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Landscape with Animals

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Welcome to my blog, where I share stories, writing tips, inspiration, research, and whatever else sparks joy. Here, you'll find a little bit of everything from behind-the-scenes of my writing life to creative resources and random musings.

Our second challenge was to write 25 words inspired by the colours of the walls of the room that we were in.

While you read this, perhaps guess the colours of the walls of the room I was in…

I wrote a few versions- it was really interesting to get into.

You should give it a go with the room that you’re currently sitting in!

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1: Honey oozes like spun gold as the mellow autumn sun glints through translucent leaves to reveal the silhouettes of bees dancing amongst meadows of wheat.

2: Old parchment, coloured like an owl’s breast and marked like suede, spreads over the captain’s wooden table, unfurled by the brush of a warm hand.

3: A doe dips behind straw-like grasses, fur-like brushed sand and eyes like melted carob as she bows her head to nuzzle her beloved fawn.

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  • Jan 10, 2018
  • 2 min read

Updated: May 31, 2024

Its shadow slipped over the land, temporarily painting the fields in black. An almighty silhouette silenced the world with frozen awe, blocking out the sun as they searched above For the thing that’s smothered their world into darkness, Too untimely to be the night chasing away the glow of the sun.

What is this thing, this platform above? How does it glide so much higher than even the bravest of raptors? What seems to be made of hulking stone scuds past without the slightest of sounds, Like a wisp of cloud blown with ease by the summer breeze. And how does it not fall apart, eroding and collapsing onto the life on the surface below For it looks to have been hewn from the very ground itself, then cast up into the sky to watch from above. Where lies the chasm in which is once sat? Does a hole the size of a mountain lay gaping for what once belonged, like a fish at the absence of water’s flow?

How can we, who live below, ever hope to see what lies atop this mammoth platform? What does it look like? Are there fields or a city bathed in the golden rays of the sun? Do people live there? Skins glowing darker in the shades of sun-kissed tones, or do they hide inside away from the strengthened beams. How can the burning questions of those who search the skies from the ground Ever be answered without the knowledge of someone who has seen it all.

Perhaps, opposed to them all, it is merely just the shell of a world- no longer inhabited but cursed to float up there in solitude, With no way to return to its rocky bed below, where it once sat on the surface but then rose to rule above. Like the isolated life of those who rise to the throne watch and remember what they left behind But have to stay their course for the fortune of those they cared for before, Does this floating fortress ever long for return to the surface world below? Or, is it content to regard the view from its detached position far up above?

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A friend of mine and I have recently started a list of mini writing challenges. She being in the midst of Architectural Masters and I being in full time work and part time Martial Arts training, we both find it difficult to get the levels of writing we’d find ideal completed. So, we began this little challenge together- most being only 250 words, it would keep our creative brains occupied and growing!

(Please note most of these challenges we found from online sources and so were not created by us!) 

Writing Challenge #1: Put your Ipod on shuffle. Write 250 words inspired by the first and last lines of the song that plays.

Song: Faster by Within Temptation Lines: ‘I can’t see, because it’s burning deep inside.’ and ‘A fairy tale of lies.’


We are a society addicted to things that really aren’t our business.

How many of you get dragged and tempted into clicking that article that wormed its way onto your social media wall that you didn’t really need to read, and also didn’t really have entire interest in?

When will we choose to queue for the harsh truths so we can move on, as opposed to fall into the safety net of comforting lies? The usual fairy tale?

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Challenge #1- 250 words:

I felt like I was sleepwalking along the precipice: the sharp drop to one side being the depths of unknown, unprotected truth and the land I knew as safety to the other. Which way my subconscious would drag the rest of me remained uncertain.

The radio crackled, causing my entire being to groan in exhausted frustration. How long had I been struggling to sleep for the many thoughts that plagued my consciousness? That which was supposed to comfort me, to lull me to sleep, only jolted me further into wakefulness.

The news. It was always the news and it was always the same. Who knew how true it was? Society clung onto it with desperation, as I did now hoping some rare item would ease me into rest so I could forget the hard truths that battered me.

I gave up. My fatigue-aching eyes wouldn’t even open as I fumbled to switch the darn thing off.

It was lies. It was all lies. Why do we fall for the bating slogans and seek social media for comfort? I felt the truth burning up inside me- heart screaming as my brain flushed the fairy tale out; pushing me towards the truth. The arguments I had been fighting against fled as they felt my soul being tipped towards the place they feared to go. Finally, I could sleep.

No more fake news, no more lies- no more fairy tale. I wouldn’t seek them out anymore.

I shut them out and fell into the precipice.

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