Oh, man! What a trick, Barrie. That barefoot old salt had ME cowering and quaking on the ground, huddled between those two boys with his gory, slimy details! And pure fiction! What a great story teller he was - a shameless liar like all the rest of us. Beautifully crafted, sir.
Barrie, your fiction writing is developing quite nicely. Having read your work for almost a year now it is impressive to see. Really well done my friend!
That’s very kind, Matt. I rarely step back and see where it has come from. What an excellent prompt to do so. Thank you so much for the encouragement. Do you see the evolution in terms of ideas, or structure, maybe the way the words roll together. No pressure to say, just curious.
Sometimes it is just a feeling you get when you read something and you say, “Yeah, that was good.”
Part of it my be a maturation of ideas but also the flow of the words. I think when people first start out (myself included) there is often a collection of good sentences strung together but maybe not always in a cohesive way. As the writing matures it becomes a whole thing and, for me at least, the story forms in my mind - less a recognition of sentences but a continuous flow of pictures created by words.
I don’t know if that explains anything at all. Maybe I should have just stuck with my opening sentence.
That’s so helpful, Matt. I like that it’s a feeling, a sense. That feels like the way I read (including my own work). I’m more deliberate these days. Picky, I think … maybe I’m finding the moments to write and the ideas that speak to me. I’m trying to edit harder. Hone things without losing my flow.
Thanks for taking the trouble to offer such interesting reflections. B
This is excellent and it calls to mind an idea I had for future 100 word stories! To use art (ie paintings) as inspiration for a large set of stories. I think this would be nice to do in December, perhaps. And if I can find enough, I could do November/December.
Great story! It marries beautifully with the painting. I almost felt like one of the children listening with fear, excitement, and anticipation for more!
Thanks so much, Erica. That’s the mindset I tried to put myself in … it’s hard thinking and writing like a youngster - I have a piece on the go at the moment for a competition, in the voice of a 9-year old. Truly difficult writing but the idea grabbed me. Thanks for sitting on the sea wall with the cousins.
I like the art-inspired stories - so much scope for ‘what’s happening in the margins’. I’ve never tried to cut them into short pieces (I think there was maybe one where I did a thousand words but in 5 bite size tales about the same picture). I’ll be super interested to see how you get on. I lumped mine into a section called (not surprisingly) art-inspired fiction, if you have a spare moment to read!
I loved your art-inspired story, Barrie. Tales of the sea have always lured me right in, and I would gladly sit beside those boys to hear some more stories!
So happy to know that my little tale is the perfect accompaniment to coffee! Not as good as cake but a bite size piece! Thanks for reading and for the kind words.
Oh, man! What a trick, Barrie. That barefoot old salt had ME cowering and quaking on the ground, huddled between those two boys with his gory, slimy details! And pure fiction! What a great story teller he was - a shameless liar like all the rest of us. Beautifully crafted, sir.
Ah, so happy that it hooked you in. Thank you so much for perching on the sea wall for a read!
Barrie, your fiction writing is developing quite nicely. Having read your work for almost a year now it is impressive to see. Really well done my friend!
That’s very kind, Matt. I rarely step back and see where it has come from. What an excellent prompt to do so. Thank you so much for the encouragement. Do you see the evolution in terms of ideas, or structure, maybe the way the words roll together. No pressure to say, just curious.
Sometimes it is just a feeling you get when you read something and you say, “Yeah, that was good.”
Part of it my be a maturation of ideas but also the flow of the words. I think when people first start out (myself included) there is often a collection of good sentences strung together but maybe not always in a cohesive way. As the writing matures it becomes a whole thing and, for me at least, the story forms in my mind - less a recognition of sentences but a continuous flow of pictures created by words.
I don’t know if that explains anything at all. Maybe I should have just stuck with my opening sentence.
That’s so helpful, Matt. I like that it’s a feeling, a sense. That feels like the way I read (including my own work). I’m more deliberate these days. Picky, I think … maybe I’m finding the moments to write and the ideas that speak to me. I’m trying to edit harder. Hone things without losing my flow.
Thanks for taking the trouble to offer such interesting reflections. B
This is excellent and it calls to mind an idea I had for future 100 word stories! To use art (ie paintings) as inspiration for a large set of stories. I think this would be nice to do in December, perhaps. And if I can find enough, I could do November/December.
Great story! It marries beautifully with the painting. I almost felt like one of the children listening with fear, excitement, and anticipation for more!
Thanks so much, Erica. That’s the mindset I tried to put myself in … it’s hard thinking and writing like a youngster - I have a piece on the go at the moment for a competition, in the voice of a 9-year old. Truly difficult writing but the idea grabbed me. Thanks for sitting on the sea wall with the cousins.
I like the art-inspired stories - so much scope for ‘what’s happening in the margins’. I’ve never tried to cut them into short pieces (I think there was maybe one where I did a thousand words but in 5 bite size tales about the same picture). I’ll be super interested to see how you get on. I lumped mine into a section called (not surprisingly) art-inspired fiction, if you have a spare moment to read!
Happy writing. Thanks for the encouragement
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I hope I don’t have too much trouble condensing that thousand down to just 100! lol
Haha, that’s what I called my little collection:
https://open.substack.com/pub/justwriteright/p/a-picture-paints-a-thousand-words?r=56lr6&utm_medium=ios
Beautifully done, Barrie. And what a teist at the end!
Twist
🙌
Jim, that’s very kind, thank you so much.
Nicely done, B, and a very fine twist.
Too kind, Matt. Just love the artwork. The youngsters absorbed in the tale.
I loved your art-inspired story, Barrie. Tales of the sea have always lured me right in, and I would gladly sit beside those boys to hear some more stories!
I always dreamed of pirates (being one!) and voyages. No surprise that I graduated onto Assassin’s Creed Black Flag as my favourite computer game!!
That unexpected ending was fabulous Barrie, so well done!
I’m glad you’re back, though I’m late reading this, my morning coffee benefited from your story!
So happy to know that my little tale is the perfect accompaniment to coffee! Not as good as cake but a bite size piece! Thanks for reading and for the kind words.