Tag: Creative Writing

Another Life – “Broken Promises”

On By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Flash Fiction8 Comments

Kara’s blades sliced through the air with the ease of a ballerina. If she thought about it, fighting was like a dance. Two people moving around each other in coordinated moves, their feet moving them across the floor with practice ease while they bent and dodged the others touch. Only this kind of dance you could lose a finger, or arm, or your head.

Bending herself backwards until her head almost touched the ground, Kara barely missed losing hers. Twisting to the left until she was down on one knee, her back to her opponent, she raised her two long blades, crossing them over her head, bracing herself for impact. She was not disappointed. The clang of metal slamming against metal reverberated down her swords, through her hand and continued until it reached her toes.

Ooouuuch!

Why did she always get the big ones? In all her centuries of doing this, it always seemed her enemy sent the big brutes after her. Kara supposed she should be flattered that he thought her that skilled. Still, someone more her size would have been a nice change.

Pushing the sword that was slowly descending over her head up, she quickly pivoted, bringing one of her blades around with the intent of slicing the brute’s legs off at the knees. Unfortunately, not only was he massive and strong, he was agile.

Swearing as he managed to jump high enough that she missed, Kara sprang to her feet and followed him, her two swords slicing the air before her like two bees flying around each other, buzzing angrily. The male countered and moved back from her with the grace of a panther. Twisting and turning and dancing to her moves with a synchronicity that should have impressed Kara. After millions of centuries and countless lives, very little impressed Kara. She had seen too much, experienced too much, lost too much to be impressed by anything these yahoo’s could show her.

Growing tired of this dance, she flipped over her opponents head landing behind him. When he turned to counter, Kara thrust her blades into his body just below his ribcage and up into his heart. With a sharp intake of air the man suddenly stopped. His eyes wide with shock, he looked from her to the metal sticking out of his body.

“But?” he gasped. “You’re such a small female?”

Kara snorted in distain. Did he really think he would win just because he was male and she was female? That he was twice her size so assumed he was stronger more skilled? That her vibrant green eyes, long blonde hair held back with intricate braids, her lithe body tight with honed muscles that only reached five foot four inches meant she was weak and needed protecting? What a pig! When will men learn that small did not mean unable to defend one’s self?

Yanking the blades from him, Kara kicked him backwards and turned to her next battle, dismissing him from her mind. As she watched her other half finish off the two who had attacked him, she figured probably never. Tanis was only a head taller than she was and they sent three after him. The third was lying on the ground minus his head that he lost when he began describing what they would do to her before they killed her. The rest did not take well to their friend’s head bouncing on the ground like an over rip melon and the sword clanging and swearing ensued.

Deciding Tanis was fine on his own, Kara slowly wiped the blood from her blades, making sure they were completely clean before she slide them back into their scabbards that were crisscrossed across her back. Scanning the forest for any other idiots that might try and ambush them for the bounty on their heads, she turned her eyes back to the love of her existence when she heard a grunt of pain followed by a yell of denial and rage. A second body lay next to the first, the eyes wide and vacant. The third man was hacking away at Tanis as if he were some tree that refused to fall and the axe man had had enough. With grace that did actually impress Kara, Tanis twisted around the man and quickly and cleanly sliced through the back of his neck. The man hesitated, his eyes not quite sure of what had just happened right before his head slide from his shoulders. The body crumpled to the ground revealing Tanis who was gasping for air, his swords down by his side as if they were too heavy to lift.

“You could have help me a little,” he snapped glaring at Kara.

“You seemed to have had things well in hand. I didn’t want to spoil all your fun,” Kara grinned impishly.

“Please, by all means, next time spoil it,” Tanis said drily. Wiping his blades on the body before him, he started for Kara, sheathing them in the same manner as Kara had. “We better go before more show up.”

“Do you think he’s close?” Kara asked falling in beside Tanis as they headed for their horses.

Even though he knew how strong Kara was, how brave, Tanis could hear the fear in her voice. There was only one being in the entire universe that could cause that fear, in either of them. Stopping, Tanis pulled Kara in to his arms. Cupping her face, he looked into those amazing green eyes he loved so much that followed her through each reincarnation. That usually glowed with the depth of her love for him now pinched with anxiety. Rage bubbled up inside him. They had never wanted the fate that had been thrust upon them. None of them did. Not even the one who hunted them. If they had had a choice, they would have all lived in peace. Unfortunately, the universe had had different plans for them.

“I won’t allow him to harm you, Kara,” Tanis promised. “We have lived long lives before. We will do so this time. I am not ready to spend the next two thousand years without you.”

Kara rested her forehead against his chest. “I am so tired,” she whispered, the exhausting spanning not just this lifetime, but thousands of others.

Tanis wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head he stared out at the wilderness around them, his own soul weary exhaustion trying to take hold of him. “So am I, my love. So am I.”

© 2015 Heidi Barnes

This is based on a story I am not sure will ever be published. When I began writing I did fan-fiction. I took some of my favorite shows and characters and weaved them together into a sci-fiction story that ended up being over 700 handwritten pages long. In this story anything and everything could happen. Unfortunately I don’t have most of it because it was written in pencil and the pencil over time faded so I could not read it. So into the recycling can it went. 😦 On the upside, I did have some of the first chapters/books typed out. I have since changed it up a bit, rewritten some of what I remember, changed the names and description of characters, and still write on it occasionally. Trying to find that right combination that will not infringe on any copy write and make it my own. So far it hasn’t given me that feeling of being ready to publish. Like I said it may never be published.

So why this excerpt? It came to me this morning. This fight scene, and it seemed to take place long before my story “Broken Promises” takes place. So I thought I’d write it down and see what you think. It also gives me a little insight to what one of Kara and Tanis’s past lives might have been like.

I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Whispers in Darken Night – Free Write Prompt 13

On By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Free Write, Poetry9 Comments
Source: WeHeartIt
Source: WeHeartIt

Spider webs glisten in the moonlight
Tales of woe and dark mysteries
Spin around the firelight.
Misty mountains call weary travelers
Come to my forest
Rest yourselves
Fear not the darkness or tales of plight.
I hear your voice
I see your burden,
Heavy with doubt and dread.
Come and I will chase away
Those who shall
Try to lead you astray.
Come to me
And know no fear.
Come to me
And all will be clear.
Spider webs glisten in the moonlight
Whispers of peace and contentment
Dance around the firelight.

© 2015 Heidi Barnes

The idea is to look at the picture and then write what comes to mind. This picture might give me a couple more poems because I love the color and the way the sun comes through the lace of the leaf, but for this Free Write the poem above is the one that popped into my head first.

If you would like to see others from Annie’s Writing Challenge click  here and it will take you to this particular prompt. Then take a look around the site, read the other prompts and submissions and then, maybe, try one yourself. It doesn’t have to be a poem. It could very well be a memory you’d like to share, or maybe a short story, maybe even the start of a longer one. Lord knows it’s happened to me a couple of times. Ask Annie. I think I’ve left her hanging more than a few times. he he he

Go ahead. Give it a try. I dare you. 😉

A Poem Riddle

On By HeidiIn Blog, Poetry3 Comments

This came to me a couple of nights ago. A lot of times I don’t know where my poems come from, but I usually have an idea what they might mean. This one I am at a loss. What I do know is this poem appeared in my head with a force that said it needed to be written. I have tried to see if there is maybe more, but nothing comes to mind. Maybe it will make sense somewhere later in my life, or maybe it will resonate with you. If it does I would like to hear why. 🙂

I walk under the ocean
where the green grass grows.
Thunder wakes me
and I wonder where I come from
is where I need to go.

© 2015 Heidi Barnes

Let me know, because I would really like an answer to this riddle. 🙂

 

The Blue Door – A Free Write

On By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Flash Fiction13 Comments

 

The Blue Door
Source: We Heart It

The wall seemed to go on forever. Not unlike the road I was traveling that was my life. And endless nothing that was only broken by the cracks and cranny’s filled with moss and grime, clogging up what was once beautiful shiny new. I’m not sure how my life became this way, or how I came upon this wall. All I knew was it seemed endless and daunting and worn. Worn away from time and neglect. Never turning, never changing, always endless.

A flash. Nothing more. Just a quick glimpse of blue in the faded orange and grey. Stopping I wonder if maybe I was seeing things. Wishful thinking for something that I could never have. A different path, a bright light in the dimness around me.

Change.

But it cannot be. Not for me. I have done nothing to warrant a chance to evolve, to change. I take a step forward then stop again. Uncertain of what I should do. Should I keep going on the endless path that is taking me nowhere, or should I turn back and see if what I saw was true.

Curiosity overcomes me and I turn around. I was always told never to look back. That the past is in the past. Yet today, this moment, I look back and I see…nothing. Frowning I almost turn around but now that I have looked I cannot look away. Another step and I see a sliver of something in the wall. Something that is not natural, that is…blue. Now I move quickly, wanting, no needed to know what it is that has broken this endless cycle. And there it is. The flash of blue now revealed in all its glory.

As I stared at the door, as worn and neglected as the endless wall, I wonder how it came here. Who put it here and why? Where does it lead? There is no handle, although it looks as if all I have to do is breath on it and it will fall open. Before I realize what I am doing, I reach out, my fingers hesitating just before they touch the frail wood and peeling paint. My heartrate has skyrocketed, my breath coming in gasps and I struggle to suck in precious air. I have no idea what lays behind this door. How can I just push it open? I know the path I am on is endless and worn, but it is also safe. What if whatever is behind this door is…new? What if it is one of those dreams I used to dream come to reality and everything…changes for the worst? What if…?

I look to my left and I look to my right. Endless crumbling moldy wall greet me and suddenly I realize that I cannot do this any longer. I cannot live in this safe world I have created around me because it is slowly suffocating me. I need to live. To enjoy the precious gift I have been given called life. I need to soar.

Determination takes a hold, and before I can say no my hand pushes on the peeling paint and the door flies open revealing…..

2015 Heidi Barnes

Each of us has our own journey. Whether we go left or right or simply open the door everything we know will be changed for better or worse. Or you can continue on the path before you that is safe and maybe a little worn. I did not finish this because I believe you need to find your own answer as to what is behind the blue door. If you wish to share I would be interested to hear what it is.

If you would like to join this Free Write or read some more submissions visit Writing Outside the Lines.

Have a wonderful weekend. 🙂

“Make It So” A Freewrite

On By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Flash Fiction9 Comments

I haven’t done one of these in a while. A friend of mine has started a Free Write of her own and this is the first time I’ve been able to participate. I have forgotten how much fun they are and how they help loosen up the mind. So often I get caught up in the words I end up getting stuck. These Free Writes help unplug my brain so the words flow easier.

If you want to join go to Sharyl Fuller’s site Writing Outside the Lines and check it out.

So here is my submission for this weeks Writing Challenge. The idea is to just write. While I did fix spelling errors, there is no other type of editing. I hope you enjoy.

Word Bank: grovel submerge radiance lower jaded

Image: From Google Images
Image: From Google Images

 

I wanted to ask why? What had happened in the past that had made him so jaded? The boy I remember was loving, caring, put others before himself. This man I hardly recognized. Oh the features were the same if not a little older. The same brown hair, the same crooked nose, the same broad chest and narrow waist. It was the hazel eyes that were the most changed. They did not have the same light that shown the radiance of his soul. That beautiful innocence. Now they were dark and angry. At what I did not know. All I knew was that those eyes were leveled at me and they frightened me. Lowering my eyes, I fought not to grovel at his feet. I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he frightened me, and I refused to submerge myself in the horrors that surrounded him. I would not become what he was, no matter what he did to me.

“Your eyes are downcast, but you do not submit,” his voice shivered over me, cold and condemning.

“I will not bow to what you have become,” I answered with more confidence than I was feeling inside.

The silence stretched on.

“You know the consequences,” he whispered.

Was that fear in his voice? What was he afraid of? He was in complete control. I was at his mercy. There was nowhere for me to run, to hide. Yet he sounded afraid. Slowly raising my eyes, taking in every inch of his well-honed body; I risked a peek up into those eyes and saw they were a little too wide. A little too wild. What was going on?

Without speaking I once again lowered my eyes, giving him my answer. There was a small gasp of surprise then the room seemed to grow colder. I could feel him steal himself from what was to come.

“Very well,” he said his voice flat, unemotional, cold. “Make it so.”

© 2015 Heidi Barnes

Have a wonderful day. 🙂

 

Suzi’s Birthday Present

On By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Flash Fiction2 Comments

I have a wonderful friend on Twitter that I love to have fun with when it comes to writing. Over the years, we have come up with a couple of characters that every once in a while peek their heads onto Twitter and take over our threads.

Mine comes from a character that I created in a Free Write Friday I used to do on Kellie Elmore’s website. She is a witch that lives in the forest by herself, which she likes it that way. Although she does not look a day over thirty, she is very old and is neither good or evil. Because she has been betrayed in the worst of ways, their are very few that she has let into her life or she trusts. Suzanne’s character is a pixie by the name of Suzi. Suzi always means well, but her magic is, shall we say, a little…unpredictable. Even so, Suzi has managed to worm her way into my character’s heart, even if at times the pixie exasperates her to no end.

What started out as Suzi waking me up early in the morning with exuberance and being very loud (I am NOT a morning person either in story or real life) has grown into a friendship and an actual story, which we should get back to writing someday.

So, it was my birthday last weekend and Suzi paid me a little visit. I have copied and pasted the entire thread onto here. Due to Twitter’s 140 character rule, I have edited a few words that were shortened and fixed the punctuation and format. Otherwise everything is the same as it was on Twitter.

So, enough from me. Here is Suzi’s Birthday Present

 

Suzi flutters into the living room with a small box in her hand. She quietly places it on the floor. Pursing her lips as she looks around, she decides she’ll need more room. Removing her wand, she gently sweeps all the furniture against the wall.

“Hmmm,” she says with a big smile. “That should do it.” Walking back to the small box she reaches in her pocket for her bag of pixie dust. “Now let me think. Is it one pinch or two?” She reaches in to take some out and the bag drops out of her hand and emptied out all over the box. “Oh my!” she exclaims and slowly flutters back woods as the box starts growing in size. In no time at all the box fills the entire room and Suzi is very close to being squished into the window. Just barely making it out in time, she flutters outside the house as the living room starts to groan and stretch from the pressure of the growing box.

“Oooooh no!! It gonna blow!!!” She exclaims in horror. “Take cover!” she yells as she ducks behind the nearest tree.

Just as thinks could not get any worse the house explodes! There left standing is a ginormous white box with a big red ribbon wrapped around it with a card that reads, “Happy birthday Heidi!”

“Oh jeez!” she sighs. “I don’t suppose she’ll want to open the box now. There was a pretty pink balloon I decorated by hand in there,” Suzi thought to herself. “I wonder how many there are now?”

 

Returning from the market, I slow to a stop, my mouth open, eyes wide as I survey the scene before me. There is a gigantic white box with a pink bow sitting among what is left of my living room, which is in shards around the meadow. Even the trees, who groan in n protest as sap weeps down their bark, have pieces of living room sticking out like small daggers. Somewhere, probably under the box, is my furniture….

Closing my eyes and counting to twenty, I take a deep breath, let it out slowly then opened them. “Suzi? Why is there a laarrgge box on my house?”

“Umm… Birthday present?” she relays sheepishly. “Wanna open it?”

“Sure…!” Praying for patience and the luck of the Irish, and every other charm that brings luck, I step towards the box and reach for the bow, gently tugging on it. It won’t budge.

“Here!” Suzi exclaims. “Let me help!!” Giving the ribbon a hard tug the lid flies open and thousands of pink hand decorated balloons come flying out!!

Gasping in awe, we watch them as most of them float up into the heavens, some staying near the ground so I can enjoy them.

“Thank you Suzi! They are beautiful!” I reach down to pick one up and examine it, loving the detail. “You really should be an artist.”

“Ummm, Heidi, you might want to put that down.” Suzi says looking up into the sky. As each balloon pops, fireworks explode.

My body freezes, the only things that work are my fingers, which let go of the balloon. Coming to my senses, I step away from the balloon before it explodes. Raising my unblinking eyes upwards, I watch the fireworks, careful to wave away any balloon that float my way.

“Very lovely,” I say my voice slightly strained. “Um, Suzi?

“Yes Heidi?”

“Be a dear and put my house back together exactly the way it was then heal the trees. I’ll start dinner. I got your favorite.” 🙂

“Yes Heidi. Oh.. And Heidi? Happy birthday!!

“Thank you, dear.” 😀

Hugs my friend!!

 

© 2015 Heidi Barnes & Suzanne Carey

Chapter Length: Long or Short

On By HeidiIn Blog1 Comment

Morning everyone! 🙂

I have a quick question for you. What is your ideal chapter length? I mean, when you are reading, does it matter how long the chapters are? Do you like shorter chapters vs longer chapters?

I’m asking because I usually try and keep my chapters between 5 and 8 pgs, give or take a page. I do this because when I am reading at night I usually like to stop at the end of a chapter. There are times I am so tired that I can’t see straight and my eyes hurt so I have to stop beforehand. But that’s just me. And I know some chapters are longer because you write what it takes to tell that particular part of the story.

So, short chapters or long chapters or does it even matter?

Have a wonderful Saturday! I’ll be out doing yardwork. 🙂

Distractions and Writing

On By HeidiIn Blog2 Comments

When I was in junior high and that fateful paragraph was written on the board of my Homeroom class, my love of writing began. Saved my ass a few times, too. You see, I was too busy writing, so the projects I was suppose to be doing sort of got…lost. (Actually they just didn’t get done so I made a deal with my teacher and turned in my latest chapter instead.) I remember even having time to write when I worked at the front desk of the local pool. As I sit here, some years later, I still have that passion to write but for some reason I cannot stay focused. Some could blame it on old age or the fact that real life is a lot more complicated and filled than it was in my school years. And when I got married and had kids all that free time went by the wayside because…well…babies are a bit time consuming.

But I digress. Back to the distractions. Even when I started writing again when the kids went to school I was still able to focus. Yes I had television, books, housework, the flower gardens, the family when they were home, yet I still was able to focus. Now I could be all alone and I can’t get down on paper what it is I want to tell. The difference? Internet, for one. The internet and the social media that has all these distracting evil addictive games. Games where you move objects to make three or more of a kind and they disappear. Games where you grow crops and sell them, pop bubbles, hit the spin button and see what prize you will win at the end. I have managed to cull some of those games and I never put money into those games for more ‘lives’. I have five then five it will be. I do my best to ignore them. Play those five lives then close it down. Music helps to focus me, as always. But unless I go somewhere where I don’t have internet access, or inspiration hits so hard I can no longer ignore it, I have a hard time staying focused.

Another is me, myself and I. The book I am writing now was written a long time ago, in those school day. Since then I have rewritten it a few times, each time the journey a little different than the last. This time around I finally realized what it was missing. Why it never felt right. So I started again, trying to keep to the original storyline as best as I could. Unfortunately, I am to the point that the story has changed and grown so much that a lot of what was written before will not work, yet I still try to keep as much of it as I can. And that trips me up, puts that writer’s wall firmly into place, not allowing the scenes in my head pass through my fingers and onto the paper until I get out of my way and just write.

So on that note, I’m going to plug into my music and try to ignore the call of the games, forget what I have written down in previous rewrites and try to finish the book I am currently working on. Not as in done ready to publish, but done as in this part of the story is finish and I can now begin the many edits. Oh, and find a title. Little like trying to find the perfect purse. I mission doomed before it’s started. You girls know what I am talking about! 😉

Have a great weekend. 🙂

Heidi

Unable to put into words what you see? Try this trick.

On By HeidiIn Blog, Creative Writing3 Comments

If you are having a hard time putting down the visual you see your mind, close your eyes, immerse yourself in the scene and then type. Don’t worry about mistakes. Don’t worry about wording. Just write what you see in as much detail as you can. When done, open your eyes, fix the spelling errors (there will probably be a lot!) then edit. It is amazing how easy it is to put down in words what you see in your mind when there are no distractions from what is around you.