by Naomi L. | December 5, 2014 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
The day I stopped caring was the greatest day of my life.
That was the day I heard the voice inside. The voice that set me free.
I used to be terrified of what everyone thought. My life was nothing but overwhelming fear of judgment and humiliation. After every move I made, I would worry about how someone might react. Anyone could be a critic. Everyone’s opinion mattered.
Most nights, I’d cry myself to sleep. All I wanted was to please people, to be accepted. I wanted my actions to mean as much as everyone else’s did.
And then one day, I woke up to the sound of that voice. Not the pretend voice I used to kid myself or make myself feel better. The real voice deep inside that had finally endured enough phoniness and decided to speak up.
It only asked me the one question. But that was exactly what I needed to hear.
“Why do you care?“
Why did I care? Why did I care what people said? Why did I care what people did? Why did I care what people thought? I didn’t know. And when I realized I didn’t have an answer, something incredible happened.
The fear just… disappeared.
Suddenly, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I no longer felt embarrassed about bad memories that everyone else had long forgotten. I stopped trying to hide the things I liked that nobody else understood. I quit doubting myself and began trusting in my own abilities. And never again did I let anyone laugh at me, because now they were laughing with me.
I had stopped being afraid, and started living life. All because that voice inside had made me realize whose opinion really matters most.
What a liberating day that was.
The day I stopped caring what anyone thinks… but me.
by Naomi L. | November 21, 2014 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
Did I really have a nightmare? Or did a noise downstairs wake me?
Did I really forget to turn the lights off? Or did they switch back on after I went to sleep?
Did I really leave the door open? Or was it a draft in the hallway?
Did I really move that chair? Or did it push itself across the room?
Did I really sleepwalk through the kitchen? Or did the open fridge empty itself?
Did I really see my own shadow in the mirror? Or was it a phantom?
Am I imagining things? Am I losing my mind?
Or am I not alone?
by Naomi L. | November 14, 2014 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
I thought that spot in the sky was a star.
It didn’t occur to me that stars don’t waver.
We screamed as the bright lights blinded us.
I tried to run with everyone else.
But they had come for me.
The ground beneath me vanished.
No way out now.
Only one way.
Their way.
Up.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Back to the story
by Naomi L. | October 24, 2014 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
It was the only thing I ever feared growing up.
It started with the missing socks from my drawer.
Then the snacks in my backpack started disappearing.
The food trails went under the bed.
I thought I was done for.
One night, I saw it.
It bared its teeth.
I knew then.
“Carrot sticks!”
Vegetarian.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Back to the story
by Naomi L. | October 17, 2014 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
Sometimes I wonder if it was all a dream.
I’d walk through the halls alone, always with my head down, never looking them in the eye. Maybe I was afraid they’d see too far into my soul.
Nobody ever saw into me. They only ever saw through me.
It was fear that guided me, fear that blinded me, fear that trapped me.
My solitude lasted to the end of those years. I felt like a ghost in their world. I almost believed they could feel a chill whenever I walked by.
I watched them grow and blossom into such interesting people. I knew their stories, their values, their hopes and their fears. I knew everyone’s name. Did anyone know mine?
I realized my mistake too late. I should have been brave. I should have reached out. I should have said hello every day, and asked how they were, and spent time with them any chance I had.
I should have tried to be part of their world. Instead, I chose to be invisible.
So don’t make the same mistake I did. Be brave. Live life. Choose to be seen.
Youth passes like a dream. Those who live it gain friendships and experience to take into the real world, while all that’s left for the invisible is to someday flip through a senior yearbook and scribble on the blank signature page that one question that will haunt them for years…
Did I ever exist?
by Naomi L. | August 22, 2014 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
Personal Log – Planet CCCLXV: Day 3
We had our first encounter with native intelligent lifeforms today. As expected, they’re rather bizarre and, in my opinion, frightfully ugly. They have rigid figures topped with a single round multi-cavity structure, which we suspect hold their cognitive centers. Each lifeform only possesses two optical organs, both of which face forward; it’s a wonder how they can see anything at all. Stranger still, however, are the limbs protruding from their cores: four stiff members that bend in the middle. It’s lucky those limbs are jointed, else the creatures wouldn’t be able to move or perform any functions. Speaking of functions… No, perhaps it’s best we don’t understand. That would be the stuff of nightmares to last for weeks.
Adapted from a writing prompt from Writer’s Carnival: Alien Reversal.
Write a paragraph on an encounter with an alien… only you are the alien meeting a human for the first time. Make it funny, scary or completely off the wall.
I imagine extraterrestrials would be just as horrified by us as we would be by them! I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
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