I don’t have the words to tell you how I’m feeling; please don’t ask for I will be forced to try and explain, to compromise and approximate, confusing what is with what might be, as if I was writing fiction…exchanging truth for something else entirely.
I love ten word stories and over the past few years I have read some fantastic ones. It’s amazing how much some writers can convey using only ten words.
Ten word stories were one of those things I would write only when I felt in the mood to do so – like poetry. However, since the start of April, I have added a daily challenge into my writing schedule…yep, you guessed it. To write a ten word story a day.
And I’m really enjoying it. Most days I do manage to pen more than one – like most things, once you get into the swing of it, you can just keep going. The great thing about writing such short fiction is that it makes you appreciate every single word. If it doesn’t add anything, if it doesn’t have to be there, you have to remove it. And what better writing exercise can there be for any writer?
I’m now in the process of going through all my mini stories and posting the ones I like the most to Wattpad. Currently (as of 25 May 2016) there are ten stories there to read.
Ten Word Stories by Sammi Cox (via Wattpad)
So, if you enjoy ten word stories or short fiction, please feel free to check it out. And don’t forget to follow / vote / comment! 😉
To visit the Earthbound index page and learn more about this story, please click here.
As time moves on, I cannot help but wonder.
Where am I from? Who am I? What am I? Why am I here and not there?
Confusion reigns. So many questions, and so few answers.
Each night, when darkness falls, I am reminded of my strangeness. I ask for silence, but instead I get shadows. Shadows that whisper messages in moonlight and starlight, telling me things that cannot possibly be true, no matter how many times I beg them to shush. I want to be normal. I don’t understand.
One night, something within me snaps and I run out of the house. Through the woods I go, darting around trees, over logs and across ditches I can’t see. I am oblivious to the dark. The ground gets steeper; I climb higher and higher until I’m there; a clearing in the middle of the forest, atop a small hill. A place I have never been before. A place I never knew existed.
I look up, expectantly, my heart racing. The moon is shining bright and strong, surrounded by a sea of stars.
I call out to them.
And then I wait…
To visit the Earthbound index page and learn more about this story, please click here.
I dream of things far away. Of things I can’t touch. Of things I can barely see. Of things I should know nothing about.
It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. I know I shouldn’t be here.
Words come to me in the moonlight; visions in the stars. The dark sky, an ever changing picture, speaks. Of a time before, and a time yet to come. Riddles abound. I do not understand.
From out of the darkness, someone, somewhere whispers to me as I sleep. They beckon me to them.
I try not to listen. It is impossible. I know I cannot go.
But I want to. I wish…
I wish I could go home.
The night torments me with its truth. I know I shouldn’t be here, but I have nowhere else to go…I do not know how I came to be here, so I must stay…earth-bound.
At the cross-roads there were four options, including the road I had just travelled down. But there was no signpost. They said it would be easy to find.
I felt tears well up in my eyes. I didn’t know the way.
I was late. I was alone. I was lost.
The upturned glass moved around the board, unbidden, as it began to spell something out.
Until this point it had only been a game.
The lights flickered.
Someone screamed.
Still the glass moved.
The air went cold.
I shivered as I realised what had been spelt out.
My name.
Sammi Cox 