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Because I am out of ideas and I’ve seen many do this, so this way I will lean until the streams flow again. Thank you vocal team 🙏🏽

By Caitlin CharltonPublished about a year ago 3 min read
Using Gemini

Fiction

A body on the bridge

1. I remember thinking. Will this photo catch their eyes? It’s dark even though there were lights on the bridge. Then I thought, maybe the title would grab them. Something with death as a quiet wink beneath the title. There was a horrible crime in my city, what a perfect and terrible thing.

I am cringing scrolling through all the awful things I’ve written. I am being hard on myself, thinking: maybe you were being lazy. Maybe I was just practicing, that’s more soft, more caring. I will stick with that.

*

To Dance With You Is to Risk Being Bruised

2. I thought her legs looked nice. That I wanted to be a ballerina at one point in my life. But what drove this was my hatred for dialogue. The act of getting it wrong, repeating it to myself so that it sounds real and natural. Yet it’s such a great feeling when you stop and notice that hey, this does sound like something that someone had said. Their faces start to become real, they start to become yours. A character in the making.

I had an argument with my husband and that added to its tone and complexity. So yeah 🙈. Why am I shy all of a sudden…

*

Lions Head In The Well

3. We saw a squirrel eating a sausage roll. I think this was the day this story took form. The forest was amazing, enough to bring magical words through my mind and through my fingertips. I did write this story in the moment, each step I took developed a sentence. Of course I edited it when I got home. But boy was this a good day.

*

Part 2: Ravens Ridge- missing person

4. This one has my heart. It was birth from another adventure we went on. A different city entirely. But most of you knew after this day, that I am not known to finish what looked like a series. 🙈

I do love birds, all of them, so you might see them here and there in my stories and poems.

*

11: 11 When It Happened

5. There was a door. The number 11 was on it. Somehow we got 11:11 but I made it into something in the body of the text. On the bus to yet another city. I saw a man who fascinated me. He was the MC in this story.

*

Where is Daisy?

6. I wanted to try my hands at a character driven story. I wanted to experiment with using my own images too, especially that screenshot of those text messages. I tried for a long time to find the perfect image for the main thing you will see upon clicking. I got frustrated but then here we were. A completed, unfinished story. 🙈

Don’t you just love the water drops on her face?

Poetry

A Villanelle to Palo Santo

1. First, let’s give a round of applause to this image. It wasn’t hard finding something for this one. I was glued in one spot for almost the entire day trying to write this. Let’s just say I was hypnotised, and I wrote exactly what that felt like. I had no idea it was going to receive so much love. Thank you to everyone who made me feel like I was not a terrible poet. 🙏🏽

This was also my first attempt at the villanelle (I think, if not, then my first real attempt). I tried another for a challenge. After feeling like I could not beat this one. It took me forever and a day to build up the courage.

*

Travel in 100 words

2. We went to the beach. Far far away from home. This was another I wrote while on the go. Most of you seemed to like and were appalled by the fact that someone was clipping their nails on the bus, lol. A good day this was.

*

Printed in INK (Cinquain #2)

3. A rather dark turn after travel in a 100 words. But I like to walk the dark path. I like to warn in my own way.

I took literal baby steps while trying my hand at the cinquain, that’s why this one was part 2.

*

Busty Cats and more…

4. Busty cat just sounded right to the ear. I’ve read some lovely and Stirling, as well as, meritorious ones from two spectacular women. I will link them here, they both gave me the confidence and motivation to keep playing with adsurdities. Also gave me a slight break from the more serious poetic forms. Oh and here are their links:

A/N: If you got this far, thank you so much for reading. Thank you to everyone who helped to make all this possible. Your lovely comments keep me writing, keeps me consistent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ♥️🤗🙏🏽

ProcessAchievementsInspirationShoutoutPromptsVocal

About the Creator

Caitlin Charlton

Writer first. Close reader and self‑taught critic shaping eloquence.

A survivor reclaiming her territory.

I write dark fiction and poetry through symbol, shadow, and fracture.

Always sharpening the craft. ✏️🔥👠

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    Written by Caitlin Charlton