Here is your weekly Visual Dare!
This dare is up for your writing pleasure until next Tuesday at midnight (EST) at which point the next Visual Dare will go live. :)
You can use this photo in one of two ways:
This dare is up for your writing pleasure until next Tuesday at midnight (EST) at which point the next Visual Dare will go live. :)
You can use this photo in one of two ways:
* incorporate it into your current Work In Progress - literally, or figuratively
* use it as a 100 word flash fiction to get the brain going in a different creative direction.
Give it a try! Feel free to post your creative responses to the prompt in the comments below (if it's 100 words or less, plus personal comments, of course!).
Here's your dare:
Photo by Franco & Lia - Liberate Rossella Urru
Where does this take your writing - even for a short burst?
Let me know in the comments - in summary or 100 word excerpts!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
His eyes opened slowly, his face pressed painfully against a rock. He could see little but other sea-smooth stones in front, some wavelets lapping against them.
ReplyDeleteThe storm had passed but the sky was still threatening. The Gods were still angry but they’d spared him. There was no sign of the longboat, no spar of wood left in sight but he was alive.
Haakon tried to move, his arm was broken but he might be able to walk. This must be Ireland. What kind of reception was he, a shipwrecked Viking, going to receive?
AHHHHH. VIKING STORY! You have hit on one of my absolute loves in history. If this is the opening to a potential novel, I'd say run with it! I love the first sentence especially. :-)
DeleteI grew up on Henry Treece's Viking Saga and was obssessed with them. That's why it was the first thing that jumped into my head I suppose - could be a novel - join the queue !
DeleteI so love your Dares - I'm hooked (and inspired)!X
ReplyDeleteFrom a distance they look like marooned whales, great grey mounds with an elephant skin surface jutting above the sea. They are rocks, jaggedy, slippery, bitterly cold. I know because I sit on these rocks. A melody, crystal clear, quietly strong, floats over the rolling waves, smashing and spraying skyward. It's the song of the sea. I know because it's my song. Some say here there is danger, a demon, a devil. But it's fate, it’s meant to be. I know because it's me.
Ooh that is very atmospheric - I like that a lot. It's a beautiful snippet - I'd like to know more
DeleteSharon this is gorgeous!! Atmospheric, indeed. Would like to know whether the speaker is a danger, a demon, a devil...or ready to face them all. What happens next? :)
DeleteIn long-ago myths, giants roamed these lands. The gentle earth shuddered beneath their monstrous strides, her placid waters rippling with each thunderous footfall. Fearful and puny, humans trembled beneath their alien dominion until Zeus took pity and reclaimed us with lightning and magic.
ReplyDeleteAre they but myths?
As the thunder crashes behind sodden clouds, I watch rain spatter the humped-up granite boulders strewn like broken warriors at the edge of Loch Morrigan. Across the time-shadowed battlefield, the water laps against their deathly stillness in the quiet aftermath of defeat. Ancient stones no longer violent, eternal reminders of the fallen titans.
100 words
@Rowanwolf66
Sweeeeeeeet! Ah, there is definitely more behind this opening! Beautifully wrought, Stacy. I love how you VisualDare "regulars" keep coming back and wowing me again...and again....
DeleteI swear I didn't read yours before I posted mine! ;)
DeleteI think you two bookended the photograph very well; in light of your two entries, it made me go back and look at the photo again...and it DOES look as though the rocks are semi-humanish, laying down as for a long nap.....
DeleteThis is spooky - last night I watched a TV programme on ancient Hittite and Greek legends of creation - this echoes it perfectly. Wonderful
DeleteFor a final resting place, this wasn’t too bad, they thought. Setting down their burdens, the exhausted wanderers stared across the water to the land beyond, and smiled. No, not bad at all. They slowly knelt, feeling small pieces of their granite exterior flaking away, the splashes a rhythmic reminder of songs past. The last members of their race, they came at last to their end, but not to the end of all things. The wind and water soon wore away weaker flesh, but the bones of giants are no so easily destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful! I love how you captured the dignity of a dying race with such sweetness. What I want to know is: will the giants awaken again?
DeleteWell done!
Poignant. My druidic friends would love this!
DeleteStanding on tiptoes, seeking sun, seeking warmth, seeking life, I follow the gray out to sea.
ReplyDeleteThere is a moment, one fragile, distant, unattainable, moment when I realize there is nothing.
I am here, yet I am not.
My feet do not feel the ground, dirt, stones, water, there is nothing but air above and below me.
Has it happened?
Rising is now easy, needed, useful, for there is exploration that challenges me.
The path is unknown but I feel no fear, concern, distress, to travel it now.
I am beginning again.
My life, and now my death, have brought me wonder.
Such an achingly open entry! So full of questions...and promise.
DeleteI can see why you are so proud of this - you should be!
And I will work on getting a linky thing up by next Wednesday so that people can post their flash fiction on their own blog and link back to here - and post in the comments only if they don't have a blog. Yay!
thanks Angela! I realized when I copied it over to my blog that I used 3 'now's! I've edited those three words but of course, the rest of it is exactly the same. I love these challenges!
Deleteoh the chance to begin again with "no fear, concern or distress" - I love your writing!
DeleteSorry my 100 words are a bit depressing - just thought I'd warn you! I have been away which was great and difficult at the same time. My parents looked after the boys while I was away, they drove back home today and were involved in an accident, car's a write off but they are OK.
ReplyDeleteAnyway my 100 words could fit into my WIP, but enough of the excuses, here goes...
There are many pathways that are difficult to traverse. Mountains so high they are shrouded in cloud obscuring the summit. Forests so thick and dark, little sunlight ever penetrates to light the way. Rocks so slippery and wet, crashing waves that could sweep you away in an instant.
But the most challenging hurdle is life itself, fraught with the unseen and unexpected.
Finally there’s death. A last breath, the end of one person’s existence but the end of a whole way of life for those left behind.
Grief is an obstacle that never entirely diminishes. Broken hearts never totally repair.
Ah! So many wrecks happening lately, just in the past few days! So very, very glad your parents and sons are OK.
DeleteIn light of all that, your 100 word entry makes perfect sense, not mention its beautiful in its own right. Lovely entry, and written at such a moment!
Thanks for participating!
Sarah, I just popped by and read your take on the visual dare, as well as your comment. I am so sorry your parents were involved in an accident. How frightening for them and for all of their family who love them. It could have been more than devastating; thank goodness they and your dear boys were not hurt. Your story is so evocative and lovely. I don't find it too dark, I agree with Angela completely.
Delete