Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Very Short Story, Postcard Story: a story that is between 75 and 500 words in length.
No room for superfluous words here. You have to pack everything in but keep it clear and engaging. Your story must be fully developed and the ending must leave the reader feeling fulfilled.
Resources:
Flash Fiction 101
Flash What? A Quick Look at Flash Fiction
Writing Flash Fiction
The Essentials of Micro-Fiction
‘Palm-of-the-Hand’ Stories by Alan Nicoll
Fun Writing Prompt
Here is a promt from a creative writing class I took recently:
Describe a place you know well in three or four paragraphs.
Now, describe the same place, but this time choose a tone from the list below. Communicate this mood through your description.
anger
anxiety
awe
boredom
condescension
deceit
desire
fear
happiness
impatience
love
nostalgia
shyness
weariness
Describe a place you know well in three or four paragraphs.
Now, describe the same place, but this time choose a tone from the list below. Communicate this mood through your description.
anger
anxiety
awe
boredom
condescension
deceit
desire
fear
happiness
impatience
love
nostalgia
shyness
weariness
3 Wonderful Writing Quotes
“[Writing] talent is a long patience, and originality an effort of will and intense observation.” Gustave Flaubert
“The requirements of art create a possibility of greater honesty and greater intelligence and greater insights, a greater access to one’s unconscious, greater access to the world around us than at any other time in one’s life.” Russell Banks
“A story should be written for the sake of the last sentence.” Edgar Allan Poe
“The requirements of art create a possibility of greater honesty and greater intelligence and greater insights, a greater access to one’s unconscious, greater access to the world around us than at any other time in one’s life.” Russell Banks
“A story should be written for the sake of the last sentence.” Edgar Allan Poe
Writers’ Conferences & Centers
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) has launched a new site for conferences and workshops in North America and overseas called Writers’ Conferences & Centers (WC&C). The event calendar is overflowing with events.
WC&C also has a scholarship competition. The 2007 competition is already over (rats), but I’m adding it to my calendar for next year.
WC&C also has a scholarship competition. The 2007 competition is already over (rats), but I’m adding it to my calendar for next year.
On Dreams and Story
Can you write an entire novel based off a dream? I know several writers that have done just that. I’m not one of them. I’ve written down ideas from dreams, obsessed over them, trying to come up with a character or plot.
Nothing.
Perhaps my dreams simply do not translate well. Perhaps I am too close to the feelings they invoke and therefore cannot step back and see them as story. I don’t know the answer, but I continue to hope for a dream that I can turn into story.
Nothing.
Perhaps my dreams simply do not translate well. Perhaps I am too close to the feelings they invoke and therefore cannot step back and see them as story. I don’t know the answer, but I continue to hope for a dream that I can turn into story.
Submission to New Letters
I submitted a short story to New Letters after drinking a large amount of chai tea. Laughable, I know, but I comfort myself with the knowledge that with my submission fee, I received a one-year subscription.
Here was my thought process: Why bother getting rejected by a magazine I don't respect? If I'm going to be crushed it may as well be by a magazine like New Letters.
I am obsessively embarrassed about my decision now, but I still feel brave for having done it.
Here was my thought process: Why bother getting rejected by a magazine I don't respect? If I'm going to be crushed it may as well be by a magazine like New Letters.
I am obsessively embarrassed about my decision now, but I still feel brave for having done it.
Look what I found
Two Annual Writing Conferences in KC.
They have the rep to make the events likely worthwhile. I would like to attend; maybe next year I'll have the $$ (and the guts).
They have the rep to make the events likely worthwhile. I would like to attend; maybe next year I'll have the $$ (and the guts).
Kafka - to be worthy of it
I love this quote from Kafka. I will reread it; repeat it today when I want to trash everything I have ever written in a fit of fantastic self-loathing:
Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don’t surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.
–February 25, 1912
Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don’t surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.
–February 25, 1912
Some advice from Kerouac
Jack Kerouac offered up 30 writing tips in something he called "Belief and Technique for Modern Prose."
Here are my favorite ten:
1. Scribbles secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Something that you feel will find its own form
3. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
4. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
5. Don't think of words when you stop but to see picture better
6. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
7. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
8. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
9. You're a Genius all the time
10. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
A Website for Heros
Most writers have heard of the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I just found a website called The Hero's Journey where you can learn more about writing stories using the hero’s path.
There is a Reference that guides you through the seventeen stages of the hero’s journey with a description of each stage, quotations from Campbell’s book, and questions to ask of your own hero.
There are general ideas on how to use the site, and a discussion board, as well as many stories (both classic and original) to use as examples. A fun exercise for those interested in the hero's journey.
There is a Reference that guides you through the seventeen stages of the hero’s journey with a description of each stage, quotations from Campbell’s book, and questions to ask of your own hero.
There are general ideas on how to use the site, and a discussion board, as well as many stories (both classic and original) to use as examples. A fun exercise for those interested in the hero's journey.
Fantasy in Literary Fiction
Literary fiction has looked down on genre fiction for, well, ever. You want the literary world to acknowledge your existence, you best remain in their bleb and write painfully realistic fiction. Anything fanciful will get you booted from the Great and Significant Minds Club.
(I used the word, "bleb," in the above paragraph in deference to any literary snobs that may be reading this. There’s nothing like the careful use of an obscure word to race the hearts of the bright, literary mob.)
Currently novels like The Time Traveler's Wife and The Lovely Bones are the trend in literary fiction. Both are wonderful books, but don’t you dare call them fantasy. No, no, these works demand respect and in the literary world, respect translates as a pompous title like, "fantastic literary fiction."
Repeat after them:
MUST. MAINTAIN. SEPARATION. FROM. LOW-CLASS. FANTASY. GENRE.
Bleh.
Here’s what Writer’s Digest had to say on the topic: Fantastic Fiction.
(I used the word, "bleb," in the above paragraph in deference to any literary snobs that may be reading this. There’s nothing like the careful use of an obscure word to race the hearts of the bright, literary mob.)
Currently novels like The Time Traveler's Wife and The Lovely Bones are the trend in literary fiction. Both are wonderful books, but don’t you dare call them fantasy. No, no, these works demand respect and in the literary world, respect translates as a pompous title like, "fantastic literary fiction."
Repeat after them:
MUST. MAINTAIN. SEPARATION. FROM. LOW-CLASS. FANTASY. GENRE.
Bleh.
Here’s what Writer’s Digest had to say on the topic: Fantastic Fiction.
Writer's Workshops
Looking for a writer's workshop? Well, you can google your little heart out and find next to nothing or you can go to The Guide to Writers Conferences & Workshops and find multiple workshops in your location lickity split. I love short cuts!
Character Templates
I wanted to write a helpful piece on character templates. I did write a helpful piece on character templates. I deleted the helpful piece I wrote on character templates. Character templates are not helpful, not to writing anyway, for editing, yes, very helpful, a helping hand, a leg up, however you want to cliché it, but only with editing. Leave them alone when writing. Leave all the "helpful" tools alone. They're crap. Not helpful. No, not at all.
Submission Information for Cemetery Dance Magazine
Cemetery Dance is an award-winning magazine. You can probably tell by the title that it caters to horror, dark mystery, and suspense. It is published bi-monthly.
For information on submitting a short story to Cemetery Dance, go to their Writer's Corner page.
For information on submitting a short story to Cemetery Dance, go to their Writer's Corner page.
Quote from "When All You Ever Wanted Isn't Enough"
Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it...What frustrates us and robs our lives of joy is this absence of meaning...Does our being alive matter?
-Harold Kushner, "When All You Ever Wanted Isn't Enough"
-Harold Kushner, "When All You Ever Wanted Isn't Enough"
Trust Your Voice
I sat in the coffee shop sipping a tall Chai tea and arguing with the veteran writers. I respected them, I came to them with questions, but I could not accept their advice on this topic. Plot, theme, grammar, dialogue, character development, point of view (POV) these were the tools I needed to master in order to make my novel work. Not Voice. No one cares about Voice.
"This isn't your story," Beth, our group leader, said. "It's the story you think you're supposed to write."
Kathy chimed in, "You've overanalyzed it, Marisha. You've become fixated on the tools you need to create your story and forgotten about the story itself."
They were wrong. I hadn't forgotten my story. I knew it inside and out. I had been over the plot a million times, used every character chart I could lay my hands on in order to make my characters more believable. I knew the theme, was confident in my choice of POV, and had practiced writing dialogue until I saw quotation marks in my sleep.
I left my weekly writer's group still shaking my head in disbelief, but when I got home and looked at my novel I felt the same dissatisfaction I had been feeling since I began it. I needed to master the craft. I had to wield my tools better in order to make my writing right.
I began editing my novel again, but somewhere in the trenches of the second chapter, I saw it or didn't see it. My voice was gone. I had killed it. My fear of failure had chased it away. I had held so hard to the belief that I had to change in order to write better that I had begun channeling someone else's voice.
I had leashed my characters, bullied my plot into the direction I thought it should go. I could no longer connect on an emotional level to the theme. Beth and Kathy were right. This wasn't my story. It was Marisha's monster, the reanimated corpse of a story that once lived.
I walked away from the computer, found a pen and paper, and began to write. Just write. No editing, no watching the story arc, no worrying over where the characters were taking me.
It flowed. No writer's block drove me to pull my hair out, no beating my head against the wall. I wrote without fear and my voice was strong. My characters were interesting and funny. They said and did the most fascinating things, took me to the most engaging places.
I am now in a place where I trust my voice (sometimes). Writing and editing must work together, but they should not live together. I had been using my writer's tools as a crutch. Now I could walk again, and soon I would be running through the worlds I brought to life by using my voice.
"This isn't your story," Beth, our group leader, said. "It's the story you think you're supposed to write."
Kathy chimed in, "You've overanalyzed it, Marisha. You've become fixated on the tools you need to create your story and forgotten about the story itself."
They were wrong. I hadn't forgotten my story. I knew it inside and out. I had been over the plot a million times, used every character chart I could lay my hands on in order to make my characters more believable. I knew the theme, was confident in my choice of POV, and had practiced writing dialogue until I saw quotation marks in my sleep.
I left my weekly writer's group still shaking my head in disbelief, but when I got home and looked at my novel I felt the same dissatisfaction I had been feeling since I began it. I needed to master the craft. I had to wield my tools better in order to make my writing right.
I began editing my novel again, but somewhere in the trenches of the second chapter, I saw it or didn't see it. My voice was gone. I had killed it. My fear of failure had chased it away. I had held so hard to the belief that I had to change in order to write better that I had begun channeling someone else's voice.
I had leashed my characters, bullied my plot into the direction I thought it should go. I could no longer connect on an emotional level to the theme. Beth and Kathy were right. This wasn't my story. It was Marisha's monster, the reanimated corpse of a story that once lived.
I walked away from the computer, found a pen and paper, and began to write. Just write. No editing, no watching the story arc, no worrying over where the characters were taking me.
It flowed. No writer's block drove me to pull my hair out, no beating my head against the wall. I wrote without fear and my voice was strong. My characters were interesting and funny. They said and did the most fascinating things, took me to the most engaging places.
I am now in a place where I trust my voice (sometimes). Writing and editing must work together, but they should not live together. I had been using my writer's tools as a crutch. Now I could walk again, and soon I would be running through the worlds I brought to life by using my voice.
Five Star Publishing
Five Star Publishing is a new company rumored to be approachable by unpublished authors. Their books are in the Western, Romance, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Fantasy genres. Worth a look.
Submission Guidelines
Submission Guidelines
WritersWeekly.com's 24-Hour Short Story Contest
Whim (from whimsplace.com) recently sent me an e-mail containing a link to the WritersWeekly.com's 24-Hour Short Story Contest page (here's the link).
I'm thinking of registering. It would be a fun challenge. It costs $5.00 to participate. They don't give you the guidelines until the 24-Hour period begins (topic prompt, word limit). Start time is July 28th, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) central time and there are cash prizes (hooray $$).
I'm thinking of registering. It would be a fun challenge. It costs $5.00 to participate. They don't give you the guidelines until the 24-Hour period begins (topic prompt, word limit). Start time is July 28th, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) central time and there are cash prizes (hooray $$).
Flash Fiction Contest
Whim's Place has quarterly Flash Fiction contests. The 2007 first quarter winners were just announced. First Place receives $250. Second Place receives $150. Third Place $100. There are five Honorable Mentions and they receive $50 each. Submission Guidelines. Go check it out!
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