My 200-Word Tuesday Stories for February

In February, I launched the writing prompt game, 200-Word Tuesdays, and was absolutely thrilled to have other Twitter writers join in.

The February theme was
"inky-red" (or "red ink"), and people's different takes on the theme were in equal parts: inspiring and eye-popping and just plain envy-inducing... The individual interpretations are what make a writing prompt game so much fun; no two people will ever take the same path. It might be the same starting point (kinda) but it won't ever be the same ending.

I can already see how much work I have to do to get my skills up in the flash fiction, and #200WT (the Twitter hashtag name) is the perfect place to practice.

I wrote one 200-word piece on the "inky-red" theme each week. (I want to be able to post a story every week - even if that means I have to write them myself!! So I'm getting in that much-needed practice!!)

My four "Inky-red" tales are:

Inky-Red #2: The Duel
I like this tale - it explains why we write brilliantly and flowingly on some days, and why we get hung up over semi-colons for minutes at a time on other days. I'm trying to apply this to each writing session so that I consciously decide which character I need on my shoulder to help me be most productive!

Inky-Red #3: Sleeves
I think this is my most 'complete' story - a full narrative, with characters I care about, and with a sweet and convincing ending. I actually developed a much fuller story in my head that then had to be boiled down to the cruel 200 word limit.

Inky-Red #5: The Creator
This was my attempt to do something completely different - mystical, lyrical and poetic. I'm not sure yet if I succeeded... But I do like the idea and I hope that I will one day be able to paint landscapes with words (after lots of practising!!)

Inky-Red #7: InkRedibles by Vlad
This is a silly tale, but silly can mean freeing, and freeing is fun. Boy, did I have fun as I wrote this tale! Lots of grinning to myself on the train as I tapped away. And can I just say: I have THREE puns going on in the word "InkRedibles"!! And the best bit is - it was organically, unconsciously done!!!

I've gathered all the February tales - their summaries and links - in one place for your easy browsing/reading pleasure.

Enjoy, and I'm looking forward to more 200-word Tuesdays in March. I've never looked forward to Tuesdays so much before in my life! :-)

The Sun and the Moon

The following little story came to me while driving home one night on a dark road lit up in silver by a half-moon. I suddenly had a fanciful little image of a car smilingly gobbling up a crescent-shaped sliver of moon-flake which helped its headlights shine brighter. Such an image wouldn't normally find a home outside my head, but

Island Moments

I've just returned from a trip to my island home. I'm managing my post-goodbye blues by jotting down odd moments, memories and snapshots before they fade. When you travel to Mauritius from Australia, planes fly across the lower half of the island to the west coast, turn around and then come in for landing to airport. As we descended, we flew over the island, through clouds, grey and moody. As we reached the west coast, the clouds cleared briefly and we were treated to a dazzling setting sun colours warming up the clouds in gold and red. There was also a mountain peak, lit up in gold, that looked slightly (unnervingly) closer than it should have been. Then we turned, headed back into grey and landed in dark grey. We arrived just before Divali. The airport had a display. I dusted off my rusty Creole and successfully got through Customs with a) the Customs officer understanding my Creole and b) me not having to resort to too much English. I'm calling that a win. I...

I got locked out of Twitter

So. On Sunday morning, I was up at my usual pre-dawn hour. After a Saturday of clouds and rain, when Sunday started with golden pre-dawn light, the birds got very excited and had a glorious symphony of chirruping-chitter-chatter and clear calls to each other. I put down my teacup and slipped into the cold outside to record a soothing 13-odd seconds of it. Social media might appreciate this lovely clip of peace and zen, I thought, and shared it to Twitter and Instagram. Well. Within 30 seconds, Twitter got its knickers in a supreme knot about the video, declared I'd violated their rules, and locked me out of my account for 12 hours. For the record, here's the offending vid: Now, I'm the mildest of the mild social media users, focusing exclusively on things that interest me like writing, creativity, nature and animals. In other words, I don't go near the creepy edges of content that might violate Twitter ToS. Being locked out was absolutely a new experience for me. It...

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