My Writing | But I Smile Anyway...

The Four Stages – #Poetry #Inspired

09 Apr 2019 44 Comments

by Ritu in Poems, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Etheree Quartet, inspiration, Poetry, reading, Writer, Writers Block

After a wonderful review of my poetry book, Poetic RITUals, Lucy Mitchell, of BlondeWriteMore blog fame (she is too funny, you must follow her!) she mentioned to me that she had been searching for inspiring pietry aimed at writers and creative types… words that may inspire and help nudge you through the tough writerly moments we go through…

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A post shared by Ritu Bhathal ✍🏽📚💜 (@ritubhathalwrites)

ISn’t that just wonderful? ❤

Now, I can’t magic up a whole book but it got me thinking, and I penned a little Etheree quartet, dedicated to my fave Blonde, Lucy, and all the writers out there!

The Four Stages

 Write
 Right now
 Momentum
 The need to type
 I feel them coming
 Ideas multiply
 Fingers fly across the keys
 Story seeds blossom into trees
 A book the world will all want to read
 Thousands of words reaching a crescendo
  
 Blank
 It’s gone
 I’ve lost it
 My story thread
 No ideas flow
 Inspiration has run dry
 All my dreams come crashing down
 I’ll never be a best seller
 Should I delete the whole sorry lot?
 No one will ever want to read this stuff
  
 Read
 Inspired
 Just maybe
 I can do this
 My book could happen
 Someone might just like it
 Plot twists thicken in my mind
 Endings start to come together
 Put the book down; get the keyboard out
 It’s time to make my book dream come to life
  
 Write
 Again
 Typing fast
 Renewed vigour
 Finish is in sight
 I almost can’t keep up
 Words tumble onto my screen
 Loose ends seem to come together
 Tying up the story completely
 Breathe… and finally type those words… ‘The End’ 
  
  Ritu 2019

There is my inspiration for this verse… Lovely Lucy, alongside my dear friend, His Geoffleship!

The Day The Moon Began To Disappear – Speculative Fiction – March Edition

06 Mar 2019 72 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, D Wallace Peach, Flash Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Diana has another intriguing photo for her March prompt…

The Day The Moon Began To Disappear

A fine dust was falling from the sky, coating everything with a light, ethereal film. The dust settled on the ground like a warm snow fall, yet as I stepped upon it, my feet sank, as if in sand. The powder swallowed each foot and released it as it took it’s next step, leaving not a blemish upon its surface. A strange smell filled the atmosphere.

And that moon… it drew me closer and closer. The eerie glow from the eclipse was almost hypnotic.

I reached the point at which it looked like I was standing directly below this usually friendly satellite of the earth, then squinted upwards. The advice was to never look directly at the sun, but the moon was in the way so I felt no fear.

Until I realised that this dust appeared to be falling directly from the moon..

And that the moon was actually nowhere near the sun…

And that there was indeed a little man sat on this sphere…

Grating.

It all began to make sense… and yet it didn’t.

Now we know for sure that the moon really is made of cheese. The parmesan, stinky sort. That is what the smell had been.

And the ethereal feel of the earth?

Those shavings had taken away a side of the moonlight and laid it upon our surface instead.

Leaving the moon with a dark, dull face.

https://mythsofthemirror.com/2019/03/01/march-speculative-fiction-prompt/

February 28: Flash Fiction Challenge – Backup

01 Mar 2019 29 Comments

by Ritu in #CarrotRanch, Fiction Tags: 99-Word Fiction, Back Up, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills, Flash Fiction

Charli’s prompt this week…

February 28, 2019, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story using the term backup. You can back up or have a backup, just go where the prompt leads!

Back Up Required

“Back up! I request you all to back up. You are blocking the exit.”
Pete tried, in vain, to clear a path through the door.
It was always the same, when these guys visited.
He needed to get the band to their car, but it was proving to be impossible.
Just as he thought he’d made some headway, a huge scream erupted, and the crowd of teeny boppers surged forward, knocking him to the ground.
Typical. The boys had turned up at the entrance, with their dazzling smiles, unaware that their security was buried, and requiring back up himself.
Ritu 2019

February 28: Flash Fiction Challenge

Colleen’s 2019 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 125 #SynonymsOnly – Game & Trouble #Senryu

26 Feb 2019 28 Comments

by Ritu in #ColleensWeeklyPoetryChallenge, Poems Tags: #ColleensWeeklyPoetryChallenge, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Origin and Write, Senryu, Synonyms

It’s Tuesday, and that means Colleen’s Tanka Challenge! Of course, just providing a couple of words would be far too simple, so we have two words, yes, but we can’t use them! Only synonyms allowed!

Origin & Write

 Looking at the past
 Recording every moment
 Of my ancestry
  
 Scribing names of
 Ancestors who shaped my life 
 Made me who I am

 Forging connections
 On paper, by pen, today
 Lasting forever

 Ritu 2019

https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/02/26/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-xx-synonymsonly/

Random Elef-Act of Kind-Mouse

22 Feb 2019 49 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction, Poems Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, D Wallace Peach, Fiction, Picture Prompt, Speculative Fiction

Dear Diana has a monthly prompt going on, using a picture. It is a speculative fiction prompt, so we can write whatever we want, and this photo has been popping up into my reader on such a regular basis… things started to form in my mind…

The stormy winds did blow
The house it teetered so
The mice called for help from friend or foe
Their voices carried, but where did they go?

The snowflakes made a different sound
The elephant felt it in the ground
She followed over hill and mound
And this was what old Ellie found

A family made of her biggest fear
As she approached they raised a cheer
Even the littlest appeared to peer
And Mummy Mouse, she wiped a tear

"Oh Elephant, so big and strong,
We've been stranded for so long.
To leave us now would be so wrong.
Restore us please, to where we belong."

Ellie's fears took second place
She hid them behind a smiling face
And with surprising elephantine grace
She set the home in it's rightful place
 
The mousey family were delighted
Their huge misfortunes had been righted
Into their lives, Ellie was invited
And a lifelong friendship, that night, ingnited

A random act of kindness, see
Can change the lives of you and me
Ellie and Mother Mouse in a tree
Share a lesson in humanity

Ritu 2019