FlashFiction Freewrite Friday - Not Too Late

in HiveBloPoMo2 years ago (edited)

FlashFiction Freewrite Friday, Not Too Late - blog thumbnail.jpg
 
 

The prompt I put on my Hive Blog Posting Month daily prompt calendar for today is, "Visit a market & share at least 5 photos for #MarketFriday." I had grand plans of wrapping up this last Friday of #HiveBloPoMo with a followup to my Flashback Friday visit to McKinnon's Market for the first Friday of the month but alas - it wasn't meant to be. But never fear, @dswigle - I still plan to get it done as soon as possible!

Since I've been having fun inflicting my writing on my followers doing some new flash fiction pieces (like here and here) I thought I'd go ahead and do another one today instead.

And as I've been doing, I use one of my recent Deep Dream Generator photos for a visual prompt. This time I went with one of the Autumn tree pictures I did for my November 21st 2021 post - And Another Eight Extra Deeply Dreamy Sublime Sunday Shots.

And again this time, instead of using one of the awesome @freewritehouse daily prompts, I went with The Most Dangerous Writing App's plot/prompt generator.

So my visual prompt is -

5a. DDG.jpg"Billowy leaves and fall clouds"

And the 5 Minute prompt from Squibler is - He had the urge to clear the ground, to look out and see nothing

And again, once again (lol!), I used The Most Dangerous Writing App. For those not familiar, it's the one with the motto, "Don’t stop typing, or all progress will be lost." Or in other words, if you stop typing, your words start to fade and after 5 seconds, they disappear completely and you can't get 'em back. Talk about motivation to keep the words flowing!

Now, here's my Flash Fiction story result.

 

Not Too Late

 
 

He poured more coffee into his, "Number One Dad" mug and stood silently for a few minutes looking out the window of the kitchen sink.

A motion caught his eye and he noticed more autumn leaves falling from the trees at the edge of the property. At times he had the urge to clear the ground, to look out and see nothing so he wouldn't have to deal with the memories the autumn beauty invoked.

Memories of not so long ago, when the house wasn't so empty and quiet, when the noise of a happy family used to drive him crazy and into the garage where he could have some space to think. If he'd only known then how much he'd miss the chaos, he hoped he would've chosen differently. But choices have consequences, and he was living with the results of his.

Now the brightly colored leaves brought him back to that fall in the not too distant past that still seemed a lifetime ago, when it all changed, and he wished with everything he had that he could somehow fix it.

Later that night, he had a strange dream. One filled with color and sound, much like the household noise of years ago. He was walking through a landscape that looked oddly like the backyard, but odd and dreamy looking, as if he (or the trees) had taken some hard core psychedelics.

"Trippy." he said to himself as he slowly walked around, looking for the source of the noise.

After a time, he realized there was a voice under the cacophony. He tried to focus on it, and after a time, he could make out the phrase, "not too late."

Maybe it was a sign, an esoteric message from the Universe. Maybe he could try again. What did he have to lose but his loneliness?

But first he'd have to wake up.

 
 

 
 

And a screencap of the MDWA result for good measure...

Screenshot 2021-11-26 at 18-12-58 Random Prompt Generator.png
 
 
That definitely took a different turn than I expected when I first started writing. Unlike the past two weeks, I only thought about the story for about an hour or two (whilst I was doing some of my OCD curation duties for today...lol). I was considering having the character stumble into some alternate universe (and given the last line, still not out of the realm of possibility), but the result was more melancholy and less supernatural than I was going for.

Maybe I'll revisit this again some time soon, and do more freewriting to see if I can figure out what were those Autumn choices he made and what exactly happened. Of course, I could just leave it up to the reader to decided... hmmm...

While I ponder, I'll leave you with...

 

Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and wonderful weekend!

 
 

EDITED TO ADD: Can't believe I completely spaced mentioning this, but @epodcaster - you're the main reason I picked that picture for my prompt, since you said such nice things about it under the original post. I think my brain is still addled from all the Thanksgiving turkey! 😂



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Keep up the good work @traciyork I appreciate every part of it.

Hello @traciyork! I hope you're doing great, and your family as well.

Wow, reading this I couldn't help but tear up a bit. This freewrite evoked very strong emotions for me. That cacophony should be a mantra for those, like me, who delve too much into the past and its consequences. "It's not too late". Thank you for bringing this message here today!

This story had the perfect mix of autumn imagery and seasonal longing. The visual prompt is so beautiful that I felt like painting something similar. The colors and textures look stunning! It's definitely my favorite among your Deep Dream creations so far.

Thank you again for the amazing content you make, and see you soon!

Oh wow right back at you, @beautifulwreck! Knowing a piece of writing had a strong emotional response on a reader is like the best compliment ever - sorry for the heart poke, but thank you in return for saying so.

Funny thing (which I haven't told @epodcaster, so I'm going to whisper so she doesn't hear me) - I almost didn't include that DDG version of the photo. I wasn't sure how I felt about the plain-ish grey parts, so I almost redid it with a different style, but then I decided it was okay enough. It's definitely grown on me since. 😂

Much appreciate your visit, and I'm hoping to catch up with my favorite bloggers (you included, of course) soon. This last stretch of November has been even more ridiculously busy than usual, and I haven't had nearly enough time to spend browsing my newsfeed.

And to help balance out the feels, how about some !LOLZ ? 😊

What's the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector?
A taxidermist takes only your skin.

@beautifulwreck, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of @traciyork
Use the !LOL or !LOLZ command to share a joke and an $LOLZ. (1/8)

Hahahaha thank you for the !LOLZ and right back at you!

Yeah, this end of the month has been hectic, with all the family reunions around the world, the crypto news... Things are moving and changing, for the better, I'm convinced. It also means that I've been taking extra rest time to balance the energy and get ready. Thank you for thinking about catching up with your favorite bloggers, I'm honored to be considered so!

I'll be turning 28 very soon, and while there is still darkness and sadness lingering on my soul, I feel very blessed to be here on Hive, and I'm slowly regaining confidence in my true self. I thank you for being a part of that. See you soon!

Knock knock...
ERROR: Joke failed.

@beautifulwreck, You need more $LOLZ to use this command. The minimum requirement is 4.0 LOLZ.
You can get more $LOLZ on HE.

A message in a dream
I hope he writes it down so it won’t fade away like the text on that app ;p

I do like using that app to give the mind a little whoop when it needs it 😊

I know, right? Seeing that text get lighter if you stop typing for a nanosecond is such a great motivator! And I'm the same - if I don't have some sort of deadline (like the words disappearing) I tend to overthink before I type. It's a great way for me to get out of my head. 😊

And thanks for the comment, !LUV

@epodcaster - you're the main reason I picked that picture for my prompt, since you said such nice things about it under the original post.

Awesome! Your story fit the image so well. I think your photo could be a really great writing prompt for everyone in #HiveBloPoMo to craft their own tale.

BTW, if you ever decide to turn that pic into a series of prints, please let me know. I'd love to have that "Traci York Original" hanging in my studio.

I am glad to read through, and thanks for sharing

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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
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This was excellent, both the writing and the picture. It's a shame that your novel was rejected by that reviewer!

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