What was that again…?
So here’s the thing. My head’s been all over the place today and yesterday evening. No concentration or motivation.
I’ve been reading and clicking “like” on people’s FF stories but not commenting – apologies to you guys for that. I had no idea what to write for this week’s Friday Fictioneers (hosted as always by the talented Rochelle). I decided to give it a miss.
Then I wrote a story based around not having a story. I’ve seen people do that from time to time. It would be a shame to miss a week, I thought. So here it is :-(.
Did you ever have an idea, a great idea, so awesomely fantastic that more than being just a light bulb moment, it was a whole chandelier full of light bulbs?
And did you ever think to yourself, “Well, I’m quite tired after all that thinking, so I’ll sleep on it”?
And did you ever wake up next morning knowing that you’d had an amazing idea, like it was some new propulsion system or the cure for the all world’s ills, but that’s all you remember?
Like, I’m sure I had a great chandelier-based story in mind last night. Awesome, it was. You’ll have to use your imagination.
Sometimes I’m writing in my dream and when i wake up it’s gone. Know that feeling. Nowadays when I look at a picture I try a word association excercise and it helps with topics to write about.
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I#’ll have to try that. Trouble is, all I see when I see the chandelier picture is a famous scene from the UK sitcom “Only Fools and Horses”. I can’t get past it!
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I have learned, much to my regret, that yesterday’s brilliant but unrealized idea is tomorrow blank hole in my brain. If I don’t write it down somewhere — immediately — it will vanish like the morning mist. Oh well. It probably wasn’t all that great anyway, right? Even your “non” ideas are better than most peoples ideas.
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Thanks! Yes, I’m sure if the idea was truly great it will come back! (Yeah, right.)
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Noooooooooo! It appears we may have jinxed the Drali-brian! 😮
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Boo 😦
I’ll try a reboot.
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Been there!
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🙂
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I’ve heard of being a few bulbs short of a chandelier, but it seems you were a few short of a flash fiction story!
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My bulbs have all blown 😦
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True life story that. Well done!
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Thanks, it happens a lot!
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The story you did write was fine. We’re supposed to keep paper and pen or pencil near our bed to jot down those ideas. And yet, what if it’s dark and you can’t see to write anyway. By the time I got up to turn on the light, the idea would be gone anyway. I guess I’d need to add a light to that stuff. My cell phone has a light, but by the time I got “that” I’d probably also forget. 🙂 — Suzanne
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I’d never go to all that trouble. It might wake me up fully and then I’d be tired at work the next day!
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Loved this, you did well describing those ah–ha moments we all have.
When ever I find myself stopping in a story, I will go to bed that night with the problem on my mind. Sometimes I awaken the next morning with the answer, sometimes the answer comes to me in the shower, but walking away, giving it to the universe, has always worked. The answer has always shown itself. As Suzanne says, they recommend taking a pad of paper and pen with you to to bed, write it down as soon as it forms, so you won’t have that feeling that you’ve lost it. Many a night I’ve gotten up at an odd hour, just to write, mainly because my room is total blackness and turning on a light will wake me anyway. So I get up, especially if it’s important. Loved this, you did well!
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I usually just look at the picture when it arrives and then hope that by the time I’ve finished work something has presented itself. Sadly not this time :-).
Still, I got something out of it in the end!
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Yep. I’ve woken with the horrible realisation that my best-seller/world-changing-invention/cure-for-everything lies unremembered on the other side of sleep… It is indeed painful.
Cheers
KT
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And the more you try to remember what it was, the more it slips through your grasp…
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Ha ha! This made me laugh silly. Loved this story!! See, you did good, Ali. I especially love the “whole chandelier full of light bulbs” idea. You trademark that. 🙂
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I will, I could get rich suing people for infringement 🙂
I managed to sneak in a chandelier-based story after all.
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Yes, not just a light bulb moment but a chandelier moment! Truly a great idea!
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It’s for those truly great ideas which demand more wattage.
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hee hee! a chandelier moment!
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Use it, make it famous!
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I have woken with answers to cross-word clues I couldn’t solve the night before. I sometimes wonder whether I have a Zafod Beeblebrox sort of problem?
I like your piece.
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Thanks! It’s funny how some stuff slips away while other things suddenly become clear.
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Awesome it was? If you had Yoda writing that post for you, anything wrote you would awesome be.
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If Yoda a blog had, awesome his posts would be.
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Dear Ali,
I’m sure it was a great story. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
It was, honest 😉
Ali
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An excellent story about no story. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Good ideas rise to the surface like a bubble and if we don’t snatch them up right away, the bubble bursts and they’re gone. Great job at turning nothing into something.
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I hate it when an idea slips away like mist in the morning sun (ooh, poetic!).
Thanks 🙂
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To answer your questions: yes, yes, and, oh, yeah! 🙂
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I’m not alone 🙂
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No you are not!
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🙂
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Wonderful. Yes, I know that feeling, too. Last week, I almost wrote about a conversation with my muse, but I was too busy… Keep dreaming! 🙂
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Strange how the muse seems to come and go at will, the capricious little thing 🙂
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Yea…all the time..MOL 😀 Pawkisses for a Happy Weekend 🙂 ❤
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I wonder how many great ideas have been lost over the centuries? 🙂
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Well done. Now what is it you’re going to write about?
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I was going to write about… about… no, it’s gone again 🙂
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Yes D, very similar ideas indeed. I knew there was more than one bulb for a reason!
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Enough bulbs for everyone’s story!
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Brilliantly funny. My favorite was “whole chandelier full of light bulbs.” Oh to often have those kinds of ideas.
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That chandelier is so fancy I bet the ideas are amazing ones.
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Yours was my favorite. ;0)
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Thanks 🙂
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Oh, tell me about it! If I had a pound for everyone of those ….
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On reading the comments this appears to be a common affliction!
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Ah.. yes sometimes stories just slips through your fingers don’t they.
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It’s like you can almost grasp the edge of it, but not quite.
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Lol, this is very cute. Sometimes you just have to write about the light bulb that was there and not worry about anything else. That’s what it’s all about 🙂
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That was my thinking 🙂
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I like it and clearly it has universal appeal.
Tracey
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Yes, this feeling has struck a chord with many.
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I know exactly what that’s like! If I don’t write down an idea straight away, it’ll be gone by morning. I hope next week is better for you. 🙂
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Me too! I’m on 2 weeks holiday now so things will be quieter I guess. And more boring, if the weather stays the way it is right now 😦
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