Fortnightly update 20: 31.08.2020 to 13.09.2020
In this blog series, I share my fortnight-to-fortnight triumphs (and failures) as a writer. Despite all the ups and downs, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I write 280-character stories using various writing prompt hashtags on Twitter, and this was a big fortnight for me in that regard. I made my own prompt service, #WeirdVSS, which is solely for the weird and dark. The featured image of this post is something I had made up just for it. All in all, I wrote six VSS (very short story) pieces this fortnight; the last one, #tentacles, was my first under #WeirdVSS.
#glory
The glory of shadow
In lightning-lit corners
Where the blasted sun daren’t tread
And mosses suck the brick mortar marrow
Where winds ride in on black sea tides
And rain turns flesh to bread
Sloughing skin from twisted trees
And sheening crow plumage gold
O shadow
#hide
Klu-Tok slung his railgun over his beetle-armoured shoulder and strode into the Lodge with a pink hide rolled up in his hand, still bleeding. He threw it on the neon bartop, and all the Hunters gasped as it unfurled to form the boneless torso of a human being
#numb
Throat numb, tongue bitter,
I rode basslines to sunrise
and gin-washed you away.
But my mouth is black now,
and my broke heart’s silent,
and I can’t leave this place,
where the lights strobe,
and glowsticks stain,
and where my life went
down
with
the
toilet
water.
#morning / #kid
Toy-soldier mornings. Bone-white keyboards and pixel gore. Trading cards and cut lawn picnics. Trampoline-spring screechings. Slingshot slaps. Lollybag pool parties. Two scraped knees. Sun-red ears. Hose-water. Twisted-blanket blood dreams. When I was a kid.
#tentacles
All I wanted were tentacles or extra eyes to help me get my novel done. But dark rituals can’t be taken back, and now I’m cursed with the knowledge of future and past — aware, wretchedly, that no matter what I write, not a word of it’s destined for a bookstore shelf.
#space
My brain is an astronaut spinning into space. My love is a porcelain bowl. I gift her the lemon lining of my gut, which shakes like a dog in summer thunder. There’s a caltrop in my throat. A bottle-cap cookie-cuts my knee. I won’t do this again; I do it next week.
Flash fiction and short stories
I guess I just love tiny stories because I also spend a whole lot of time writing flash fiction and short stories this fortnight. I intend to submit all of the stories I’m currently working on for publication, so I unfortunately I can’t share any of them here. I can, however, say that I’ve started making use of r/DestructiveReaders on Reddit, an invaluable (if a little intimidating) tool for writers and editors. The feedback I received for my stories was, overall, very positive.
The Front
I write scripts for the popular World War II YouTube channel The Front. We uploaded three videos this fortnight.
The Jerk’E’Club
I also wrote another chapter of the Tales of the Jerk’E’Club blog series for The Jerk’E’Club. We’re shifting to quarterly post now, and this one is particularly funny.
Conclusion
Like I said, this fortnight was all about tiny stories. I’m stoked with my progress, and it feels great to step away from tabletop RPGs and such. With that said, I’m trying Fate Accelerated soon, playing in an X-Files-esque setting. Maybe I’ll end up creating something for that system — who knows?
Thanks for reading <3