Mastering Flash Fiction – with Windy Lynn Harris

In which Windy Lynn Harris shares her genius about how and why to write Flash Fiction

1:16 Flash art comes organically when being open.

6:58 Flash fiction: creative, short, under 500 words.

12:28 Be specific in short flash fiction writing.

13:05 Editing is essential for shorter pieces.

17:37 Essential aspect of storytelling, representing a moment.

19:32 Facing fear, mystery, and self-discovery.

23:27 Enjoy working on soliloquies and rants in writing.

26:56 Background, training influence the form of writing.

29:13 Accessing your authentic voice is essential.

33:08 Writers adapting to shorter work during pandemic.

36:51 Creativity can flourish without lofty goals.

41:05 Distraction in the world, set timer, create.

43:12 First book on writing short stories.

46:12 Strategic shorts can boost writing career prospects.

49:43 Writing needs community for support, progress, success.

54:27 Exciting prompts for daily creative writing in May.

Transcript available here

Other Ways To Increase Your Joy Around Writing

Download the Short Story Framework:

Short Story Framework

Take the 3-Day Challenge

Join The 3 Day Challenge

Sign up for the StoryAWeek Newsletter

StoryAWeek Sign Up

Take the I, WRITER Course

https://stada.me/iwriternow

Join the Superstars Group

https://storyaday.org/superstars

Coaching with Julie

Writing Coaching with Julie

Sign up for StoryADay May 2024:

Rachel Swearingen Interview Part 2

^^^ Watch (captions available)

Need the transcript?

˅˅˅ listen (mp3)

This time we talk about her favorite stories of her own and the writers she admires, working in short fiction now. We also talk about the importance of community for writers, and then Rachel turns the tables on me!

(You can find Part 1 of this interview, here)

Rachel Swearingen is the author of “How to Walk on Water and other short stories” which received the New American Press Fiction Prize. 

LINKS

This episode: storyaday.org/episode283

Rachel’s site: rachelswearing.com

Sign up for StoryADay May: http://storyaday.org/signup

Support the podcast: glow.fm/storyaday

Networking Without Nerves, a conversation with Coach Larissa Sjarbaini

Crafting a writing life isn’t all about knowing where to put commas and how to develop characters. It’s also about engaging with other humans. This week I’m in conversation with Larissa Sjarbaini, a high performance coach, about how to do that and why you might want to, even if you’re an extreme introvert. And stay tuned for an opportunity to develop your own game plan for a writing life

LINKS

Set Yourself Up For Success sign up now!

The Road To Being A Writer

An Interview with cmckane

Before StoryADay, all the roads on my writing journey were under construction. It was worse than sitting in rush hour and the detours diverted to dead ends.

Since StoryADay, some of the lanes on my writing journey have opened up, and while my writing habits are far from cruising, I’ve begun to pick up speed. I feel great that I pushed myself to address a creative void that seemed unable to fix itself.

Successes On The Road

I published one story during a 2016 contest, Beyond Comprehension, but I consider my most significant writing success is making my family laugh at stories I’ve shared.

On Being A Sporadic Superstar

Even as a sporadic participant I was floored at how much I gained.

I find my creativity was sparked and often on long drives I get snatches of stories. Having voiced telling me their adventures once again is a glorious feeling.

Beyond invigorating my writing habit, being part of the group has helped me in ways I didn’t expect and helped push me out of my comfort zone. Group chats, podcasts, and Slack are forms of tech that I avoided before but now can navigate slightly better. It was rather fortuitous since I needed to use Zoom and make a podcast for school this year!


I’m not expecting that I’ll have 31 amazing stories that can be polished and published at the end of May, but my goal is to carve out time to write something other than coursework every day. 

Freeing The Creative Side

An Interview with StoryADay Regular Neha Mediratta

Where were you in your writing journey before your first StoryADay?

I have been exploring different ways of finish writing pieces. Beginning something is not that difficult for me, bringing it to a conclusion is.

And StoryADay May – ever since 2010 – has been helping me see that I can indeed finish what I begin!

Seeing the pool of story drafts at the end of the month is such a boost to one’s writing self. I’m truly grateful that you began this community. It is an honor to have seen you work diligently at making it what it is today. Thank you!

Where are you now?

I have finished story drafts of various sizes in various genres! It feels amazing. I couldn’t have this without signing up for StADa every year.

What do you consider your biggest writing success?

Currently, writing successes are personal milestones of leaping over technique-related obstacles.

I am slowly learning not to dread the blank page, and not to let my logical side crush my creative one by acting like a haughty school teacher.

The StADa format really helps with that because the only goal is to reach the finish and iron out story-kinks later.

Tell Us About The StoryADay Community

Oh it is so good to feel part of a warm, generous and contributive community where everyone’s focus is on helping each other with their writing processes.

Being part of it also increases accountability and in my case, it breaks me out of shyness – which is an important part of learning to share your work with people.

Thanks, Neha! It’s been wonderful having you here since the beginning!