My Free Style Writing Challenge : The Hurt Behind The Smile

 

Julia of My Red Page  kindly linked me into a Free style Writing Challenge from mary tyas who has a very interesting blog about Bali: http://baliinfoblog.com/

My prompt from Julia is What Does Make You Smile, strangely enough I didn’t really  focus on what makes you smile, I kind of looked beneath the layers of the smile to see something else. But that’s me always trying to complicate things and make them darker. I do like to contrast the lighter qualities of life with dark hidden meanings and it shows in some but not all of my writing.

Link to Julia’s My Red Page: https://myredpage.wordpress.com/

But so that I don’t sound like a miserable git, here are some of the things that make me smile:

I looked out of my window today and I saw a squirrel whizzing across a fence, followed by a black cat doing acrobatics on a separate section of fencing. These kind of animal antics are quite common in our garden as we live by the country park. Our house is surrounded by trees and we often hear birds singing, their sweet birdsong is a delight. Unless it’s at the crack of dawn and then it’s not so welcome!

Unfortunately at night time the bats come out and they scare the living daylights out of me, as soon as I see a bat, I scream and run into the house and hide. So bats definitely don’t make me smile!

More things that make me happy, well I received two postcards from my daughter’s school saying she’s doing well in Science and English, that definitely made me break out into a smile.  I text my eldest daughter on Saturday morning to see if she managed to get some sleep last night in her campus accommodation, (she had her exam on Saturday) and she replied, yes apart from someone maniacally laughing in the middle of the night. Maybe the maniac had an exam too!

Tasty food makes my lips form a greedy grin. I love to see the sun shine, children play, hear laughter, and see friends smile. I love to splash about in the water, especially on a hot, sunny day, that makes me grin insanely, because I’m a true water baby. I like to see my cactus form tiny buds of flowers, or my orchids bloom, that plants a happy smile on my face too.   So lots of things make me smile but it is the simplest events that really make me smile, and then that smile can easily navigate its way to my eyes. Eyes smile much more than lips ever do. So yes, every moment can be a precious memory…..

So here’s my short snippet, which I have entitled: The Hurt Behind The Smile.

Timer set…READY…STEADY…WRITE:)

Wow, this is hard I’m not used to writing in a short timescale but here goes.

 My topic is… WHAT DOES MAKE YOU SMILE?  

(YOUR NEW TOPIC IS AT THE END OF THIS POST)

Title: The Hurt Behind The Smile

A smile, the simplest form of human expression but don’t let it fool you. Alana appeared happy but was she really? Was this an illusion to confuse you? Her lips formed a smile, but her face suggested pain and hurt. Louise’s smile began with her eyes. The secret of a true smile, the eyes cannot deceive. They say the eyes are a mirror to the soul and I guess it’s true. Louise’s eyes shone like twinkling diamonds of true forgiveness, whereas Alice’s still held sharp shards of pain.   So next time you smile remember this tale and smile like you really mean it with your whole heart and soul, don’t leave anything behind, because it isn’t what makes you smile that really matters it’s the sentiments buried deep in your heart that will shine through.

144 words, 10 minutes.

This post is an answer to a Free Style Writing Challenge from https://myredpage.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/the-spring-of-life/

Thank you very much for the invite.

The Free Style Writing Challenge Rules:

1. Set a stop watch or your mobile to 5 minutes or 10 minutes whichever challenge you think you can beat.

2. Your topic is at the foot of this post BUT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH A TIMER.

3. Fill the word doc with as many words as you want. Once you began writing do not stop even to turn.

4. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spellings and grammar with spell check in MS WORD (it is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write the right spelling and stick to grammar rules)

5. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation and capitals. However, if you do, it would be best.

6. At the end of your post write down ‘Word count =_____’ so that we would have an idea of how much you can write within the time frame.

7. Do not forget to copy paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new Topic for your nominees and copy paste these rules with your nominations (at least 5 bloggers).

So it’s my pleasure to nominate the following bloggers (I got carried away and nominated rather a lot of you peeps hope you don’t mind.)

Debra at Words Across The Oceans:  “Lover of poetry, books, music, art & exploring of life!” http://debradml.com/

Write Dorne Putting Life into Words. “A writer, who sometimes writes.” https://dorneawhale.wordpress.com/

D. Dominik Wickles Romance Author: https://ddominikwicklesromance.wordpress.com/

Raeven Wright. Raevenly Writes.  A little about the process of writing, a lot about my adventures in self-publishing via blogs, and occasionally, some of my actual writing: https://raevenlywrites.wordpress.com/

Colleen at Silver Threading. Writer, Poet, Book Reviewer. Join Me, as I Look Back, Look Forward, Look Around, and Look Within: http://silverthreading.com/

Su Leslie at Zimmerbitch: Age is Just A (Biggish) Number. https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/

Bittersweet Sensations.Where the aftertaste of your feelings last.  https://thestrangeher.wordpress.com/

Writing Rachael Ritchey. Author of the Chronicles of the Twelve Realms, Book One: The Beauty Thief http://rachaelritchey.com/

Melissa at Today You Will Write. To learn craft, you must master technique. https://theywalkthenight.wordpress.com/

Nicholas. C. Rossis. sci-fi, epic fantasy & children’s stories http://nicholasrossis.me/

Ali Isaac StoryTeller. The Home of Irish Mythology. http://aliisaacstoryteller.com/

Hugh Views and news. A Man with Dyslexia writing about this and that and everything else! http://hughsviewsandnews.com/

Natacha Guyot and all the other monsters at Part-Time Monster. Books, girls, monsters and socio-cultural community. https://parttimemonster.wordpress.com/author/natachaguyot/

Judith Barrow Author Blog. Barrow Blogs. http://judithbarrowblog.com/

Susan M. Toy. Books, Publishing, Reading, Writing And, for Good Measure a bit of Cooking and Eating. http://islandeditions.wordpress.com

Anyone else who sees the post and who fancies joining in please feel free to do so, the more the merrier!

SCROWL DOWN TO SEE —-

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Your New Topic:

Fear, an adrenalin shot, taken or avoided  – your choice.