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Short Stories




Hothouse Lizzards Part 1 by D G Williford Voodoo, New Orleans, Spanish Moss, etc... all the things that everyone wants to read a... [2,641 words]
Flower Taboo by William S Patten Novice.... looking for feedback. [711 words]
Losing Mrs. Jefferson by Shelley J Alongi In 1782, Thomas Jefferson was summoned by Congress to serve in france as the new United S... [2,277 words]
Wheatley's Last Wish by Drakeman Robert Kincaide Continuation to previous entries. [3,119 words]
The Unloved Woman by Emmie Sinclair A sad tale about the life of a homeless person, people we often forget. [585 words]
The Leprechaun's Gift by Carrie Landes A short story about a girl and how a little leprechaun teaches her a lesson. [964 words]
The Horror Of Existence by Sunny Musings on a shitty moment in time. [573 words]
The Heart Behind The Shield by Sara Roggy There's a heart behind every lie, every temper, and every shield. [770 words]
Peggie by Robert Levin My chance to cross gross obesity from the list of body types I hadn't yet scored. [1,519 words]
Nothing's De Facto by Ben S D If your the type of person who hates stories with no eventual ending, then I sincerely apolo... [2,682 words]
Night In Antigua by D G Williford Part one of a slighted warrior bent on revenge towards his derelict father... [194 words]
Missing Pieces by Ian Goodall An unusual event happens aboard a space ship called the Basilisk. An engineer finds himself in a... [696 words]
Desk Lunch Part 6 by D G Williford Life goes on in the cubicle world... [136 words]
Desk Lunch Part 4 by D G Williford On the way to postal... [303 words]
Dear Stepdad by D G Williford A stepson realizes what it takes to be a caretaker. [256 words]
Cmon You Can Tell Me by Sunny Let's compare notes on our moms and dads... [523 words]
Desk Lunch Part 5 by D G Williford She has totally lost it, but you guess... [153 words]
Words.Enter.Head.Write.Something.Good.
Tunnel Vision by Gerald E Sheagren This story, my very latest, entitled "Tunnel Vision", deals with a man's uneasy relationship with... [7,587 words]
Tsp - Part Two by David B Doc Byron The hit is set up. [456 words]
Tsp Part Three by David B Doc Byron The hitman kills time while awaiting the big day. [506 words]
Tsp Part Four by David B Doc Byron The hitman decides to go through with it. [272 words]
Tsp - Part Five by David B Doc Byron The moment finally arrives. [515 words]
Tsp - Interlude by David B Doc Byron See if you can make the connection. [143 words]
Tsp - Epilogue by David B Doc Byron The hitman is still haunted by his past. [399 words]
The Running by David B Doc Byron A man left alone after a holocaust reflects back on his former life. [437 words]
The Pursuit by J L Watts A dark story that I'd like feedback on concerning the twists and vampire elements. My darkest work ... [1,877 words]
The Messiah by David B Doc Byron A small town youth grows up to be the anti-christ. [331 words]
The 2nd Party - Part 0ne by David B Doc Byron An ex-hitman reflects back on the job that changed his life forever. [295 words]
Sweet Revenge by Ashley Mowery Story of lust, romance, and revenge. [498 words]
Quiet by Christopher Syrett - [217 words]
No Hesitation by Amelia R James ‘I don’t care how it gets done. I just want it done and I want it done now! Am I clear?’ said th... [3,628 words]
Moses And The Parting Of The Red Sea by Rowan Davies A story adapted from the greatest work of fiction ever written. I would se... [796 words]
Jesus Christ Superslacker by Rowan Davies The happy work of a contented atheist. [686 words]
Getting Gas by Ashley Mowery A young girl questioned her boyfriends commitment to her. As a result, she finds herself in a terri... [318 words]
From Riches To Rags by Nicole Mowery She lived in a well to do neighborhood with well respected parents. Her life couldn't have ... [1,827 words]
Desk Lunch Part 3 by D G Williford The sales rep continues with her day... [314 words]
Desk Lunch Part 2 by D G Williford The same but more.... [346 words]
Desk Lunch Part 1 by D G Williford A middle aged sales rep deals with the confines of her life. [390 words]
City Of The Dead by David B Doc Byron The original story that inspired the poem ''Book of the dead.'' [407 words]
A Rural Tragedy by Nik Siromah - [986 words]
A Spontaneous Arrival Of Exalted Fancy by Bob M Ra - [908 words]
Variation On A Theme In The Key Of - Part Ii by Erik Sjoen - [5,231 words]
The Wooden Box by D G Williford Lesson in shared grief through an antique box. [509 words]
The Optimist Club by David B Doc Byron Its a surprise. [395 words]
The Locket by D G Williford You tell me.... Please read and review... feel free to comment! [880 words]
The Killing Ground by Gerald E Sheagren A short story. [2,196 words]
The Keepsake by D G Williford Love Story... read and review... come one come all! [837 words]
The Extraordinary Stillness by Bob M Ra - [547 words]
The Eland by Martin Glenpool A story of a young khoi-san boy's coming-of age. [637 words]
Rooms Ana Houses Of Haunting by Serepx A story bout the ghosts of a forgotten past. [2,967 words]
Queenie Takes The Match by Gerald E Sheagren This story is set in 1903 New York City, which, by far, was a lot more dangerous place ... [3,828 words]
People Are Talking by Erik Sjoen - [1,161 words]
Mist Walkers by D G Williford How I feel every time I visit a new cemetary... [112 words]
Malaise by B C Mercer The tale of a troubled and depressed young man. [1,408 words]
Joe And The Woman by Elicia Marie Berg A narrative of a romantic relationship. [1,245 words]
Heaven Or Hell by B C Mercer A Reverend encounters events he never dreamed would happen to him and his family. He questions ... [5,708 words]
Destiny's Fate by B C Mercer An inspirational revelation of two young lovers in a foreign land. [1,699 words]
Crash by Matthew Mohan A short "out-n-back" story involving a teenager's struggle with responsibility, action, alcohol, and wait... [4,243 words]
Big Hit At The Lone Wolf by Gerald E Sheagren Having the two largest and most profitable casinos located in Connecticut, I often hea... [2,333 words]
At Nite With Liv by Serepx A short story about a girl with intense bloo eyes. [3,674 words]
A Crown Hath Promised by Keri McGriff - [156 words]

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TITLE (EDIT)
Words.Enter.Head.Write.Something.Good.
DESCRIPTION
The story of someone who struggles to find anything decent to write. It's epic. In no way refers to my struggles in writing anything good. Not at all.
[1,013 words]
AUTHOR
J L Watts
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
-
[November 2003]
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL ADDRESS
jimbothejet6@hotmail.com
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (18)
Bored Clouds Of A Scattered Sky (Poetry) Trying to capture the essence of boredom through nature references. Not entirely convinced I've achieved it, what do you think?! [64 words] [Nature]
Cheated (Poetry) Wrote this in about half an hour, hope it doesn't tell! Inspired by Ted Hughes, and along the same lines of failed relationships as 'Distance'. Comedy next me thinks. [29 words] [Romance]
Desire Of The Night (Poetry) Young Forbidden love for a lady of the night. Wrote this while keeping up the vague pretence of trying to work in a mundane office. [198 words] [Erotic]
Distance (Poetry) Remember not to critcise too much- I'm a fragile soul! Have I just inadvertly thrown myself to the lions with that one? woops! [43 words]
Forbbiden Light(Extended) (Poetry) Taking my initial first verse of my existing poem and fleshing it out a bit, it now resembles more obviously a popular trilogy. Please give feedback! [109 words] [Fantasy]
Forbidden Light (Poetry) Quite dark and I'm not sure it reveals anything, definitely need some lighter material! [28 words]
I'm Bored Of You. Can I Be Somebody Else? (Short Stories) Two alien bounty hunters are on Earth, one with a unique abiltity which could help fufil his dreams of being a present day Cassanova. The other, well... he just tries to walk straight. [2,184 words] [Comedy]
In To The Future (Poetry) I don't really know how to categorise this:- it's motivational in a sense with elements of different things like nature, time and the battle to change things in the past for the sake of the future. Bu... [159 words]
Late Night Train (Poetry) Kind of my take on Jack the Ripper taking the 22.30 to London Paddington. [53 words] [Mystery]
She (Poetry) A failed relationship ends in guilty tragedy. [154 words] [Relationships]
Something Underneath My Bed (Poetry) Lighter than most of the other stuff I've submitted here and less abstract. [219 words] [Fantasy]
Taste Of Defeat (Poetry) Something you don't see a lot of is boxing poetry, so I have attempted the defeat of a boxer here. As the saying goes, try anything once! [91 words]
Taste Of The Immortal (Poetry) Maybe 'life' as a vampire isn't so rewarding after all. [281 words] [Fantasy]
The Pursuit (Short Stories) A dark story that I'd like feedback on concerning the twists and vampire elements. My darkest work yet probably. [1,877 words] [Horror]
Tomorrow (Poetry) If you did everything you said you would tomorrow, you wouldn't find yourself where you are today. [90 words]
Tortured (Short Stories) Wrote this about three years ago as a GCSE 'Victim Writing' piece. Am annoyed with the way I finish it, think it's a bit untidy and possibly too sentimental. Still I was 16! [986 words] [Relationships]
Troubled Mind (Poetry) In this poem I have tried to show the anxities of life that we feel, through images of feelings that people go through in the struggle for their own identity, and is influenced by a peroid of uncertai... [90 words] [Mind]
Zimbabwe (Short Stories) A fictional account of the emotions of a victim of land reform in Zimbabwe. [401 words] [Literary Fiction]
Words.Enter.Head.Write.Something.Good.
J L Watts

The only thing I can think of to write is ‘Jake was a lot taller than Susan’. The hot lamp across from me seemed to sap all energy out of my head. Zap. I sit on my chair on wheels unable to conceive an idea, story, poem or indeed absolutely anything worth writing. Beyond Jake being bloody taller than Susan that is. Where do you go from that? It sounded like the start of a maths problem. “If Lucy was taller than Susan but smaller than Bob, but Bob was taller than Jean who was smaller than Jake, who does that make the tallest?”

Forget maths a second. Hold on, is that a flutter of an original thought registering in my tired groggy brain? No, wait it isn’t. A futuristic noir world that suggests we are being controlled and not living in actual reality with the suggestion being that our minds can truly free us? Sounds good! Um, think that was touched upon in The Matrix though. Only slightly. They might notice. Originality tries to slap down already established ideas of more creative minds in my head. Their ideas. My non existent ideas. There’s a difference. Mine collapse miserably hitting the ropes dazed from a killer punch. Fingers hover over keyboard poised to punch down on word forming keys. Yet they don’t move. Unlike the clock above me whose larger hand seems to bait my finger tips. I’m faster than you. Fingers shake slightly and grab the batteries out of the cocky clock and find a new home for them in the bin. Clang. The insistent tick tock, tick tock obviously the reason for the hefty rock of frustration which is blocking my imminent waterfall of creative juices. Budge. I look at the screen above the clock as it shows a film trailer highlighting the ‘written, produced and directed by’ credit. Damn it, the bastard. I combine the talents of a finger hovering clock battery snatcher who cannot write to this genius with his triple responsibilities. Whose going to tell him what to do on set I wonder. At least he has to carry the can when it all goes wrong and only the cleaners bother to watch it over the droning of their vacuum cleaners in the local multiplex.

Meanwhile back to Jake and Susan. They haven’t progressed from one line yet. One solitary line. They seem to taunt me. I imagine Jake saying, all self assured, “so now you’ve made me taller than Susan, what now huh”? So I change their names. Cocky brat. That will get em. It now read ‘Bob’ was a lot smaller than ‘Carol’. Ha, think you’re all masculine now Jake. Look what I’ve done to you. You’ve been reduced to nothing. It's Bob now. And he’s smaller. SMALLER. My worry lines begin to crease as I rapidly realise this little scenario is taking part in my head. I shut out all considerations of insanity for the moment and instead decide to concentrate on the beginning of this story. I’d read somewhere you want to begin by engaging the reader immediately. Capture their attention. Rampant sex or a profanity. Something likes that. Jake/Bob’s height in comparison to Carol’s just didn’t seem to go all out in that approach. I erase ‘the work in progress completely and decide to start afresh, my screen turning back to complete white as I emphatically bin the impressive seven words of the trials and tribulations of the now infamous Bob and Carol.

I start to get excited as the words ‘seven’ and ‘trials’ hit me suddenly. Hold on, I think I've made fire. Struck gold. Whatever. Could this be the breakthrough I need? I imagined some other sucker sat at desk willing an idea into his head while an above him on his tiny TV my name stretches across the screen smugly. Written, directed and produced by. Man, I’ll even edit the thing. Looks better in the credits. Written, directed and produced the big three? Ha! I’ll be unprecedented and go for four! And the idea that could fill my garage with vintage cars and empty my student debt fifty times over? What if I concentrated a story around two detectives on the hunt for a serial killer who murders victims that represent the seven deadly sins? Got it! I jump slightly as
a call addresses me from downstairs. Film on later. Seven. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. Did I fancy watching it? I shouted back I’d already seen it. Hold on a minute. Shit. I delete ‘seven sins’ from my screen and we are back to snow colour. Been here before.

 So, back to Bob and Carol. Interesting one. Could I change the dynamic and make them the same size? Definitely on to something here. Hold on. Make them twins! Knew Bob and Carol would pull through for me in the end. I began to envisage a scene twenty years later. Award in my hand. Big and shiny. Suffer near epilepsy with flash photography. “And to think they started off as Jake and Susan” I address the crowd, and the comment is met with rapturous and appreciatory laughter. I leave out the bit about how my ‘original stories’ once usually took the form of existing works. How I at first thought I was on to something highly new and original. They don’t need to know that! I’m a writer, director, producer and editor now. Well done Carol. Pat on the back Bob. Congratulations amazingly creative head. Take a bow.
    
Back in the real world Bob and Carol struggle to make their way down on to a second line. No, Pressing return and not actually writing anything is cheating. Doesn’t make it look like I’ve actually done any more. I decide to take a much needed break and watch Seven. Maybe the ideas will come. Not sure about the name Bob anymore though. Bob and Jake. Tsk. I need new names. And maybe a decent story.Think I'll settle on the names first. Lay out the groundwork. Leave the easy stuff to later. So, names. Um...

 

READER'S REVIEWS (1)
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"Ah, who in their darker moments of writer's block hasn't produced something like this at one time or another? I know I have, in fact I once won a commendation award for one like this and I'm not sure if this one isn't better. It's funny and sad at the same time if you know what I mean. I like your interactions between the author and the characters, it very much appeals to my sense of humour, that sort of sardonic wit. But then, it's always so easy to hammer together something about writer's block. This is good though, it no doubt helps your style to develop more and it's good while it lasts. We've all written this at one point. That's just the life of being a writer I guess :)" -- S J Fletcher.

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2003 J L Watts
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
May 2003
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
2172
 

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