Get Started Right Writing Task: 005
Get each week started on the right foot with Get Started Right Writing Tasks. For this week’s task, write a piece of flash fiction.
While I try to make these weekly tasks applicable for all types of writers, there are times (like this week) when I may ask you to try a type of writing you don't usually try. For instance...
For this week's Get Started Right Writing Task, write a piece of flash fiction. This task is inspired by Moriah Richard's fourth annual February Flash Fiction Challenge. In case you need a word count, flash fiction story is usually about 1,500 words or fewer (with some trying to keep their tales under 500 or even 100 words in length). And here are a few of Moriah's recent flash fiction prompts (in case you need some story starter ideas):
- Write about a traveler.
- Write a story based on the line “When is a [BLANK] not a [BLANK]?”
- Put a twist on a well-known story.
- Write about a one-year anniversary.
- Write about someone at their evening job.
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Here is my attempt at a flash fiction:
"Rain Adventure"
Alice hiked along the old Williams path in the rain. She was skipping in her mind, because she loved the rain and always felt that she needed to do something special when the rain presented itself. As much as she enjoyed the birdsong and other noises of nature, the rain seemed to cut them all off with the percussion of a thousand drops against every surface, including water itself. Also, the rain seemed to draw deeper, truer colors out of everything.
Splash! And, of course, the puddles! Alice loved it all.
Today's mission was actually something Alice planned to do anyway, but the rain just added to the mystery and ambiance. Thinking about the word ambiance, Alice really did skip for a moment, even though she was hiking uphill, because the old Williams path, as most people know, cuts a zig zag right up to the top of Merry Makers Hill along the edge of town where the cemetery is on the east end, though Alice was headed for the west side, where the largest tree in the county stood.
Alice called it a witch's tree, because it looked as magical and impressive as a witch might, with gnarled limbs and roots stretching into and out of the ground and housing an entire ecosystem of life within its circumference. And for the past few days, Alice had been hiking out to the witch's tree on Merry Makers Hill, because something strange had been happening.
Each day, at the western base of the tree, in a little nook, a new stuffed animal had appeared. First, a dog; then, a cat; then, a frog; and so on. Yesterday, there were six animals collected at the tree, and Alice wondered if a seventh would be there today. Perhaps, the rain would scare away the person leaving them; or maybe the rain would only make today's animal even more special.
Alice rounded the final bend and darted up to the base of the tree to find nothing. No stuffed animals. Not one.
"Ahem."
Alice twirled around and saw a dog staring up at her that looked like the stuffed animal dog, but was, in fact, a real dog with its head cocked as if trying to figure Alice out. Then, it spoke, "Hello, young one. Welcome back; we wondered if the rain would keep you away."
"The rain?" Alice wanted to ask how this dog learned to speak, but she also didn't want to insult such a well-spoken creature.
"Yes," the dog continued, "not everyone enjoys the rain, you see. Many will lock themselves indoors all day at the hint of a dark cloud."
"O, I love the rain," Alice proclaimed.
"I am so glad to hear that, young one."
"Alice, actually. Actually, my name is Alice, not young one."
"Welcome, Alice! My name is Bartholomew Cornelius Xavier Percival Montague IV, but you can call me Scruffy, on account of my shaggy appearance, and well, my proper name is quite a mouthful."
"Nice to meet you, Scruffy. I can't help but notice your friends are missing."
"O, no. They are here," answered Scruffy. "But first, I want to ask you a simple question: Would you like to join our team? We have been gathering here for nearly a week now and plan to go on adventures for Madam Shadowsight perhaps as soon as tonight. Would you like to join us on our quest?"
Without hesitation, Alice blurted out, "Yes! Of course!"
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That evening, an old woman approached the witch's tree that was illuminated by a full moon and cackled when she could clearly see the nook in the tree: six stuffed animals and a doll. The woman pulled a sack from out of the rags she wore and scooped all seven figures up into it. Then, she wandered back into the evening shadows never to be seen again.
