Elliott's stories

 A single blank page is the scariest thing in the world..... On one hand, it's infinite freedom. A complete blank canvas ready to take on whatever the artist wants. An undiscovered masterpiece, a confession, a dream, a mirror into the soul of the artist. It can be anything. On the other hand, the infinite nature of the blank page is also its worst aspect. It is nothing. Until there is something on the page, there may never be anything on the page. What if it stays empty forever? What if it's never filled with something good enough? Unlimited potential also means unlimited potential for failure, and therein lies the problem. Like Schroedinger's cat, until the page is filled, it has the potential to be ultimate success or abject failure, both alive and dead at the same time. This is both the best thing I've ever written and the worst thing I'll ever write. As someone who is seriously dabbling in creative endeavours for the first time in years, it scar...

 Another twisted technological story, this time with a twist. As this story plays on the multiverse trope, I had two ideas for the ending of the story so decided, in true sci-fi fashion to write them both.  Jordan lay awake staring at the large crack in his ceiling listening to the dull hum of his fridge. The hum that never seemed to stop. It was nearly 2am and sleep had long since eluded him. It was his birthday yesterday. His gifts? A rejection email, a microwaved lasagne, and exactly zero “happy birthdays.” Even from his own mother. He picked up his phone and started to doom-scroll through Reddit when his email pinged from an unknown address - the subject line  “Ever wonder what would’ve happened if you got that big break?” The email simply read  “Download Reflekt. “Talk to the person you could’ve been,” . No stars. No reviews just a link to an app. “ Fuck it” he thought and clicked the link. The app downloaded and appeared on his home screen. He entered his n...

  This is a story idea i've had for a little while. Inspired by Charlie Brooker's black mirror series, it's meant to be a darker story idea in the same vein of the series which is about the darker side of technology and our relationship with it.  The war was on the TV again. It always was. Ever since he could remember, he'd always seen footage of the war. Footage of a war-torn landscape, burning trucks, demolished houses, soldiers in camo gear herding civilians to safety, sometimes bodies strewn around. Liam barely noticed as the footage flickered silently across the muted TV, barely looking up from his cereal. He was on his own again. His mum had already left for another double shift. She was barely home anymore, and even when she was, she rarely spoke—not since his dad had been called up. Liam had stopped asking when he'd be home. It was always "soon," then it was "classified," and then nothing. His phone pinged and he looked up. It was an e...

I wrote this first story for a story contest - NYC midnight. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to get me into the second round of the competition but I'm still quite pleased with the story. I've expanded the story out quite a bit and am planning to maybe try and self publish this some time in the future, but for now this is the first part. Mark was nervous. He took a slow drag on his cigarette to calm his nerves, the smoke emanating from the sides of his mouth and out into the air.  The clock struck one o'clock. He pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket. Fumbling, he dropped it with a clatter on the ground. His mind was racing. He thought to his girlfriend Laura at home, pregnant with their first child, due in a few months. He was doing this for her, for the baby. They were desperate for the money and times were tough. Work had been slow in the warehouse. he'd tried picking up extra shifts but it just wasn't enough.  Scrolling through endless job site...

Although technically the second story I've submitted to a writing competition, this is the first I can publish as the results of the NYC midnight competition are still pending.  I saw this last night and decided to enter very last minute, so it has very little refinement and is 99% the first draft I submitted last night.  The competition is run by https://novelo.com/, and the prompt was to use to opening sentence The rain hasn't stopped since the machines took control.... The rain hasn't stopped since the machines took control... I think it was always inevitable. The hubris of humanity, our arrogance that we were always going to be the dominant species on the planet. The people in charge told us the machines were there to help us, to assist us, to make things easier. Then, they started taking the dangerous jobs, and people were happy, no longer were human lives at risk in dangerous situations. Then they took the easier jobs, no longer did humans need to perform menial ta...