55 Words Microfiction: Lightning Crashes

Thanks to you and your advice, my brain was jogged loose from being stuck.

You know what’s funny? The idea that first came to me evaporated when I began to write. My brain took over. It decided that the story generated from the song prompt needed to be a 55-word flash fiction piece. Like lightning, it is quick and brilliantly illuminating.

The story is a study in contrasts, as is the song which prompted it. I hope you enjoy it. It was hard coming, but like childbirth, when it finally happened, it poured out in an instant.

Lightning Crashes

by Fay Moore © 2012

She misses the thunderhead building until a flash illuminates his actions.

When she asks him the first pointed question, she opens a door and looses a tornado in the room. The argument is at hurricane force, words hurling back and forth, slicing through heart tissue, wounding fatally.

From love to hate, it happens so fast.

Give It to Your Subconscious Mind

A reader posed a problem she is struggling with. She outlined a new story she is writing, but she is unhappy with its beginning. She questions whether it gets to the action quickly enough to hook her reader.

Without even thinking, I said to her, “Give it to your subconscious mind to solve the problem.”

Weird, you may think. However, I have found that when I am stuck, if I leave the problem alone and allow my subconscious mind to work on it, my mind will eventually present me with a solution that works well. It often is an approach I wouldn’t normally consider, but it ties together all the loose ends with a nice flourish.

Wouldn’t we save ourselves a lot of angst if we simply said to our brains, “Chew on this and get back to me with a solution.” Then we could turn our energies to something positive and constructive, rather than exhaust ourselves by fretting.

The sole requirement to make this plan work is patience. If you have patience, fine. You have no problem. If you are like me — short on patience — using the technique will help you develop some.