Pencil Scratches: A Short Story Writing Blog

     Ophelia took great care in choosing the types of threads that she used and the ingredients for her fabric dyes. She kept all of her threads and fabrics at the front of the shop for all the customers to see. Wooden drawers of sewing tools lined the wall behind the counter. The different threads were lined up in spools on a wall display. Bolts of fabric on rolls went up to the ceiling while the shelves beneath them displayed handkerchiefs, scarfs, and small purses with spells infused in fabric and thread.      Ophelia’s Grandmother would always scowl at the sight of pre-made spell work, but she had lived in a different time and scowled at a great deal of things nowadays.      The workshop where Ophelia spent most of her day was visible from the front of the store. If someone wanted they could stand at the counter and watch her sew. There was something calming about watching a person do slow methodical work. When Ophelia was young she would...

     The wind was picking up in the growing night. The creature could feel the storm that it brought. The snow was steady and light, but soon it would make it impossible to see. The creature was looking for something, pulled from it’s home at the feeling of it. There was a need. A hollowness to be filled and it needed to be found before the storm made the forest impassable.      The snow crunched beneath the creatures feet, the only noise but the wind in trees. Everything was shades of purple and blue with only shape and no detail, but it was enough for the creature to find its way. It felt no cold though its feet were bare. Its horns were the empty gnarled branches of the trees. It’s hair was shadows dragging along the snow and sometimes dancing with its kin. Its robes were the deep purple in the space between the trees and its skin was the snow itself.      Each step it took was erased as it passed and so was its countenance that even a ...

It’s strange when everybody in the world knows more about your past than you do. It’s a bit disorienting to wake up cuffed to a hospital bed and be interrogated for crimes that I didn’t remember committing. People never forget those crimes. I’m haunted by newspaper articles and distrustful cops. Most of all the cops.  They thought I was faking it when I first woke up in the hospital. Then when they realized I wasn’t there was a nationwide debate over whether or not I should stand trial for my apparent crimes. It was a whole big thing, and I guess I should thank social media because public pressure is the only reason I get to run free. Props to Gen Z. I didn’t pay attention to any of it. I just let my lawyer and the police handle it all. I didn’t want to know what I had done. I avoided the news and deleted all the social media from the phone that I knew how to work despite not remembering ever using it. I got a police escort when I left the hospital and a house arrest bracelet...

Top Ten Things to Know about Fighting a Wizard Wizards like cabins in the woods the size of castles that can be found too easily. Wizards will set up a stupid amount of traps around their cabin, like an idiotic amount. Like traps that are only a few feet apart that you can set off at the same time so you are hanging upside down by your foot and sneezing uncontrollably. Wizards find these traps to be entertaining and will cackle and point at you if you set them off. They will also be too distracted by making fun of you to let you down so you’ll have to cut yourself down while sneezing uncontrollably. Social skills are not their strong suit and they will undoubtedly stare at you like you are some sort of new creature they can dissect even if you have a sword pointed at them. Wizards don’t like swords being slashed in their direction and will launch your sword into the sky and far out of reach. Wizards are not fast runners and can be easily avoided on foot. Wizards can fly. Wizards can ma...

  Short stories are beasts that I tackle on occasion. My main writing is novel work, but I also love the brevity of short stories. They give us snapshots of worlds and people creating moments of magic. I am not practiced in these moments of magic, but I would like to be. I want to learn how to balance my writing with memorable words and just enough detail to make the story feel real.      In order to hone my writing skills I have decided to take up a journey in the coming year and write a short story every week, which I will post here. The task is slightly daunting, but to make it less so I am allowing myself to ignore perfection. The only goal is to have a completed story even if it is a bit cringey.  These stories will undoubtedly vary in length, but they will assuredly have a beginning, middle, and end with characters doing things in a specific place. I only need the bare bones to make it a story. I am not the first to do this and this concept has many ...