The Dawn of Violet’s Writing Career

Violet was orphaned at age 16 as her parents had passed away in a car accident. She was in High School, and she was living with her maternal grandmother. She grieved now and then about her parents. Her grandma consoled her and encouraged her to finish High School.

Grandma didn't have enough money to send her to the university. So, instead, she asked her to take creative writing classes in their local area, knowing how much she loved to write. Grandma strongly believed that Violet would excel in a writing career.

So accordingly, Violet started taking creative writing classes, and she was learning a lot. Soon she ended up getting a certificate from the training school. Now what? Violet thought of writing for an online magazine. She could send a piece, meeting their rules and policies and see how far it would go.

On the first attempt, it was rejected, but they said she could improve in a few areas and resend again.

Violet read the email five more times, trying to grasp where her flaws and weaknesses lay in the article. She modified it dramatically but with extreme difficulty and slow pace as her keyboard was malfunctioning.

She lost hope in her old keyboard and mentioned to her grandma about the problem. Well, her grandma said she could afford to buy a new keyboard. Violet brightened up, smiling in joy. She hadn't smiled since she came to know that she had lost her parents for good. But here was grandma trying to help her in her endeavors.

Both grandma and Violet visited the computer shop in their locality and bought a new keyboard. Violet was excited about working on her article again.

She erased some of the lines and meant to write with more flavor when, to her extreme surprise, the keyboard started typing on its own and completed the short story article. She sent it to the online magazine. Much to her relief, she came to know via her email that it was approved. And guess what, they asked her to submit it to their ongoing contest and see for herself what the outcome would be.

Violet was amazed beyond words and did submit her article to the contest. After a week, when the contest was over, she came to know via her email that her article had earned the first prize. They would send her a cheque of $200 within a few days.

Violet had sent articles to other sites also, but she had never won a contest. It was a worthy achievement for her, and she basked in glory. She shared her happiness with grandma but decided to keep the magic of the keyboard a secret.

For months together, she would type the title of a short story, and the keyboard would help her type out an interesting story, and she would send it to the magazine. After a while, it became a routine. That's how by contributing superb articles to the magazine, she made money. She was thinking happily that she could now help grandma with the house rent.

As she was absentmindedly thinking, she spilled coffee all over the keyboard from her coffee mug. Violet was devastated and wondering if this would make the keyboard lose its magic.

She bought a piece of clean cloth from the kitchen and rubbed the keyboard off the coffee liquid as neatly as she could. But now it was sticky.

She shared her problem with grandma. And she said, "Well, Violet, I could give you the phone number from the keyboard’s purchase receipt, and you can ask them how you could clean the keyboard.”

Soon Violet called them, and much to her surprise, they said, "We will service it for free since this happened within the first three months of your purchase."

So, Violet went to the computer shop and had the keyboard cleaned spick and span for free. They were extremely polite. One young, handsome guy gave Violet his card and asked her to call him whenever she faced any problem with any of her computer parts. Violet was more than delighted and took the card happily.

After reaching her home, she attached the keyboard to her computer. She typed a title, but the keyboard won't type itself. The keyboard seemed to have lost its magic. But she had ideas come running to her mind, and she typed words in an article, proofread it and sent it online to the magazine. This time also, the article was accepted.

Violet thought jubilantly, “This way is more authentic- ideas coming to my mind rather than the keyboard itself typing out the story for me!”

Violet thrived for months, writing articles by forming ideas in her head. But then one day the computer crashed, and she was very much remorseful.

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A Minor Wilderness

She remembered the card of the handsome guy at the computer shop. She searched for it in her desk drawer and found it and called him. He asked her if she could bring the CPU to his Computer Repair Doctor shop or if she needed help in carrying the CPU to his shop.

Violet thought for a while. She said she would like some help with that. But she wanted to know what they would charge for transporting it to their shop. They said since her place was within walking distance, they would charge her only $10.

Violet agreed. She made an appointment. At the scheduled time, she was on the road outside of her home with her CPU waiting for the man from the shop to pick it up.

Violet looked at the card again and found his name to be Jonas. In about five minutes, he showed up and took the CPU with both hands and asked her to follow him to the shop.

As they reached the shop, Jonas asked his assistant to check Violet's CPU. He reported after a few minutes that the CPU had indeed crashed. Violet decided she would wait for the next two hours at the shop until the CPU was formatted, and it got a life again.

Meanwhile, she chatted with Jonas, sharing each other’s life stories briefly and as meticulously as possible. The CPU was ready, and she was charged $25 for the servicing cost of her CPU.

Violet tested her CPU herself, and she found it in full working mode. She thanked Jonas and his assistant and paid the service charge as well as the transport charge to the shop. Jonas sent his assistant to carry the CPU to her residence. This was an act of friendship on Jonas' part, and there was no charge for it.

Soon Violet reached home and connected the CPU to the other computer parts. She tested again, and everything was in good working order.

She had lunch with grandma, went for a nap and dreamed.

"Follow writing prompts available online", her Dad said. "You will excel even better." Her Mom added, "Listen to your Dad closely. Your ideas are good, but writing prompts will awaken your writing creativity even more. Heed us, and you will be happier."

Violet woke up with a jump. Her parents spoke to her, and she remembered her dream. Violet found her parents' advice feasible, and she got started searching online for writing prompts soon. She got a bunch of them and took a printout.

She lay on the bed, choosing the prompt for her next story article, which would speak to her the most.

She decided on one. She started imagining and typed out a story, following her chosen writing prompt and finally sent it to the magazine. After a week went by, she saw there were a lot of views on it, which told her that it was popular.

When her magazine's newsletter mentioned another writing contest, she sent them the most recent article, and after a week, she again earned a prize this time, a cheque of $250.

Violet was elated. Ever since the dawn of her writing career, strange events started happening one after another. But now she knew that they all happened for the very best.

There was magic and also miracles all in her surrounding area. She could stay with her grandma all her life in this home cottage, and she still could grow to higher altitudes. Life has shown and proved to her about this.

Violet was all smiles, and she sang sweetly too.

Poll Time

© 2021 Rosina S Khan