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StoryByRoss
I like to write science fiction and fantasy. Apparently other stuff too. storybyross.com
43 Posts • 46 Followers • 30 Following
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Challenge
Musical Inspiration
Think of a song. It can be your favorite, or your least favorite, or just what you hear on the radio. Listen to it, feel its power, and then write a story in response that somehow relates to it. Try not to make it an obvious connection, and try to keep it under 500 words. No poems please, and preferably fiction. Give a link to your selected song at the bottom of your piece, and don’t forget to tag me! Good luck!
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StoryByRoss in Fiction
17 reads

Vigilant

I feign ignorance even when it repeats every night. It starts as a dream. I close my eyes, and I am taken far away. I soar through a scene I can never remember except for one piece. On the horizon, I vividly see an enormous wall. The sight terrifies me to my core, yet I still approach it. An eternity passes by the time I reach the barrier. I am swept upwards to the distant pinnacle, and the invisible force drops me off eventually.

Briefly, I can truly see where I stand. It is the blockade of my mind and emotions separating me from understanding my innermost desires. I am pulled to the opposing side where the knowledge lies. I grabbed the parapet because I am afraid of what hides. The temptation is too powerful and peels my fingers off the rim. While in midair I come unglued limb by limb, and I can only hope to land to reform.

This exercise in introspection is always in vain because it ultimately ends in senseless hope. It pools like water that drips from far above sight. The valley where this essence forms never remains full because the murky liquid begins melting away. Dampness remains ever so slightly by lingering slowly. This moisture is the empty shell of optimism. This is how I am frustratingly left. It is where I always turn. I desperately want a shoulder to lean on. When I find one to embrace, it feels like a carved stone. It is cold, so cold. When I am done freezing, I want to be alone.

I am always the one to leave. I follow the route wherever my aimless walking takes me. It is how I am forced to learn. I am left alone with my mistakes. I always use someone to give me what I lack. In return, they always take the bests parts of me back. I always recognize my fate just a moment too late. I never want to resort to overindulgence in others, but it inevitably happens. I must face the truth. I am up against the person I pretend to never know. My internal torment erupts to remind me of the answer.

Be it up or down, or somewhere in between, it is up to you to decide the course of your life.

----

My attempt at a literary song cover of Limb by Limb from phish

https://youtu.be/-ouWKZapvfo

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Challenge
Beauty?
Try to describe intellectual beauty, in poetry or prose. Not simply something that is beautiful, but the essence of beauty or the quality itself.
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StoryByRoss
9 reads

Beautiful

I said it before crudely.

Ever so rudely.

I am hidden.

Yet,

I found you.

Not only are you intelligent.

Not only you do you make me smile.

Not only do you have a radiant heart.

You are only you.

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Challenge
What does it mean to experience heartbreak?
Write what heartbreak is to you in 1 sentence. Doesn’t matter how long said sentence is but stick to 1 nevertheless . Can write in poetry or prose whatever medium works for you!
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StoryByRoss in Stream of Consciousness
13 reads

Dam

Love created a blissful, warming ignorance that was a torrent built in anticipation of release and when it prematurely ended, nothing survived the aftermath.

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Challenge
Why do you write?
A poem or story describing why you write. Tell me about your muse. Or is it therapeutic for you? Do you love entertaining people? And get creative with it with symbols, images, and metaphors if you feel so inclined.
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StoryByRoss
12 reads

Simple

My goal was to bring my outlandish worlds of the mind to reality so I could cherish them. If I was being honest, that was my old passion. Ever since I started sharing my work with others, my life changed. To see a person, another anchor of existence, enjoy and talk with you about your abstracted ideas was, eloquently put, awesome.

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Challenge
have you ever felt like you lost a piece of yourself? if so, how do you get it back, if you can?
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StoryByRoss
14 reads

Oneself

How could one float through life by self and imposed negligence to the end of understanding more about humanity when they never had it to begin with? How was I supposed to know? I never knew what I lost.

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Challenge
Paradise
What are you looking forward to when you reach paradise? In 15 words.
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StoryByRoss
7 reads

Stability

An in-between place.

Neither too high nor low.

A resting point for me to know.

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Challenge
When I close my eyes
Freestyle whatever comes to mind when you read “when I close my eyes”
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StoryByRoss in Poetry & Free Verse
12 reads

Dark

When I closed my eyes, the comings and goings of life ceased to be cemented in my consciousness. The simple process protected me, providing respite from reality.

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Challenge
In 15 words, capture a recurring moment in your life.
Happy, sad, funny, mundane, frightening. Anything goes.
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StoryByRoss in Stream of Consciousness
17 reads

Dictionary

WRITE. Write. Write. I’ll take one written word, whatever’s a part of the English language.

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StoryByRoss
8 reads

Composition

Writing is a mental marathon accomplished by resilience and invention.

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Challenge
Where you wish you were
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StoryByRoss
9 reads

Hope

I wished to be where I could be – a judicious reality. I bore the burden of proper choice in actuality. A chosen path made without foresight culminated in failure.

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