Yeah, yeah we’re writing super-short stories this month (well, some of us are!), but do they flash?
The Prompt
Write a story in under 1000 words focusing on creating one billiant image in your reader’s mind.
Tips
- The image you leave in their mind doesn’t have to be visual. It could be an idea.
- Really focus on making everything lean and making every word count. Make sure your story is about one thing, one moment.
- Aim to change your reader’s mind about something, whether it’s a person, an experience or a condition of life.
I ended up “flashing” on a scent rather than a visual–and somehow the story that formed from that was told from the POV of a service dog, the kind that detects seizures. I’m finding that the more limited word count let me relax a bit about how long it might take me to get this story done, so the experience of writing today was really pleasant.
Almost one third of the way through the challenge! Applauding everyone who has done more writing than usual this month.
Sometimes ‘written’ is enough. It’s less ideal when you don’t get that “Yeah!” feeling after you write, but there are always going to be days like that. The success is in coming back tomorrow and persisting! Good for you.
This was a challenging prompt for some reason… I really had trouble coming up with an idea, and eventually landed on a simple story where a man wakes up on a cruise ship. He’s been miserable the whole time, spending most of the time in his cabin with bouts of seasickness, and finally decides to get on deck early in the morning since he can’t sleep anyway. The story follows him slowly walking the deck and approaching the bow, and his changing view of the horizon as his eyes adjust and the sun rises. He leans over the rail, and at that moment the clouds part and he’s bathed in sunlight (and no longer miserable).
Not thrilled with the result, in some ways I feel like I wrote this just because I wanted a little mini-vacation during my lunch break at work, but I didn’t get the feelings on the page that I wanted. But it’s done, here’s hoping for better results tomorrow.
Not sure I quite hit with this prompt, but I did get the story written. The last 2 days I’ve written from Erik’s POV, but today I wrote from the other main character’s POV in their story.
https://fallonbrownwrites.wordpress.com/2018/05/10/story-a-day-day-10-jeff/