behind The Hood

Gasping for breath, Caroline kept running as fast as she could. The man she was chasing seemed to out run her. She knew that he knew the park too well. He knew when to avoid every branches and stones, obstacles that kept slowing Caroline down. She swore she will not let him escape. She ignored all the bruises she got for running after him. The fog was getting thicker by the minute and the pine wood was getting denser, but she still won’t slow her pace.

A Tanka Attempt: My First Try on Old Japanese Poem

As I said before, I like writing short stories but I have been trying to challenge myself to write something else. I have tried writing poems, both rhyme and non-rhyme. I guessed it’s time to increase the challenge a little by writing old style Japanese Poem.

There are 2 old style Japanese poems known to the world, Haiku and Tanka. I tried writing Haiku for this week’s picture in Creative Writing Ink…but Haiku is too short and I couldn’t manage to deliver the message. So, I tried Tanka with five chouka (long poems composed of 5-7 syllable phrases repeated any number of times and closed with 7-7 syllable). This tanka of mine was using 5-7-5-7-7 syllable, same with what Shiki Masaoka was using.

However, Tanka and Haiku have certain rules where we should include nature or season in the beginning and give conclusion in the last line….this I couldn’t do (yet). My tanka probably would end up being a laughing stock by real Japanese…at least I have tried tho it was more like a short poem in Tanka syllable.