Portrait of the Day – 06282024

ART – GENERATIVE AI – COLOR – FICTION

Over the last few days, I’ve spent most of my time writing, working on a portion of this and a portion of that, in a feeble attempt to move each of my dusty projects forward. However, I got lost in a project that isn’t intended to be released soon. Yet, the character grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. They began telling me a story about a writer who traveled to Columbia and met a younger woman. Of course, I was bored with the premise and tried to go back to working on the fight scene. It needed some meat on the bones. The framework was solid, but the scene was a little skinny.

I came up for air and decided to check the blog. I noticed a few challenge words I would like to use. Then, that damn story came back. This time, it presented scenes.

“The couple being caught in the rain.” Okay, what would that look like? So, I started storyboarding the story.

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Well, that’s not what I wanted. They look so peaceful and serene. I wanted the image to come out jacked up so I could return to playing with mages and warriors. However, the story kept playing.

“She ran her hand along the rocks of the ancient crumbling wall.” Geez, that sounds goofy. I would never write this mess. It has a romantic undertone that makes my skin crawl. I said this to myself as my fingers, which seemed to have a mind of their own, continued writing this story.

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My protests about this story were falling on deaf ears, and my muse was sitting all enchanted, looking at me how she does when she gets her way.

Really? The moonlight thing? Come on! So, she begins to shift into her usual form, but not exactly.

Since she was playing around, I decided I would, too. I started thinking about the word serenity and the circumstances where I felt the most serene. I couldn’t come up with everything at the moment. So, I thought about how frustrating it is to be caught in the rain. I remembered a time in particular. I was dressed in a suit on protection detail, and the client was taking all day. I got soaked.

The day wasn’t within its charms. I watched a woman dance. It was pouring down, and she didn’t seem to care. She just danced.

Well, it turns out, there wasn’t a woman dancing in the street. I was apparently running a fever of 103 and seeing things. I’d like to think my writer’s mind was forming a scene for an upcoming story. I told my wife about the whole affair as she was tending to me. She listened as she checked the medicine to make sure it wasn’t adding to my delusions. However, she remembered that I would run in the rain when we first started dating. Yeah, that was serenity for me.

I got lost in the memories of our time together. I sat smiling at my notebook, remembering that when I feel the most serene, I’m writing. The worlds, the people, and the events I create bring me the serenity I yearn for when nothing else will. My muse brought me back with a loud “Hey!” I looked up, and she had changed her appearance again.

“Time to get back to work?” I asked

She nodded, and I went back to working on her goofy story.

“Hey, not that one!” she complained

“Oops, my bad,” I reply. I had a slight smile on my face as I thought …

~Mangus Wins!~

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Ragtag Daily Prompts provided inspiration for this tale. The challenge words used for this story are as follows:

Serenity

Beading

Rain

Older

Rock

I hope you guys enjoy these stories as much as I enjoy coming up with them. They provide an escape from the harshness I typically write. Thanks for reading.