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I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please :)). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph has been reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr.
The roar of waves crashing down onto the beach filled my ears. The occasional seagull squawked. My eyes stung and I struggled to open them with the sun’s penetrating rays blinding me. Warm, wet sand cradled me while salty foam lapped at my ankles. Men and women shouted in the distance. What happened? My muscles ached, salt water had scoured the inside of my nose and it burned. My stomach lurched and I vomited onto the glittering, golden sand. Firm hands suddenly clung onto my water dappled skin. “My baby,” I could hear my mother and father cooing. Once I stopped vomiting I turned to look behind me, still in shock of what occurred. The sea pulsed like a beast and hushed me to stay quiet.
– Ermisenda Alvarez
“Excuse me, but I think you’re sitting on my towel…”
Thanks for the short and sweet contribution! Quirky. 🙂
Couldn’t resist. Looked at (what I could see of) the expression on her face and that’s the first thing that popped into my mind. Go figure. 😉
Coincidentally, this post reminds me of a similar idea I had about beginning an open (but loosely moderated) graphic stimulus blog about a year ago. Registered the blog name (Graphic Stiumlus), and then promptly forgot about it. Just now looked at it for the first time since, threw up a quick post to give some life to the front page, and now thinking about how to proceed. Got any ideas, suggestions…or maybe like to participate in its development? 😉
That’s a great image you have posted! It’s a good idea to have a blog dedicated to that kind of creativity. Images (of all mediums) can inspire great writing, unfortunately I am very busy with my own projects but thanks for the invitation. I really appreciate it and hope you all the best. 🙂
P.S. WordPress successfully bastardized the above link, which should have pointed to: http://graphicstimulus.wordpress.com
Don’t count on me to join, William, just sayin. One of these weeklies was killing me and I have a second now, neither really in my genre, so I’m stretched super thin. But I love challenges. They put me back in school when life was simple!
I do have 3 suggestions…
1. Change the name. I get Toxic shock porno from that one and I would never click it.
2. Don’t forget about it again. Make a calendar reminder or whatever. I rely on Ermi and Elia to feed me here precisely at midnight on Sunday morning… just like those dumbstruck fish! LOL! I feel bad that I can’t be more prepared because of my schedule, but I AM inspired!
3. Promote it. Get people like me excited. I tell others about this one and I post links back to it and comments referring back to it all the time. Too many like me and you might start needing a paycheck but it will feel good on the way to insanity. 🙂
Good luck! ♥
“weeklies” is THE ugliest thing I ever saw pass spell-checker. Did I accept that in a drunken stupor one night or something? Sheesh!
““weeklies” is THE ugliest thing I ever saw pass spell-checker. Did I accept that in a drunken stupor one night or something? Sheesh!”
*Dies of hysterical laughter*
-Eliabeth
I’ve added so many things to spell check, including a bunch of character names, but to my knowledge, nothing like that.
Yay for hysterical laughter! I do have to spell-check with some nervous trepidation. I’ve added “yay”, “grr”, “cuz”, “ew”, “gonna”, “wanna”, “gimme”, and who knows what else, along with my share of character’s names and occasionally their colloquialisms.
I’ve never written a character with colloquialisms; the closest we’ve come is removing contractions from upper class character’s dialogue. I don’t want to type in your documents lol, I might start thinking “gimme” is an actual word. I’m more fond of the ignore button than the add button. I’ve had to add “teleportation.” I had to google it to make sure I wasn’t imagining that’s a word.
-Eliabeth
The dictionary is slow to catch up. It always has been. One of these days I will do a rant post on “Dord.” Right now I’m just ticked that “ew” isn’t recognized in Words With Friends. It’s costing me a lot of much bigger words. Baby steps. 🙂
LOL! That may have been short but it sure was funny. Blessings, Terri
Haha, this made me smile. 🙂
Eliabeth: The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is “drip drip drop little April shower!” (Bambi)
Okay, you guys are cracking me up! Thanks. Blessings, Terri
attempting to wash away the bits of me, clung on from last year
for i am changed, a full and peaceful being
but itches i get that i must scratch:
immaturity and compulsive decisions
scrubbing at my face, please leave
this water hardly helps
naked and vulnerable, i find it hard to forget
that this will always be
Lovely. I really liked the rhythm, particularly in the second stanza. The first sentence felt the strongest ‘attempting to wash away bits of me, clung on from last year’. Thanks for contributing with your great poetry! I hope to see you contribute on another Picture it & write soon (maybe next week? :D).
Thank you. And I definitely will be checking out more of these! They’re easy inspiration yet give me a lot to think about.
I like this! It’s not actually that far from my immediate impression, where the water is from a shower that did not wash away what happened.
Thanks, I agree.
That is very nice! I liked it a lot. Blessings, Terri
I made it my personal challenge this week to match your picture to one of my dreams no matter how impossible it seemed, so I won’t be using your paragraph at all this time.
But oh my God! I love it!!!
If you can stomach (sorry, I had to) a little more vomiting seawater, I urge you to take a look at a post I did in September called The Cove.
I don’t think I can get this one written before bed, gone all day tomorrow and work Monday so I’ll be late again, but I will do it, I promise!
Yay personal challenges are always good! I read your post and left a comment, lovely work. We’ll be waiting for your response. 🙂 Happy sleeping and happy working!
– Ermisenda
Haha, I may add “yay” to my favorite word list, along with “Grr!” and “stuff. ” I use it enough! 🙂 Pic, link and outline are all done now. Thanks!
Okay, here is Late. The title has nothing to do with the story being late. 🙂
(We all know why you called it Late… haha jokes.) I liked approaching the wetness of her hair and face as being indicators of sweat. It brings a different perspective on the parted lips. I liked your contribution, especially the ending. I preferred that you didn’t end it with a confession about the box but instead on her shock. It seemed to give it a more authentic edge, personally. Thanks for contributing (late or not!), it’s always a pleasure to read your work, Anne.
This challenge is such a great idea, and you pick out such great pictures! I think its amazing how many different things one picture can mean… not just a thousand words, but a thousand different words to different people! And in such diverse styles.
Hello!
Here is my entry for the week! http://airickaphoenix.com/Author/?p=563
Title: Dangerous Waters
Teaser: […]“You can’t tell anyone.”
Mary looked down at her bare legs, speckled with sand. Droplets clung to the goose bump infested flesh. Unconsciously, her gaze darted to his legs. So normal now, she mused. Long, toned, and speckled with golden hairs and tanned from hours beneath the sun. A pair of black swimming trunks hugged his trim waist. He hadn’t pulled his t-shirt on, but Mary was more interested in his legs than the washboard abs and masculine torso.
“Would anyone believe me?” she murmured.[…]
Thank you for yet another lovely prompt! I do so look forward to them!
All the best,
Airicka
Loved it! I left a comment on your blog with extra details. The teaser definitely got me hooked, and I hope others will be too. This teaser delivers an extra punch once it has been re-read, after finishing the whole story. I loved the journey you took us on. Hope to see you contribute more in the future!
You are by far such a dear! Thank you! I read your lovely comment and responded as well as asked a question here: http://airickaphoenix.com/Author/?p=532
Thank you again and I can’t wait until next week!
Best wishes!
Thank you! I will. I’m actually quite excited and can’t wait until the next prompt!
[…]I shall have an eye out to see if the story continues, if I haven’t swung around just leave me a comment as a reminder. Can’t wait to read it (if you do get around to it!) I also think using future prompts would give a unique spin (and test your creative abilities) to the story. :)[…]
Fun story! Of course I’m asking the question, “Is he?” And of course you can’t tell me. 🙂
I’m actually seriously considering expanding this one, maybe using future prompts to continue it. As you can tell, I had a hard time stopping and keeping this short, so there is a lot that still needs to be told. Nevertheless, I will only grin here and tell you to keep an eye open for the next part either on here or on my website: http://airickaphoenix.com/Author/?cat=10 lol. Not helpful, I know and I’m sorry.
Thank you so much for the lovely comment and for reading!
Best wishes!
I shall have an eye out to see if the story continues, if I haven’t swung around just leave me a comment as a reminder. Can’t wait to read it (if you do get around to it!) I also think using future prompts would give a unique spin (and test your creative abilities) to the story. 🙂
I have no idea what I write about – does this happen to anyone else? Then people ask me what it all means, but I have no idea myself …:
“They would never kiss
Because of the rain
A barrier between their tinted lips
A wall of falling bricks
Hammered down
Shall sunshine come again?
Oh, he’ll have disappeared by then …”
At times I agree with your point. Sometimes I write with intended meaning but it usually comes out totally different, with different meaning. It just depends, I just know I write with passion and I think that’s what’s important within aspiring writers. 🙂
Thanks for contributing by the way. I loved your romantic approach to the image. I really liked how you described rain being a barrier between the lovers. It’s bittersweet, lovely.
Now write me an essay about all the meaning you evoked in your poem! Starting… now! 😀
– Ermisenda
Love the contrast of rain with falling bricks–startling and very effective.
I published my poem on Saturday, lol! But here is the link:
http://terri0729.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/calling-me-to-let-go/
Hope you like it! Peace and blessings, Terri
Lovely. I loved the third stanza, it really stood out to me – ‘As if in another world/being gently rocked to sleep/I had never even realized/being sucked in so deep’. The struggle between the persona and the sea was well executed. Thanks Terri for contributing once again with your rhythmic poetry! 🙂
The beach.
Hot sand.
Cold sea.
Sun strikes the shifting floor.
Shines across the water,
Touches the denizens of the shore.
The beach.
The ocean,
In perfect embrace, Harmony.
Vast,
Beautiful.
Remarkable.
Never been.
Beautifully done! Blessings, Terri
‘Sun strikes the shifting floor. Shines across the water,’ – I thought those words created a beautiful image. I could envision the scene so well. Thanks for contributing to this post with your inspired creative work. I really enjoyed it, the use of short phrases really added to the impact of the poem.
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Hoe voelt het om alleen,
als enige, te weten
wat je aangedaan wordt.
De druppels wassen weg,
Wat weggewassen kan worden.
De littekens blijven, en
zijn gezicht blijft ook.
Vasthangen aan je haar,
je vel, je ogen.
Het ontgaat je niet,
Niet zoals waterdruppels.
How does it feel to be alone,
the only one to know,
what is being done to you.
The drops of water wash away,
what can be washed away.
The scars stay, and
so does his face.
It sticks to your hair,
your skin, your eyes.
It doesn’t let go,
Not like the drops of water.
– Otheus
Heel goed Otheus. I think this phrase deserves special attention, ‘The scars stay, and/so does his face./It sticks to your hair,/your skin, your eyes.’ Stunning. The poem aches and breathes on it’s own. Another great take on the inspirational photograph. Thank you for sharing your work and providing a translation to your Dutch work. I hope to see more in the following weeks! Tot ziens.
This is very powerful, the idea of being alone, the only one to know. It’s our natural instinct, I think, to want to share, and so this feels all the more painful. Lovely, tight images.
Beautifully hideous. I was this horror that I felt in her face when I first saw it. Very nicely written!
In the mad rush of living it all looks like chaos, but when we stop, lips parted on a moment, to see wet hair in sleek curls, like a bass clef, or a candy cane, what might be, under telescopic look, cables electrifying lives, or under microscopic, a river of branches, silt-soft, when at the end of the curl is a drop of sunlight, or an ocean waving in at every shore, when lips part with wonder, chaos assembles into a pattern we already know inside.
Wow. I loved how you made such an ambitious sentence. Fantastic, I loved the imagery of the curls being like a bass clef and the ‘drop of sunlight’ at the end of the curl. The structure you chose embodies the chaos you describe, well done. I hope to see more contributions from you in the future!
Thank you. I was doing it in free-write mode, which tends to make me write long sentences. I hadn’t thought about the structure embodying the chaos. Now I’m thinking maybe I’d like to tinker with this more. Thanks!
I love the idea of prompts like this, and daily (when possible) writing, and I enjoyed what others wrote here. So often these things turn into poems or longer stories. I hope to be participate more!
Feel free to participate in the past Picture it & write posts (they have their own category) or you can look out every Sunday where we will post a new one. 😀 You will never be left without prompts here at Ermiliablog. We must keep our creatives juices going, at least I need to. 🙂
Ah, that’s how it works–every Sunday? That sounds perfect. So we can have a few days to think about the prompt, tweak things a bit? I’ll definitely take a look back at some of the past posts! Thank you.
I love this! The exchange is as poetic as the poetry! I am never going to call myself a poet, but I keep coming across this where the reader sees something in the poem that the poet didn’t intend. Doesn’t matter. The poet wrote it that way because the poem has a life of its own!
I love how the last line on the sea pulsing like a beast and hushing her came unexpectedly for me, and gave me a chill. It had seemed a lifesaving episode, but there is something going on underneath for her. Haunting.
Thank you. I wanted to add a dark edge to the mini story. I am glad you appreciated it and found it worthwhile. 🙂
Diving, you very much get a sense of the ocean as a giant, pulsing, living thing.
Oooh, I can see where that would be, though I’ve never dived. It scares me immensely, and maybe partly because of the feeling you describe.
soak wet
i hang in there.
if you don’t come
it won’t be fair! 😉
thanks for coming to my blog, elia!
gonna link you there!
cheers!
Ooo, I wasn’t expecting that final phrase. Nice teaser twist. Lovely to see another contribution, I hope to see more from you Nanda in the future! 😀
yay!
i love the pictures you choose and this space to a lot of people contribute with different kind of writings… it’s amazing!
cheers!
“BEEEP,BEEEP,BEEP” She rolled over and looked at the clock on the nightstand.
It can’t be time to get up already. It seems like I only just fell asleep. Slowly she sits on the side of the bed and stretches, then she gets up and goes to the bathroom.
Everyday the same routine, now to make breakfast.
Then?
Nothing, she could think of nothing to do until she walked past the fridge.
Stuck to the door was an offer from the local gym to come try out a total body training class.
She thought why not.
One hour later totally exhausted and dripping with sweat sucking down water like no tomorrow,
She thought that was awesome, wow I really needed that.
On her way out of the gym she decided she’d be back.
I should be inspired by this contribution to go do some of my own exercise. Maybe I’ll go do some dancing, that’s always fun. Thanks for contributing this week! The story seemed to merge into a poem, or maybe not quite. That is an interesting structure to try (If it was meant to be purposeful :D). I hope to see you contribute again to the past or future Picture it & write’s posted every Sunday.
My paragraph:
Two hours later, I swiped water droplets from the mirror and grimaced. The worse was over, now to get dressed and I would be ready to leave. Hopefully this new haircut would buy me a small reprieve. I was tired of running, of hiding and I was definitely over the whole hood-and-dark-glasses look. A breeze found its way through my tiny motel bathroom window and I shivered. I stepped back and grabbed the one towel that managed to stay clean throughout this process and squeezed the last of the water from my hair. Everyone would be looking for a blond with brown eyes, not a girl with dark hair and hazel eyes. I stepped into the tiny bedroom and quickly dressed. I was ready to go in under thirty minutes. Living on the run made you extremely efficient.
My poem:
Caught in a thunderstorm,
rain sluices down my body.
A droplet discovers an opening
in my doused wool to slither down my flesh.
I imagine that it’s your index finger making
the path down my throat, in-between my breastbone
and onto my belly, where you pause
for a brief second before sliding down the right side
and getting absorbed by my blouse.
Wow! Thanks for contributing twice Taina. They were both wonderful. I think I preferred your poem though, this was fantastic ‘A droplet discovers an opening/in my doused wool to slither down my flesh./I imagine that it’s your index finger making/the path down my throat’. Great work! The paragraph intrigued me to find out why she was on the run. The sentence about the cold shiver was a great touch – I love attention to detail like that (without swamping the reader). I hope to see more of your ambitious, and well written contributions in future or past Picture it & write posts!
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I might’ve strayed a little too far from the picture… but this is my spin :]
http://febuary2011.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/little-stone-girl/
You didn’t stray too far from the picture at all. That’s the whole point of the exercise, stray where-ever the inspiration takes you. 🙂 This phrase was lovely ‘Forever suspended, about to soar back to the heavens where she belongs – but frozen to stone in the act, eternally condemned to remain behind.’ It makes me ache for that poor little stone girl. Awesome work!
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My breath was like an echo
Bouncing off the walls
The water dripped off my hair
Pinging on the aluminum floor
I wrapped my arms
Against my bare chest
With a shiver
Droplets rained.
I pushed back the memories
Burying them deep away.
From this moment on
I will pretend nothing ever happened today.
My breathing, rasp, was like an echo
Ringing in my eardrums.