Tim Tomlinson WRITING PROMPT Kate Zambreno’s “Susan Sontag” occurs in the narrator’s mind. It begins, I like to think about what other people do when they’re alone. … Some people try never to be alone. I once read…
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Julia Strayer WRITING PROMPT I love writing to photos. They open new worlds and new possibilities. Google “Street Photography” and select the images tab. Choose the first photo that grabs your attention. Write the story. Don’t overthink; don’t think…
Ana C.H. Silva WRITING PROMPT What’s the first thing you remember eating as a child? Food name = Title Use as many of the 7 senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, smell, thoughts, and emotions) as possible to describe that moment. Example:…
Joan Silber WRITING PROMPT Ask three different people what’s the most dramatic thing that’s ever happened to them. Pick one to use as the basis of a story. This gets us to think about what “drama” is. We…
Nancy Stohlman WRITING TIP Bribing the Muse: On Your Mark, Get Set… Sometimes our stories fall flat, without that “pop” of tension. One great way to create urgency in a flash fiction story is by using another constraint: Time. For…
Dawn Raffel FLASH PROMPT Select an object in your home that has a personal history. It could be anything—a souvenir coffee mug, an old piece of furniture. Then use the object and the emotions it evokes to create a…
Peg Alford Pursell WRITING PROMPT From Dear Silence by Victoria Chang “When unrelated aunties and uncles came over for dinner parties, I envied the laughing as they Reunite wine, ate steaming fish and tofu. When they left, they took…
Jennifer Martelli WRITING PROMPT Listen: someone is crying in the other room. Who is it? Why are they crying? Are these tears of joy? Grief? What are tears, anyway? Are they trying not to cry? Is there something…
Sarah Herrington PROMPTS AND CRAFT TIP Craft Tip + Prompt: The Writer’s Altar “The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal…
David Ryan EXERCISE: FLASH AND TORQUE This might work best with an idea you’ve already had in mind—some single, relatively simple idea that seems strange and interesting in some way. It might be something that happened to you…