THE TASTE OF SMOKE

mdbrantingham (59)in #poetry • 6 years ago (edited)

Disowning shield and armor
Leaving wives and sons
They traveled east all night
Running quietly along river banks
Royal soldiers well-concealed
Behind stone walls
They moved

At dawn’s first misty gray
The slayers reached the capital
The fortress bypassed
Their coming unreported
A city full of families
So like their own
Still sleeping
Innocent

#poem #fiction #fantasy #creativewriting

6 years ago in #poetry by mdbrantingham (59)

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arc.angel (47) 6 years ago

I could picture out the scene of a man about to attack but hesitates to do so, thinking of his own family with the idea that 'what if it was his family about to be attacked'.

What comes to mind is that "I am compelled to do something unto someone which I do not want to be done to me." I am seeing a man in a dilemma. A dilemma most people actually experience.

Intense! Good read!

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cryptosharon (69) 6 years ago (edited)

Wow! Intense. It even inspired me to write a story, although I can't right now since I'm busy. <3

edit: Hey! I wanted to tell you that you should not use resteem services that charge you, since none of the followers of those accounts actually sees what the bot resteems...

You should instead head to @thesteemengine, maybe @qurator and some other Discord groups such as @isleofwrite where you can get some viewers who will actually be interested in your work :)

You can also participate in @mariannewest's daily Freewrite. You could get a couple constant followers from there.

And the most efficient but time-consuming way to get readers is to post comments on popular posts where you're certain that a lot of people will see them. This way people get curious about you, click on your profile and, boop, they get hooked with your great poems and stories :)

I actually follow all of these tips only a liiittle bit because I'm lazy. But they work wonders, especially if you have titles and thumbnails that engage the readers.

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mdbrantingham (59) 6 years ago (edited)

I'd love to be able to do all that and I'm sure they work but I just don't have that much time to spend on social media. I write 8-10 hours per day and have several projects going on top of that. I wish I had a lot more time to engage but I just don't. Besides, if I can't connect with readers by posting good content, then the truth is that Steemit doesn't actually work and it's time to go elsewhere.

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cryptosharon (69) 6 years ago

I write 8-10

I wish I had your dedication. I can barely write for an hour before I get tired and the text starts to get dull and boring. If I write for longer, I almost always have to leave it dry up a bit, then come back after a while to rewrite most of it and add some emotion to the wording.

I do have a lot of time but I can't make myself use it for the things that I need to do. I'm bad at telling myself it's time to work. :(

Anyway, I hope that you succeed then in all the fields of your life :) I'm glad that you're still here sharing some lovely poems and stories with us. I love to read them and you've inspired me about some of the things that I've written or planned to write.

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mdbrantingham (59) 6 years ago (edited)

I hear what you're saying. Took me a long time to develop the stamina to write productively for long stretches. Mostly it happened when I started writing a novel that really took hold of me and I just worked and worked to be able to finish it. Now it has just become a habit, but it is something I really had to work at. You are a really good writer btw. You have a very unique style and a clear voice. There are some rough edges but that is something everyone has to work on. I hope that you keep writing because you have produced some really beautiful things.

One thing I had to do was get out of the physical place where I was living. Making a change in environment can really boost your productivity. At least it did for me.

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cryptosharon (69) 6 years ago

I'll try that second thing out! I can't really leave the place I work at (since I only have one computer and one desk), but I'll make some changes to my environment. Perhaps changing clothes, trying out some isolation and timers. Dunno. There's a lot of things that I can try. Thanks for the tip!

And I feel very flattered that you find me to be a good writer :) I'll try my best to keep improving and producing.

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mdbrantingham (59) 6 years ago

One thing you can do is take a pad and pen to a coffee shop or park or somewhere that you don't usually write but that you feel comfortable and can concentrate. Maybe you can't do the bulk of the writing on a pad, but you can work on the structure and ideas like that, and then go to your computer when you have an outline or a real inspiration for what you want to do. Sometimes I will do that on a plane or train when I am traveling and it can work really well. By the time I get to the computer I already know where I want to go with it and it comes out pretty fast.

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