When I first started writing this 750-word short story, I didn’t think of it as a ghost story but as a story about dementia. However, there is a ghost, albeit a kind one and one I know well. In the half-dark of the small hours, she surfaces from fitful dreams – it could be less than an […]
Tag: Short story
Flash Fiction for Friday
750 word Flash Fiction A Tangible Presence I was alone for the first time in ages. Shadows hugged the room where I sat in my favourite armchair, an anglepoise lamp bent into the best position for reading, a cup of tea beside me. I was engrossed in a book of short stories. A sudden chill […]
An attempt at science fiction
I’ve started a 750 word science fiction (flash fiction) story. As you’re not supposed to submit stories that have been published anywhere, even on a blog, I can’t reproduce all of the 450 words I have written so far. But I hope to get some ideas about the direction in which the story should go […]
Better luck next time
This is the story that was long-listed but didn’t win a prize. The Bay Tree When they moved in, the bay tree reached the top of the living-room window. Its leaves were dark and glossy, and it released a pungent aroma, reminiscent of Mediterranean holidays. Sam and Helen loved the way it arched over the […]
Using an image as inspiration
This is based on an exercise we did in a creative writing group last year. Photo by Robert Capa (1913 – 2000) Footsteps echoed on the cobbled street. Mama held on to my arm, in the same way as the bald woman held on to that child, the one everyone’s eyes were on. We had […]
Update on the short story
I did what I said and read blogs. The newspaper hasn’t arrived yet so I couldn’t read that. But I did go back to some old ideas for short stories and found something that I wrote last year. It was only about 540 words long, but it was the germ of a story and I have […]
Looking for inspiration
I finished the portfolio of five poems for the 2015 Manchester Writing Competition yesterday. Now I am searching for inspiration for a short story. The brief states that it can be on any subject but must be the entrant’s own original writing, and should not have appeared in print or on a website, including blogs […]
I have mastered menus and added another short story!
It took a while, but I now have menus and sub-menus. For now, there is no muddle to untangle and I have been able to add another story entitled ‘Uncle Bert’s Pigeons’. I wrote this story for a Pigeonhole competition, Food for Thought, which invited food-themed stories with a pigeon in them. Unfortunately, I heard from […]
A Soul Released in Coltishall is complete
I have updated the page ‘A Soul Released in Coltishall’ with the final version, which I shall be sending off to the competition today. Update: It’s gone!
Finding a synonym for diminish
Diminish To reduce a person or thing in standing or perceived worth To cause something to be or appear less To become gradually less To dwindle Lessen Dim I am having trouble with this word, as it doesn’t work in the phrase ‘watched his rangy figure diminish until he disappeared into the pub’. What I want […]
writing in north norfolk 