Romantic Friday Writers - Challenge No 43 - The Romantic Picnic.

The RomanticFridayWriters bi-monthly challenge this week is 'The Romantic Picnic.  I'm writing a sequel to my previous Challenge, I Need a Change, with the setting in a romantic paradise, based on a real island in Fiji. If you didn't catch my story you can read it here. The challenges are open to all writers of prose or poetry.

Here are the guidelines for this challenge:

The "Romantic Picnic."  

- Who initiates the picnic; is this a first date or dedication to the continuing relationship? 

- Is there an agenda to the picnic: marriage proposal, pregnancy announcement, promotion or new job assignment? 

 - is the picnic all about the continuing romantic relationship: one lover affirming their devotion to the other, or a mutually shared, opportune moment of togetherness?  

***Any genre, any POV; just remember to include a romantic element and a picnic, in 400 words or less.***

Back to the Island

Inya spread the mat on the lush grass, watching how the palm tree shadows painted pictures with the midday light. Squinting into the sun, he remembered a day just like this, six months ago. Their last picnic.

Joy spiked his heart just thinking of her. From the night she’d tripped over his fishing line, to the day she’d left on the boat, they’d been inseparable. What a week that’d been! She’d promised to come back, but he’d been afraid to hope.  

She was here! He’d seen her boat come in. Afraid to meet it, he’d decided to wait for her to find him. That’d mean she really wanted him. She was good at tracking him down. 

Wherever he was, she’d find him.

He opened the hotel picnic basket. The hotel staff loved Sally. Said she was perfect for him. They’d given him all these goodies and a bottle of chilled champagne.

He lifted the plates out of their plastic bindings and set them out side by side. Then he reached for the cutlery and napkins. Pretty fancy!

Before getting out the delicious-looking sandwiches and papaya salad, he picked some gorgeous red ginger flowers from a nearby bush. He filled a plastic tumbler with fresh water and set them in the middle of the mat. 

He checked the sun. She should be here any minute. Just thinking about her made him hot. He threw off his tee shirt and dived into the water. Ah, cool! He was so nervous he was as stiff as a board. He started to swim out to the islands in long, lazy strokes, luxuriating in the glorious feeling of soft water flowing around him. He rolled onto his back and looked at the cloudless blue sky.

‘Inya!’

Sally’s here!

Splashing madly like a kid learning to swim, he looked towards the shore. There she was, running into the water, throwing off her clothes as she ran. 

In a few strokes they were all arms and legs and gulping water, gabbling nonsense. He pulled her close and kissed her, and kissed her...

‘I love you Inya.’

‘I love you Sally. I’m never letting you off this island without me again.’

‘I’m never leaving without you.’

‘Hungry?’

‘Starving. Do I detect a picnic under a tree?’

‘You do.’

‘How romantic. Do you have kava?’

‘Nah. The hotel sent champagne.’

‘I’m more of a kava girl.’

‘I know. Just wait till tonight.’

WORD COUNT: 404

FCA

UPCOMING RFW CHALLENGES:

Challenge #44 -  Sept 7 -  I Should Have Kissed You  FW/RunnerUp

Challenge #45 -  Sept 21 -Oh How I Hate My Beautiful Friend
Challenge #46 -  Oct 5   -  Birthday Madness 
Challenge #47 -  Oct 19 -  Halloween – House of Horrors.  FW/RunnerUp

Like to read more RFW posts on The Romantic Picnic. Go to RomanticFridayWriters for the list...

get the InLinkz code

 

#RomanticFridayWriters - Challenge No 43 - Friday August 24 - The Romantic Picnic - Do join us for a feast!

 Our bure for the night in  Navala
Village

Hello there!

I'm back from my 6-week holiday in Fiji. It was awesome. More on that later...

I don't often do a post completely devoted to the lovely group of writers, RomanticFridayWriters, but this week we're doing a promo, hoping to get more writers involved. For those of you who don't know who we are, we are a group of 50+ members, prose writers and poets, who write to fortnightly/bi-monthly challenges.Considering it is an ongoing blogfest we feel we do well to average about 15 postings each prompt, but of course we'd like to see more.

Francine Howarth

Donna Hole

RomanticFridayWriters was the brainchild of yours truly, ably assisted by author Francine Howarth in the early days. Francine continues to write for us, but my current co-host is Donna Hole, who has added another perspective, especially regarding critique, to RFW.


The aim of RomanticFridayWriters is to provide a safe, supportive writing environment to practise our writing and to receive as much feedback or critique as we desire. Often published author members find an excerpt from their current WIP that fits the prompt and use it as an opportunity to gauge reader's likes and dislikes regarding their current story. 

Francine created this postcard for RFW feedback requests

All of us believe we have found a place to work on our craft. Keeping to the 400 word limit is certainly good practise for editing out superfluous words. When a story's really itching to be told in more words, writers often continue the story in another prompt, like a serial. Commenters often offer suggestions on how a story could continue. A good way to gauge if your story is striking a chord with readers. (I use reader reactions to see which stories to submit to magazines.) Another member's serialised story was so gripping she has been urged to turn it into a novella, with an author member offering to assist in its production.

In between prompts, we host Guest Authors who inspire us in our craft. Currently we are hosting RFW members who are regaling us with their authorial successes - Madeleine Maddocks, Kiru Taye and Joy Campbell. Go here to read their stories.

Our prompts are very wide ranging with the hosts taking turns in dreaming up challenges. We are not all hearts, flowers, chocolates and hotness, we are writers who are all about telling the story. There is often only a small romantic element in our stories and more often than not, no HEA, but that is entirely up to the individual writer. 

Overall, we have serious fun!

Each Wednesday after the previous Friday challenge, there is a Wrap Up Post, where each entry receives a short critique. Writers return for the lively discussion. See  an example here...

Challenges are always posted ahead so writers can think about the upcoming challenges. There is a Challenges Page at RomanticFridayWriters website which offers further guidelines and suggestions for each prompt, but only two at a time so we don't get confused.

For special challenges which often offer a 600 word limit, and occasionally a 1,000 word limit, we offer a prize for Featured Writer and Runner Up. The prize is a badge to post on the winner's blog which is an accolade to the writer for work well done. We don't write for specific prizes other than the praise of our fellow writers. 

So this Friday's prompt is The Romantic Picnic. It is Donna Hole's prompt, and I quote her from our Challenges Page:

The "Romantic Picnic."  

- Who initiates the picnic; is this a first date or dedication to the continuing relationship? 

- Is there an agenda to the picnic: marriage proposal, pregnancy announcement, promotion or new job assignment? 

 - is the picnic all about the continuing romantic relationship: one lover affirming their devotion to the other, or a mutually shared, opportune moment of togetherness?  

***Any genre, any POV; just remember to include a romantic element and a picnic, in 400 words or less.***

This should be fun! 

I hope you can join us. A Linky goes up at RFW on Thursday morning AEST. Read the Submission process, then fire away! We'd love you to join us - prose or poetry...Any questions, ask me in the comments...

UPCOMING RFW CHALLENGES:

Challenge #43 - Aug 24 -  The Romantic Picnic

Challenge #44 -  Sept 7 -  I Should Have Kissed You  FW/RunnerUp

Challenge #45 -  Sept 21 -Oh How I Hate My Beautiful Friend
Challenge #46 -  Oct 5   -  Birthday Madness 
Challenge #47 -  Oct 19 -  Halloween – House of Horrors.  FW/RunnerUp