creative writing – Page 2 – GirlieOnTheEdge's Blog

Only a Dress. It’s a 6.

February 25, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge22 Comments

Couldn’t tell you why I decided to help; all that remained were two closets in the master bedroom and a winter stranded gas barbeque grill frozen to the deck off the dining area. Wait, I could probably tell you the “why”, but I’d rather tell you the “what”.

Hanging in the larger of the two closets behind old winter coats and clothing marked “Donate”; pushed further and further to the back by the passing of the years, was a wedding dress. Beneath see-through protective covering, hanging from a polished cedar wood hanger, was an ivory colored, liquid silk wedding dress with sweetheart neckline. It’s bodice was fitted, sleeves long and ending with single silk button at the wrist, it whispered of understated elegance and modesty.

Beautiful in its simplicity, I felt an urge to wrap my arms around it as if by magic I might feel what the woman who had worn that dress felt on her wedding day, when the world was suddenly new and possibility lay as open as the night sky, where wonder and a new life lay waiting.

It’s Thursday’s Six Sentence Story Link Up!

February 22, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge4 Comments

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and another edition of Six Sentence Stories!
This, Tuesday evening, I attempt typing while comfortably seated on my leather couch. Lap warmed by a big pillow, my laptop voices no complaints. The room is softly illuminated by a nightlight and the 60 watt bulb of a desk lamp. Been clicking through songs in a particular Spotify collection. As I seek words for this post, I seek also, a musical soundtrack for my search. I listen, click on half a dozen until…wait…could this be it? Take a bow, “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”. Writing in silence or with the backdrop of instrumental music, the goal is discovering the portal for words to pass from there to our blank page. Luckily for us, we need only have sufficient words to make up the requisite and precise 6 sentences by which to tell our Six Sentence Story. Because? We are Six Sentence Stories! Who are we?! Sixarians! Forgive the liberties taken from mangling that movie scene, lol. There is a standing invitation at the ‘Edge to join us on the hilltop of your choice, be it fiction, poetry or next scene, as we join forces once again, in writing another Six Sentence Story.

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Link the URL to your post via the blue “Click here to enter” button below.
Link is live Wednesday 6:00 PM, ends way late Saturday night!
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers 😀

PROMPT WORD: WRAP

“Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.”
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

February 19, 2023GirlieOnTheEdgeLeave a comment

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and Sunday’s prompt word reveal for Six Sentence Stories!
Y’all haven’t taken for granted there’s an exclamation point at the end of the post title, right? In our ever present climate of emojis and punctuation marks, it seems as if perhaps, the exclamation point may appear platitudinous. There are varying opinions on the use of this particular punctuation mark. “Less is more” along with, “avoid it if at all possible”. Personally, I like them. So, what do you say?! Ready to pound the paper for 6 sentences again?! Alright!!!! We are Six Sentence Stories. We write stories and poetry and the briefest of dissertations, new scenes from our current wip, in only, and exactly, 6 sentences. Tell me that isn’t deserving of a few exclamation points! Now that we’ve established we will do this thing another week, let’s get about the business of allowing our imaginations free range, see what there is to see, hear what there is to hear and experience whatever it is we’ve been overlooking. Read you soon!!!

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Link up at Wednesday’s post. Link goes live at 6:00 pm through Saturday late…
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers 😀

PROMPT WORD: WRAP

“If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams—the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” – Robert Southey

Anybody Got the Time? It’s a 6.

February 18, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge23 Comments

No one appeared to be older at the end of the day; I certainly felt no older or worse the wear; I marked the date on the calendar, this is one message from the Universe I won’t ignore.

I walked past the kitchen several times over the course of the day, you know, to peek in – was it still happening, was time still advancing, on this, the event to go down in company history as the “Valentine’s Day Space/Time Continuum Massacre”.

“Oh, my God, you’ve got to see this, the clock in the kitchen, it’s going crazy!”

Laughter spilled from my co-worker’s mouth, “no, really, you’ve got to come see this“. I followed Em into the office kitchen.

I stared at the clock on the wall, grabbed my cell phone and stood looking up at the wall clock whose hands were way busier than they should be.

It’s Thursday’s Six Sentence Story Link Up!

February 15, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge2 Comments

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and another edition of Six Sentence Stories!
25. That’s the number of days until Daylight Savings Time. Oh, I know. Not everyone is in favor of turning the clocks forward an hour but come on. Think what good the extra sunlight can do! Energy levels higher, productivity increased. Okfine. The last part, I’m talking about my own damn self, lol. How does the sun staying up in the sky longer help our writing? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. Cycles, rhythms, routines. Energy and creativity wax and wane with the revolution around the sun…I’ll stop now. This post isn’t about me, it’s about us. About Six Sentence Stories. About the writers writing them. About using our talents to put something never before seen, out into the universe. In exactly, precisely, 6 sentences. Each of us contributing 6 sentences of a story, poem or postulation. Unearthed from our imagination, 6 sentences that will exist in perpetuity, such is the nature of the internet. Right cool if you ask me.

PROMPT WORD: DATE

“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.” – Salman Rushdie

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

February 12, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge3 Comments

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and Sunday’s prompt word reveal for Six Sentence Stories!
Sometimes it takes awhile to settle in. To a new home, a new job, a new town or city. Any one of those experiences provides fodder for a story. People, places, things around us all contain within them the seeds for our imagination to plant, water, tend. Sometimes they come to fruition, other times they serve to take us on a path a little out of the way, one we may have overlooked but for focusing on what was right in front of us. Six Sentence Stories is where we gather to share those stories discovered along the paths we’ve been led. This is the Sunday invitation to join in, beginning Wednesday evening, the Six Sentence Story Blog Hop. As the title suggests, all stories are written in exactly 6 sentences. Laugh if you will, if you believe this a simple task, lol. Sure, on face value it is. Pour moi? I’ve found it not necessarily… easy. Yet at the end of the anguish, I’ve been grateful for the experience, what it provided – opportunity to enhance my writing skills. We hope you’ll join us this week with a Six. If you’ve never written a Six Sentence Story, give it a shot and swing on by with it later this week. You’ll find a most amiable and talented group of writers frequent this establishment. Yes, we’ll leave the light on.

PROMPT WORD: DATE

“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.” – Oscar Wilde

Order Up. It’s a 6.

February 10, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge23 Comments

“Would you two like another pot of coffee?” the waitress’s smile, soft, slow, spoke in a language it had only heard, not yet learned.

The two old friends looked up at the waitress, a lifetime of learned balance, “yes, please“, both permission and gratitude.

“Been meeting here for a long time, haven’t we?”, the friends laughed, not merely at the same time, but in a complimentary rhythm as music being more than sound, is often about silences and pauses.

Lifting her hand and using an index finger as stand-in for a piece of chalk, the woman pretended to do the math on an imaginary chalkboard, “would appear so, although for as many years that have passed between us, no time has passed as this, my friend, is our very own time bubble.”

In earnest, yet failing to restrain the tug upward at either side of his mouth, the man exclaimed loudly (but not too loudly), “all I can tell you then, is they damn well better not close this diner or there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Head bent at a familiar angle, the waitress slipped her cell phone back into her apron pocket as she approached the booth with the bookended couple; setting the coffee pot down on the worn Formica, she reached into her other apron pocket for the small touchpad, looked up expectantly and asked “large order of fries?”.

It’s Thursday’s Six Sentence Story Link Up!

February 8, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge3 Comments

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and another edition of Six Sentence Stories!
It’s been well over a month since I wrote a Wednesday post on my lunch hour sitting at my desk at work gazing out the window (feels kinda weird). In fact, the last time I did, there were leaves on the trees. Not so today. Tall, stark, bare trees against a mix of blue and fluffernutter white, the temperature a surprising 64 degrees. It is winter, yet not. (“yoohoo, Girlie, come outside for a few minutes“) Shall I oblige? (methinks yes!) As you know, Wednesday’s post provides the link to the hop known as Six Sentence Stories. A writing challenge you will both love and despise! A writing challenge that offers more than all the other writing challenges. We invite you to join us beginning this evening through late night Saturday by writing and linking the URL to a story of 6 and only 6 sentences. There’s a reason, we use the word “challenge” when talking about writing a Six Sentence Story, lol. You up for that challenge?

PROMPT WORD: BUBBLE

“There’s something special about writing by hand, writing with a fountain pen, and there’s something special about writing into a book, to take a blank book and turn it into an actual book.” – Joe Haldeman

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

February 5, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge14 Comments

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and Sunday’s prompt word reveal for Six Sentence Stories!
Been a bit of a whirlwind in Girlie-land, lately. Most recently? Moved into a new place. I know everyone gets the “where do I begin!” about moving, right? Yet amidst the boxes, containers, bags and general disarray, I’m feeling the tingle of excitement at the potential of setting up a new space in a different way. Because why not? Question: is it possible to change our writing style? Is that the same thing as changing one’s “voice”? If we switch up genres say, will our “voice” still shine through? While we’d all agree intrinsically, “voice” and style” are the same, do we agree by venturing out into a different writing landscape, our voice, though perhaps a different pitch, would still resonate? The Six Sentence Story Blog Hop provides a venue for experimenting, 6 sentences at a time, expressing our writing “voice” a little differently if so inclined. Ya know, like putting the couch in a different spot in relation to the recliner. Six Sentence Stories. The challenge to write a story or poem, piece of fiction or scene in exactly 6 sentences. Shall we get to unpacking? hm…maybe the bookcases should go against the other wall….

PROMPT WORD: BUBBLE

“If a man, sitting all alone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need never try to write romances.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Carry On. It’s a 6.

February 1, 2023GirlieOnTheEdge32 Comments

“Carry me!”

The child’s wail pierced the evening’s peace; jarred from thoughts as vast as the night sky the man looked down, the child’s face mirror image of hers, mouthed “really?!”, then gathered the child in his arms, and continued to walk.

The trail among the pines was well worn (“love worn” she’d say), it’s soft carpet of needles insuring their footsteps were as silent as the stars above; he hesitated as memories breached the wall – he and she purchased the property before they married, sowing dreams in blueprints, sketching hopes along the wood line that broke into the open area at the crest of a large hill, “my mountain summit” she’d call it, it was 3/4 of a mile from where their house now stood.

“Perfect” she’d whisper as she adjusted the telescope into position before beginning her scan of the night sky. “This“, her voice soft, “is where all the secrets are told, promise me you’ll tell her that when she’s old enough.”

The man, his promise still invisible armor, set the little girl down in front of the telescope where she’d always stand; through the blur of tears, adjusted the telescope’s lens for the little girl, “look sweetheart, there… see the bright star to the left…that’s mommy looking down at this very moment, watching that we are both ok“.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: