Faded
I like writing, but I'm not sure if I'm really any good at it yet.
The small creature jumped up on her shoulder, faintly glowing, perfectly poised with its chest slightly puffed out.
Oh, that was actually a neat idea! The girl picked up her phone and typed a few notes, before setting it down and returning to homework.
She worked on it until late, climbing into bed. She hoped she'd have time for that story in a few days. Maybe the weekend. The creature curled up with her, eager for its story to be written.
The next night was much the same. Too much homework, and she made it to bed late again.
And again.
And again.
Weeks passed and the creature faded, until at last losing hope. It jumped down and staggered into a corner, collapsing.
The girl continued trying desperately to finish all her homework on time.
Several more weeks passed, until at last she got a break. Eager to spend her free time writing, she pulled up a page, and... nothing came.
Small creatures had passed by, but moved on as soon as they smelled death. None dared approach.
She sighed, closing it. Maybe she'd read.
Prequels
No prequels yet. Why not write one?
Sequels
Comments (3 so far!)
Robert Quick
Whoops. I connected the previous story which is actually not officially connected. Oh well. I think some of what I said still holds merit which is good since we don't have an edit feature here for comments and our mistakes will haunt us forever. I'll move forward and see what happens next.
- #4113 Posted 6 years ago
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PrincessLapis
Yeah, I didn't quite feel like defining the creature further. It wasn't what I wanted to focus on this time, partly.
The ending is very much meant to be a bit of a downer. Reading can be a great second choice, but at least for me, it doesn't quite fulfill the same slot. Exploring things others have made can be great, and it can sometimes even provide you with ideas, but it just doesn't have the same feeling of happy satisfaction that I get from creating my own stuff.
- #4120 Posted 6 years ago
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- Published 6 years ago and featured 6 years ago.
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Robert Quick
It's interesting that depending on which order you read the stories, you get a different feeling. If this one was a sequel rather being written later as a prequel, it would work better as far as the creature definition goes. You skimped on it this time because you already felt that you spent time on it in the previous one. But if someone was trying to read it in order, they'd likely be confused. On the other hand, this ending comes of as sad, and almost defeated. Although if one can't write, reading is a great second choice. Most writers agree that the two most important things to being a writer is writing and reading. So as is, this pair of stories works because they end on a high note, with the creature winning out against the banality of homework but I definitely wanted to point out the difficulties in writing prequels because of the shortcuts we feel like we can take.