Chastened - Micro-fiction
Source: Pixabay image by Dieterich01
Chastened
Fire raged as Joscelin’s brothers battled the knights. She hid. Elric had run for safety with the baby. Would she ever see them again?
Radomir fell. Then Velimir fought alone. Crawling toward the woods, she begged forgiveness of her family. If only she hadn’t told her friend their terrible secret.
Thank you for reading! This is my story for this week's 50-word short story challenge. The prompt word is "if."
I love how one word can spark imagination. Sometimes I do a word association to see what a word makes me think of, and then I do image searches on those word ideas. Eventually, a picture turns up that sparks the actual story, and I'm off and running.
Writers, what do you use to spark your ideas?
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2018/09/29/chastened-micro-fiction/
Wow, this raises so many questions...
Why didn't she run for safety with Elric?
Jayna, nice merging of the prompt with a dramatic image. :D
😄😇😄
Thank you, @creatr! If I had 50 more words at my disposal, I would have added why she stayed behind -- that Elric could flee faster on his own with the baby, and she therefore stayed behind hoping to help her brothers defend the property. Who's idea was this to try to write a whole story in 50 words, anyway? :-)
Ah, for a few more words... ;)
I love this story, @jayna. And I want more. 🙂
Will Jocelin ever see the baby? Who is the father? And the obvious question: what is the secret?
This short story should be seen as a teaser for a complete novel.
Due to HF20 I was unable to post or comment until today. I'm working on my story and I hope I will be able to post it tomorrow (which is, in fact, today). Hopefully it's not too late. What if HF20 would have been successful? 🙂
Go ahead and post your story, whenever it’s ready, @roxy-cat. There’s a nice big grace period!
Thank you so much for the kind words. I enjoyed writing this little vignette. I imagined that some secret, told to a friend she unfortunately trusted, soread by word of mouth until it reached the kingdom, and then all hell broke lose and knights were sent to slaughter her family. The secret itself hasn’t yet come into focus, but I’m thinking perhaps her father was a spy for a rival kingdom.
"If only" was my first thought when I read the prompt. 😊 This is one of the first #fiftywords stories I've read that excites me and makes me want more!
I'm not too sure what actually sparks my ideas. Very rarely a prompt will make something appear straight off the bat with word association, same goes for photo prompts. I usually stoke my creativity by freeing myself of all thought and that's when things magically appear!
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Thank you, @kaelci! I appreciate the kind words. I wanted to jump right into action with this story. But I was not able to write a resolution, so perhaps that is why you need more. It is unfortunately unresolved!
I love that idea — to free yourself of all thought, and thereby create an open space for creativity to flourish!
Great story. Lots of things to imagine as plot lines. Is Joselin's secret related to the baby and her brothers? That may justify the attack.
The sparking of my imagination does not work in a particular way all the time. It depends on the prompt or the mood. Sometimes i already have a story in my mind and the prompt fits in. Sometimes I rearch and do the association game you do too.
Thoughts are unpredictable and disorderly. Sometimes it is hard to make sense of them, but when one storyline settles, it overpowers the others and the rest of the images either adapt or disappear for a while letting one flow.
Thank you for sharing some insight on your creative process, @hlezama. I love hearing how different creative minds work. That last paragraph really resonates with me. I find that when a true and deserving storyline presents itself, I simply cannot turn away. That happened with this story as well as the longer story I wrote for the SteemFest challenge. I tried to think of other things, but they were crowded out by the story that demanded to be written.