RichardB

Weirdly enough it helps my way of working which is to do intensive bursts of writing and then let myself be distracted for a brief while before I attack again!

@sandradavies thanks, I will look that up. I’m a fan of keeping speech tags/descriptions to a minimum and I often write scenes with dialogue first and then build the other stuff around it, so this is very much up my street

Oh YAY – congrats @athelstone. Very well deserved. And thank-you @sandradavies for such an ace prompt. It was a valuable lesson to me that i really can strip out a lot of my speech tags, actions etc and the world may not crumble!

Great competition Sandra, am really intrigued to read the story that inspired it now. Well done Ath, and everyone else, good set of stories

Smashing comp, Sandra and a similarly smashing selection of entries. So I’m really pleased to be picked!

Well done, and well deserved, Ath!
And thanks, Sandra for such an interesting challenge.

Woohoo! Well done Ath! 😊 And thanks, Sandra, for stimulating dormant brain cells .

I dreamt about you last night.

Really? I haven’t thought about you for ages.

Ooh! Harsh.

Aha – Sorry, Jack. That sounded terrible. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, well, you know – the kids and all that. I don’t have much time for myself.

How old are they now?

Callum’s ten and Orla will be seven on Saturday. Most of this shopping is…[Read more]

“I dreamt about you last night. No, don’t look like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like it’s a line or… like I’m being…?”
“What?”
“I dunno. Overly sentimental.”
“OK. I won’t then.

…Well you can’t leave it hanging like that. What was I doing in this dream?”
“That’s the thing. I can’t actually remember. You know what dreams are like.”
“I know what my…[Read more]

The Sanctum of Dreams

“I dreamt about you last night. You were in the sanctum.”
“Well, that’s hardly surprising, is it? Given what’s about to happen.”
“No. I suppose not. It was just so…”
“So…what? Are you going to share? Or just sit there looking worried? I’m not a mind reader.”
“Yet.”
“Ha! True. Well, tell me about it. I don’t like to see y…[Read more]

When The Magic Ends

‘I dreamt about you last night.’
‘Sally, about that.’
‘No, please don’t say it. Things used to be so magical.’
‘But that was then, can’t you see? People move on. You’re not that kid I first met. There are others –’
‘Always were. From the very start you didn’t try to hide it let alone show any remorse. That deep chuckle…[Read more]

‘I dreamt about you last night, or rather I dream about this every night.’
‘You’re not John. Who are you? Do I know you?’
‘It’s me, Gran. It’s David.’
‘I don’t know anyone called David.’
‘Sure you do, Gran. It’s just that you don’t remember. I’m Moira’s son. You remember Moira, don’t you? She was your daughter.’
‘Moira’s dead. She had a…[Read more]

Are we allowed ‘he said/she said’ and scratching of heads, or is it pure dialogue you’re looking for?

Congratulations, Sandra – an excellent story. And thank you, Sea, for the feedback and setting a challenge I could rise to.

Apologies for the delay in posting these results…You know what I’m like with feedback but I did my best.

Firstly, though, many thanks for taking the time to post an entry 🙂

Sandra – Great use of short, staccato sentences and broken sentence structure to indicate disorganised thought. Sharp intake of breath when I realised where this was…[Read more]

A week left to get your rage on the page or your venom on the vellum!

There’s a monster inside of me.

It was born when Noellia moved into number 14.

The car started it. A shiny new Fiat 500. Electric. In powder blue. Parked on the drive. I looked at my own clapped out Fiesta and felt the first stirrings of new life, deep in my chest.

She fed the monster well, did Noellia.

Had an open house, she did. Invited…[Read more]