There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
–Johann Gottfried Von Herder
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Tag Archives: wellspring
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.
Prompt–Lightning Crashes
The next prompt song is “Lightning Crashes” by Live. Click link below to hear the song. Lyrics provided.
Care to share the inspiration that hits you?
I think this one is going to be a toughie for me. The song’s emotions are raw and primal. Can I capture that and do it justice? We’ll see.
Quote for July 25, 2012
Found on 400 Days ’til 40:
A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
~ Lou Holtz
On Horseback
The place I find center is on horseback. It’s where I do my best non-writing writing. It’s where I can clear my head and think. It’s where I go to get away for a while.
Recently the pace of life has been overbearing. It’s growing season. We’ve had an exceptional amount of rain. My garden and yard are reverting to jungle. I can’t keep the weeds at bay. Insects are reproducing and foraging faster than my non-toxic pesticides can deplete them — especially given that each shower washes away the protective shield.
The hay fields go uncut because there is no weather window in which to work. I need four days of sunshine in a row. That’s not happening. My hay customers want hay. I can’t make any to sell them.
For six weeks, I have not ridden. There’s too much work to do.
Yesterday the weather was perfect. A cold front blew in and cleared the air of humidity. I worked outside till I ached. At lunch time, I planned the afternoon’s labor as I chewed. Then the phone rang. It was my riding partner.
My riding partner got a new job. For three days straight, she went to work in the afternoon and worked until 1 A.M. re-setting the floor of a large department store. Yesterday, after going to bed at 2 A.M., she had returned to work at 5 A.M. and would be getting off work after lunch. She wanted to know if I wanted to go riding.
Both of us, played out from our labors, sought sanctuary and renewal. Both of us knew where to find relief. On horseback.
As a creative person, you must have a source for recharging, a place or activity to draw from the wellspring and refresh.
Use it.
Otherwise, your batteries may be drained so thoroughly that they die.
There’s a Dark Something in There
The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. Gustave Flaubert
This little quote popped up on a WordPress notification this morning. I read it and loved it.
I never looked at writing that way. Writing opens me up to myself; writing is self-discovery.
Normally, I would whole-heartedly embrace that concept, except sometimes I write really creepy, dark things. If I believe writing is self-discovery, I have to examine the dark component. I always thought the writing of those dark stories was me cleaning the bugs out of my basement. Maybe I want to leave that side of myself undiscovered. It can percolate in the dark, wafting fumes (my dark stories) from its lair every once in a while.
A Writer Must Read
A very dear friend admonished me, “You need to read more.” He always has a book at hand — at home, in his car, in the suitcase when traveling. Anywhere, if he is waiting, he is reading.
My life is busy. I barely find time to breathe. But in surrender to the advice of my friend, I offer you this quote from www.glittertrain.com:
First: if you want to write well, you have to read well. That means reading all the time, with passion and attention and alertness, and shunning crap.—Jennifer Anne Moses
Fay Moore: I Want To Be a Writer 