Hayley Moon

Flash Fiction

Lights, Camera, Read.

It’s time to hit the stage for the Hoover Library’s Write Club’s annual Flash Fiction event, and it has come at a time when I need the extra boost of motivation to keep going with fresh material.

Although this isn’t my first Flash, it will be a first that I take the stage for the live event, and I am stoked!

However, small the occasion, I am not too quick to shy away from sharing and being around real authors and talented writers.

So, what I have been doing to get ready.

Well…absolutely nothing. I haven’t even solidified the read, but I am not totally unprepared. I have been writing exploring new ideas but I am attempting not to get too inside my head and overthink it. I do have a piece in the works and I posted the link to the first ~2,000 words (give or take a few) to my Vocal Media page a few posts back (Cure: Wellness Required, link icon below). l

As I type I am calm cool and collected; this may not be the case by this time next week!

The Plan

Write.

That’s the plan; write. It seems simple. What many don’t know is that I have a hard time taking my own advice and I have taken every avenue to avoid doing just that.

I am willing to admit impatience makes up the lion’s share of the blame. Throughout this journey to become a serious writer with hopes to become a full fledge author, I have wanted that New York Time’s best seller since yesterday, ten years ago.

The entitled millennial I want it now spirit reared it’s ugly head and for a time I considered quitting. My drafts were trash and I begin to question if I had it. I have yet to define the “it”.

The goal is to write more frequently and to simply take it easy on myself, and I have decided to take 2022 head on and carve out time to develop my skill. I begin even if the idea or the thought isn’t fully developed, the ideas are there. It is putting them on the screen that shows the disconnect.

I’ve discovered that chasing the perfect first draft has always been my Achilles’ heel. I have learned that it is okay; every idea or plot isn’t meant to be a trilogy or HBO series. You have to write in order to get the sludge out of the way and hit black gold-or rather the literary jackpot. I am learning the process takes time.

Trusting the process is hard but trusting myself is the hardest thing I have ever done.

Window Seat

I can hear the birds here as I watch Helios and Gaea kiss for the first time.

It’s before coffee.

It’s before the caffeine clouds my thoughts stimulating me while pushing them in every direction opposite of creativity.

Passions are diverted as I’m reminded that I have to go back.

I can’t dwell here, not tomorrow.

I am not afforded another day.

I don’t hear the sounds of Life there. Not over the clicking of the keys and the sighs of defeat.

The constant interruptions, hisses of deadlines and overdue reports; things that only further push me away from reality.

I am relying on lies now as I coerce myself into returning day after day.

I don’t like it here.

The people demand too much and understand too little.