This month’s focus is on Flash Fiction. Flash isn’t just short, it is urgent. And so is today’s prompt
The Prompt
Time’s Up
[Write On Wednesday] Time’s Up
[Write on Wednesday]Anachrony
This week’s prompt was inspired by the flash fiction story Joan of Arc Sits Naked In Her Dorm Room by Rachel Engelman
The Prompt
Write a 750 word story featuring a character from history or mythology, but place them in a different era
Tips
Continue reading “[Write on Wednesday]Anachrony”[Write On Wednesday] Good From Bad
Yesterday, I reviewed “Useless Things” by Ariel Berry, and it gave me the writing prompt for today’s Flash Fiction focused prompt
The Prompt
Write a story of fewer than 1000 words, that features a twist on a topic/event that might be seen as a disaster. Show us how your character pulls another meaning from it
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Good From Bad”Day 10 – Let’s Make These Stories Flash
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.
101 – Windy Lynn Harris & Short Fiction
Apologies that the audio is a little crackly on this one, but it’s worth sticking with, to hear the infectiously enthusiastic Windy Lynn Harris and me, gabbing about the joy of short fiction.
Windy Lynn Harris is the author of Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays (Writer’s Digest Books, 2017)
[Reading Room] Paradox by Naomi Kritzer
I was blogging and podcasting a lot, last month, about short story forms, and how short stories do not have to read like mini novels.
And the month before that was all about Flash Fiction.
Today, I’m recommending that you take a look at this story Paradox, by Naomi Kritzer.
It is both flash fiction and a non-narrative story. And it’s great.
It starts,
This is the original timeline.
This is a great example of how you can make every word count, and how short fiction is a wonderful place to practice that.
That single word, “original” does all the heavy lifting. It tells you a lot about what kind of story this is going to be: confusing, time-travel-y, chatty. It conveys genre, style, and tone.
Five words. That’s all it took her to set the reader’s expectations.
(Note to self: write to the author and ask her what the original first line looked like. I’m betting it wasn’t this. Second note to self: rewriting is key!)
It is written in the first person (sometimes first person, plural) and we never find out the character’s name or gender. It plays deliciously, hilariously, with all the time travel tropes and questions out there, and talks, knowingly, to the reader.
This is no mini-novel.
And it leaves us with a flippant question at the end, the deeper question it asks is not about time-travel at all.
Recommended!