Matthew Sharpe I recently spent about two years writing a lot of very short stories. I started by writing them accidentally and enjoyed it so much that I switched to writing them on purpose. I developed a few guidelines for myself: try to complete a draft in one sitting; don’t worry about not having a single idea in your head when you sit down to write, and also don’t worry about not knowing what will happen in the sentence after the one you’re writing, or even at the end of the sentence you’re writing; aim for the bottom…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Barbara Harroun – Susan Rukeyser’s debut novel Not On Fire Only Dying turns its perceptive gaze on those we so often want to ignore, or bestow our fragmented attention upon only when they make their way into the evening news report. The novel begins with just such a story. Lola, a woman with a history of mental health and addiction issues, claims her newborn baby was kidnapped while she drank alone at a dive bar. The only evidence of an infant is the empty baby stroller on the sidewalk. No one has seen the baby, whom Lola claims…
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This sentence, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway (although the link to him is said to be unsubstantiated) has been called ”a six word novel” or an extreme example of flash fiction. Your choice of prompts today: 1.Devise your own one-sentence story; or 2. Take “For sale: baby shoes, never worn” as the first sentence of your flash fiction of any length.
Freeing your Strangers We have trapped strangers in the backgrounds of our photographs. Perhaps we are the elderly couple taking a selfie in a derelict bandstand who catch by accident a large and red-faced woman jogging through the park behind. Or maybe we are the new father taking photos of his wife and baby son by the canal who inadvertently frames in the image’s upper right-hand corner a man who holds a naked doll by its plastic hand. Search through your photographs and write the story of a trapped stranger. Set that stranger free. Bunny Goodjohn’s latest novel, THE BEGINNING THINGS,…
“A prompt I was given once that spawned one of the most intense stories I’ve ever written is one where you limit a story to exactly 200 words, but you’re only allowed to use 50 different words within those 200. It’s challenging, but it can make for some amazingly creative uses of language. You’re allowed to change verb tenses within those 50 words, and pluralizing a word counts still as one word, but other than that, it’s 50 words and that’s it. So it’s a great exercise in how to effectively use repetition.” Ilana Masad Editor, The Other Stories ilanamasad.com…
Jennifer Jean Choose a card from the Tarot deck and write a story inspired by the card–feel free to look up the meaning of the card. Do not mention the title of the card, or Tarot, in your story. Jennifer Jean is a poet and the Poetry Editor of MER.www.fishwifetales.com
“Mash Stories www.mashstories.com, has a good system, where they take three words, and then require the participants of each contest to use those three words, exactly as they are, in a story that is 500 words or fewer (and in your case that could be 250 words or fewer). You can ask for random words and then pull them out of a hat or something similar before posting them, or use a random word generator (here’s one: http://www.textfixer.com/tools/random-words.php).” Ilana Masad ilanamasad.com | slightlyignorant.com |slightlyignorant.tumblr.com | @ilanaslightly So, based on Ilana’s suggestions here are… Word suggestions from #febflash— CATAPULT, FUNGIBLE, STRIKE Ilana Masad is…
Many writers are visually inspired. An evocative photo can be a great starting point to a story, especially when you are experiencing writer’s block. I’m a big fan of photographer Ashley Inguanta’s work. Spend some time examining this photo, and see where your muse takes you. While this is a flat image, consider the other senses: smells, textures, sound. Photo by Ashley Inguanta. Tara L. Masih is editor of the new annual series The Best Small Fictions, and editor of the bestselling Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction.wwwtaramasih.com
Victoria Redel- Writing Prompt 2 Collect overheard bits of conversation/dialogue during the course of the day. Choose three unrelated bits of dialogue and make use of them (either as dialogue or not) in a piece of flash fiction. Victoria Redel has published books of fiction (novel and short stories) and poetry. Her latest book of short stories, Make Me Do Things, from Four Way Books, is one of my favorites. For more info, visit www.victoriaredel.com.
Victoria Redel Take a title for your story that is an abstraction (e.g. Grief, Love, Bliss) and construct a story that seemingly has nothing to do with the abstraction but earns the title in a unexpected manner. Victoria Redel has published books of fiction (novel and short stories) and poetry. Her latest book of short stories, Make Me Do Things, from Four Way Books, is one of my favorites. For more info, visit www.victoriaredel.com.