As we come into April I’ll be sharing prompts designed to help you warm up for the 12th Annual StoryADay May (can you believe it?!). This week: what can you capture in a flash?
The Prompt
Write a Flash Fiction story in 500 words, inspired by a vivid moment like the one in the photo, above.
Tips
- Have as vivid a moment as you can in mind as you start your story.
- If you use this picture, brainstorm what happened in the moments before the subject turned to the camera. Where are they going? Where have they been? What’s causing that little smile? Is it sincere? Who’s taking the picture?
- Whose voice will you tell it in? The photographer, writing it up later for the notes for his exhibition? The subject (first person, present tense? Told from the future). Some omniscient narrator? Will they be trustworthy or untrustworthy?
- If you’re stuck on how to write a flash fiction story, listen to the episode of the StoryADay podcast with Windy Lynn Harris, where she shares 7 ways to approach flash.
- If you’re not sure what makes a short story flash, check out these StoryADay Flash Fiction Essentials
If you share you story somewhere (and here’s why you might not want to) post a link here so we can come and read it.
Leave a comment to let us know what you wrote about today, and how it went!
Discussion: What point of view did you settle on? Was it something traditional or did you go a little ‘oddball’? That’s one of the things I love about reading (and writing) flash: it is an opportunity to play!
How are you feeling about StoryADay May? Are you excited? Trepidatious? Doubtful? Tell me your thoughts!
Most of what we write we consider to be a little bit oddball, but we’ve always been a little unconventional as we write as a duo. We chose a traditional perspective but we set the flash within the ocean and from the view of our character and the water becoming one. Though, after writing it we had the idea to flip the perspective to a more unusual one of a fish watching this all go down. We are trepidatious but excited to explore a new challenge with Storyaday May and we love your writing community-focused website.