Regular Writing Thread!

Chatterbox: Pudding's Place

Regular Writing Thread!

Regular Writing Thread!

So after some asking around on Random Thoughts/Things, I've decided to create a Regular Writing Thread! Basically, it's like the Regular Poetry Thread, but for writing in a more general term.

Have a scene you think needs feedback? Want to write down an idea that came to mind so you don't forget it? Having writer's block and need a place to get back into the feel of writing? Here's the place to do all that! 

Anyway, can't wait to see what kind of creative stuff you all come up with :)

submitted by Silver Crystal, age She/her, Milky Way
(August 23, 2021 - 7:35 am)

Cool! Here's the first chapter of a new story:

Chapter 1: The Strange Store

 

  Kelly Catseye frowned at the new store in town. It looked like someone had taken three two-story buildings and stacked them on top of each other, but not very well, because they didn’t line up with each other. It was painted a deep purple and had a wooden sign:

 

 Nicholas Nightfall’s Knick Knack Shoppe: The World’s Most Wonderful Toy Store

 

  Kelly read the sign more times than she could have counted, puzzled. It looked ordinary. But something in the words... It just didn’t sound right. And the building itself stood out in her gloomy seaside town, where the sun was never shining and the ocean didn’t seem to be as bright of a blue. She didn’t know why Nicholas Nightfall had decided to put it on the dock, where the back of the shop faced out to sea. In Kelly’s opinion, it looked like it had a high risk of falling into the sea. 

 

  So, obviously, Kelly decided it was a very, very bad idea to go inside this store.

 

  And, not as obviously, she went in anyway. 

 

  The inside of the shop was just as crazy as the outside. It was crowded with people, for one thing. Shelves were built into the walls, all made of oak wood. Marvelous toys lined them, such as giant teddy bears with red bows around their necks and shiny black toy trains. Matching wooden tables were placed on the floor, filled with some delicious looking candy. The names of the treats didn’t sound familiar to Kelly: Whizzing Rainbow Pops, Strawberry Milkshake Milky Ways, Chocolate Cake Crackers. They all did sound wonderful, though, and Kelly’s mouth watered as she passed them.  


  In the middle of the shop, there was area where you paid for your purchases. It appeared to be four very long (but not too wide) desks that had been taken together to form a square. Next to that, a large spiral staircase painted black led up to the next floor. Slowly, Kelly took it. 

 

  The second floor was the same as the first, except that the shelves had different toys on them, and the tables were filled with picture books. The illustrations looked like they belonged in a museum, they were so beautiful. Kelly decided she would buy a book after she explored the third  floor, the last one in the building.

  The third floor was nothing like the other two. It wasn’t filled with amazing toys or mouthwatering candies. There weren’t any museum worthy books. Only a few people wandered around, and a bored looking employee sat behind the desk. It was like the life had just been sucked out of the store. But Kelly wanted to give this floor a chance. She headed for the shelf in the right side of the room. 

  There wasn’t much on the shelf. A creepy-looking doll sat next to a little wind up mouse, but that was all. 

 

  Or so she thought.

  Kelly suddenly noticed something glistening in the back of the shelf. 

 

  It was a... Marble?

  Kelly reached out and grabbed it. It was small and shiny, with a little blast of emerald green in the middle. She rolled it around in her hand. There was something special about this marble. Something... She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it seemed worth spending her allowance on. With the marble still in hand, Kelly went down to the second floor and grabbed one of the books with the enchanting illustrations at random. When she got to the first floor, she picked out a Whizzing Rainbow Pop. She realized that this shop was very expensive as she went up to the desk and was about to walk away, but the lady behind the desk waved her over and smiled. Kelly nervously placed the stuff on the desk.

  “Lovely choices, dear,” the lady said. “That’ll be—” 

 

  Kelly had to hide a wince when she heard the price. That had to be at least 4 times her allowance. 

 

  “Um...” Kelly hesitated. “I’ll just take the marble.”

 The lady seemed confused. “Marble?” She looked down at the desk, where the marble sat, in perfect view. The lady held it up and looked at it. She seemed mesmerized. A whole two minutes passed by.

 “Uh, ma’am? Are you okay?” Kelly asked nervously.

 “Yes,” answered the woman. “Yes, dear, I’m fine.” She finally lowered her gaze from the marble and turned her attention to Kelly. “Two coins.” 

  Kelly handed over the coins and walked out with her marble. It was only when she could just see the large purple building behind her that she realized that she could have bought the pretty picture book or the delicious-looking lollipop. Why would she have picked the marble? But as Kelly looked at the strange marble, she felt no regrets whatsoever. The book was beautiful, and the lollipop would’ve been a nice treat. But the marble was different.

 Kelly just didn’t know how.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

submitted by Periwinkle, age Pi, Somewhere in the stars
(August 23, 2021 - 3:47 pm)
submitted by PeriTOP!, age Pi, Somewhere topping threads
(August 23, 2021 - 6:28 pm)

This is kind of late, but I love the description! It's so detailed and novel, but there's not so much that it overpowers the rest of the story. I also want to know how the marble will come into the plot, and like that your first scene is about finding the marble and also gives the feeling that it's going to be important. I'd love to read more!

submitted by Blackfooted Bobcat
(October 6, 2021 - 6:16 pm)

Thank you! I don't know when I'll be making the next chapter, but I have some ideas for this story so hopefully soon! Thanks again, it means a lot. :D

submitted by Periwinkle, age Pi, Somewhere in the stars
(October 7, 2021 - 6:07 am)
submitted by SilverTOP, toppppp
(August 23, 2021 - 6:26 pm)

Well, here's the first part of a blurb I'm writing. I've thought about it a lottttt so any feedback is very helpful and much apreciated. 

||chapter 1|| 

No good story ever started with someone eating a salad. That is why this one does not. In fact this story begins with our main character skipping through the halls of a very aesthetic school. Like dark academia, you know? It has the arched doorways, high ceilings, and that dark brick color that no one is sure whether it is meant to be that way or if it's just dirt. 

And to top it all off, this school was for the magically gifted. That's right, everyone who goes to this school has magic, or rather, the ability to perform magic. There are different groups, so to speak, but it's not like you could be proficient in one section of magic as a whole. 

But back to our main character, she skipped through the halls without a care in the world. Actually, I take that back, they had a couple cares. For one, the new students were coming today! This means that orientation is also today which means that all of the current students showcase their abilities today.

Well I do believe that the kind dear's name is Ellery. Ellery Winsten. Ellery is a kind soul, she tends to live in the moment more often than not. She is quite a dear though, however today she is late. 

See, the showcase and orientation began twenty minutes ago and Ellery was aware of this. She was not skipping the showcase, she was lost. 

This was her second year here at "Qawlison " As the headmaster called it. The students called it the Q very affectionately. The school has a more formal, official name but no one bothers to remember it. 

Ellery finally made it to the great hall and saw her friends sitting at a table. They had left a seat open for her and she gratefully snuck in and sat down. 

"Nice of you to drop by" Jaden leaned over and whispered in her ear.  

submitted by Skip, age she/her
(August 24, 2021 - 8:31 pm)

I love this, especially the first paragraph!

submitted by Snazzycakes , age 13 she/her, Lost in a daydream
(August 26, 2021 - 5:34 pm)

:0 I  absolutely love the first two sentences! They're great and I wish I had thought of them first :D! I'm excited to see what Ellery's ability is! Although the name Ellery reminds me of celery.

As for feedback, if you look at the fourth paragraph, it states that she is a "kind dear," a "kind soul," and a "dear," which seems a little repetitive. You might want to change that?

submitted by Scuttles
(April 13, 2023 - 7:18 am)

Oop, I just realized this was from two years ago, my bad.

submitted by Scuttles
(April 13, 2023 - 7:25 am)

This was made in the title/plot thread:

47 Lies is about the life of this person, and along the book they realize there are 47 (Big) Lies in their life. For example, their "Mom" and "Dad" aren't their real mom and dad, so that would be two lies. What a lot of the lies are based on is the fact that the MC's is acually from a group of people that steal magic from a different, magical, species, who think they are above the humans (kotLC vibes there, I know). The group lives underground, in secret, and many of their values are different than what the MC is used to, so the MC struggles to understand the group in the begging. But, slowly but surely, as the MC learns more about who they are, their knowlege, values, even their understanding of right and wrong, all gets flipped around. In the end, they join the group and realize how everything is temporary, so they might as well live in the present while they can. 

submitted by Caroline
(August 27, 2021 - 6:12 pm)

I reach up and slap a brown marker out of my cousin’s hand, which she has just dotted the top of our fort with. Or rather, the bottom of our grandparent’s chair, with which we had made an elaborate fort with towels, blankets and our garden fence. My two twin cousins, Christine and Christian, had been taunting me ever since I’d told them not to draw on the nice, white chair that Nana and Papa had allowed them (god knows why), to play with. That was just how it went with 4 year olds, and I would know, because I had been in charge of them most of Christmas break, when we had flown to Seattle to visit them, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents. And while I was glad to give my aunt and uncle a break (my uncle worked all day as a nurse and my aunt was battling cancer), boy, those two were a handful. “Let’s try this a different way,” I say, angrily capping every pen in the vicinity and stuffing them into Christine’s bright pink bag. “Since you two obviously won’t listen to me, why don’t you find Nana and Papa and ask them what they would think about you drawing on their chair.” I blow out a breath as they slam into the front door, which groans under their weight and slowly opens. They rush inside, slamming the door shut, and I hear them yelling over each other as they try to find Nana and Papa, even though they could just look in the sitting room where our grandparents spend all their time. Their voices fade away as I look around the garden. I don’t know why I let Christine and Christian build their fort here. Without their screaming voices, the garden is beautiful and serene, the air wet and the leaves dewy. A purple butterfly drifts through the flowers, oddly enough. I hold out my finger and the butterfly lands on it. I hold my breath, hoping upon hope that the twins wouldn’t rush out and spoil this moment. The butterfly tightens its grip on my finger, and a freaky energy seems to ripple around me. I try to shake the butterfly off, but its grip is iron, and it starts to flap its wings. My feet lift off the ground as I scream and thrash, but my noise is sucked into the freaky energy surrounding me. Hearing Papa’s low, gravelly voice come out the window, I now hope upon hope that the twins will come out the door, alert Nana and Papa, and get me down safely. But no. The butterfly pulls me up, up, up, until I can see all around Seattle. It’s actually really cool, flying so high, when you don’t think about the fact that the only thing stopping you from splattering on the pavement is one lone butterfly. By the time we break through the clouds, I am completely relaxed. The butterfly drops me on one of the clouds, but I am not scared. Somehow, I know the cloud will be solid, like cotton balls. Ahead of me, I see hologram-like pictures popping up, and I take a few steps forward, almost in a daze, to the first one. A woman with red, frizzy hair takes the first steps on mars. Christine.  In the next one, a man with the same hair type, giving some sort of speech. Christian. After watching for a minute I realize he is talking about cancer. A cure for cancer. Christian always wanted to be a doctor and help people like his mom. Next I see Christine giving a speech to some important group, I can’t tell who. She is talking passionately and without shame. A few more steps and Christian is pushing his future son on a swing. Both are laughing. There is one last hologram in front of me, blocking the path forward. It shows Christine and Christian and their spouses, sitting at a weathered table that I know. It is Nana and Papa’s table. I see my brothers, and their spouses as well. I know who I will see next. Me. I am laughing and talking and my raven-black hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Right as I see myself, the cloud gives way. I wish I could have spent more time on it, analyze it, maybe, or save some to show my family. But somehow, I know that this wasn’t about the cloud, or me, or anything else. It was about the twins, and the amazing people they would become. I also know that I will be fine when I touch back to the ground, and I am. The same stance energy that freaked me out before catches my fall and slows me down when I am a few stories above the house. I touch the ground right as Christine runs through the door, followed by Christian, and somehow I know that my whole adventure is something no one will ever know of, that no one saw me and my strange escorts. Christine tells me, all in one second with her usual energy, that Papa said no about drawing on the chair but she doesn’t care because she wants to play astronauts and would I please. Usually I don’t like “Astronauts". I always have to be the one that stays behind with the “Rocket Ship” while they go off and do the cool stuff. But when I think of who she’ll become, I am excited to share something like that with her. “Sure,” I say. “But you should stay behind with the rocket this time. You’ll see, it’s fun!” When she protests, I tell her that she can do the cool stuff after one round of staying back. “But what if someone gets hurt?” I add. “We’ll need Doctor Christian on board too, to cure Astronaut Christine”. They both light up, and I know all 3 of us are thinking about who they could become.

 

 

Admins, I know I already posted this as its own thread, but I couldn't find it. You can delete that first thread I made if you want. 

submitted by Caroline
(August 27, 2021 - 6:21 pm)

You should try to get this published in a short story magazine if you can. Or send it to Cricket, if you're old enough! 

--Shining Star 

submitted by Shining Star, age 12 eons, The Milky Way
(October 1, 2021 - 8:22 pm)

Wait, you really think so? Thats like.. wow thanks so much!!!! Also, I'm probaly not old enough- i'm only 12.

submitted by Caroline
(October 9, 2021 - 9:15 am)

Chapter 1, Kaitlyn

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Kaitlyn paused before The Red House.

The sun was already over the horizon, leaving behind faint streaks of gold and silver, with only the soggy pink-soaked, blueish-gray lint clouds really visible above The Red Houses's black shingled roof. It suited her memories of the place quiet well, to have such ugly-coloured things hanging around it.

She turned her back on the oppressive structure and continued down the cracked tan pavement of the Arterial. For being the largest and most-used road in Ithül, it was in alarmingly bad shape, but then again, that was just the kind of place Ithül was. A broken city full of broken people, a crumbling monument to the shining past. Ella had always said it was a bit sad how run-down it was considering its prosperous past. She always rambled on too much about the past for her young age, if Kaitlyn had anything to say about it. How could you trust something likes books and husked elders when books were censored and carefully worded and people were easily fallible and prone to stretching the truth. And what did the glorious past matter when the present was like a dirty rag covered in dust and grime, anyway?

Kaitlyn kicked a tin can into the yellowed grass of an overgrown lot, annoyed eyes and fierce scowl directed back to The Red House. She really liked blaming it for everything these days.

submitted by Jaybells, age Obscure, Lost in the Universe
(August 31, 2021 - 12:28 pm)

My mom was saying that there's nowhere to stop beetween Winnemucca and Truckee, and I for some reason I said, "Well, that makes sense, because Winnemucca is kind of the last stop in Nevada", or something like that. It gave me the idea for a story that has probaly been written a thousand times over, but it's about a town that's the last stop before some big stretch of something. Someone could write it in present day, not fantssy style. Maybe, it could be like a bermuda triangle on land, or someone could write a non-fiction type thing about a real desert oor other barrier. I think it would be cool to see what everyday life in the town on the edge of the mysterious thing is. And... oooh! Maybe some romance involed too! Wink

submitted by Caroline
(August 31, 2021 - 10:18 pm)