Flash Fiction Month
The month of flash fiction writing began yesterday and already, many flash fiction stories have flooded deviantARt after the first day. It's amazing to see so many writers band together for a common goal. Challenging each other and themselves to write thirty-one stories under 1,000 words during the month of July. It is a great way to learn to write every day and an excellent challenge for any writer.
But therein lies the problem. It's a challenge; one that takes its toll on writers. Many deviants aren't used to writing every day, let alone focusing on thirty-one different stories rather than a single novel like in National Novel Writing Month.
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July 2nd - 31st
I write nearly every day and this is no easier for me than it is for anyone else. It's day two and already that sickening thought whispering, "Just give up. Go do something else. It isn't worth it." slipped into my mind and is trying to throw me off the path to victory. Yes, I could give up, but if I did that, what would I do instead?
Procrastinate on other projects?
Waste time doing absolutely nothing?
Flash fiction is a great way to summarize ideas. You have an idea floating around in the crevices of your mind - an idea that you want to turn into a novella, a novel, perhaps even a series. Use some of that idea by writing a short scene of it for Flash Fiction Month.
Not only does that give you a chance to work on the characters, but I find that writing something down, even if it's just a one-line summary, does wonders for remembering the full extent of the idea when you get around to writing it.
The opposite also proves true. You write something random, with random characters, a random setting and a random plot. On August 1st, you might go back to read your flash fiction pieces and then realize, "Hey, this is actually an interesting idea; I like it!"
From that point on, it'll develop further and before you know it, you'll have a novella, novel, or even series that you never would have written if random scribbles during July didn't happen. If you don't have the words, you'll never know what could have been.
Heck, this lovely July even gives you a chance to practice. You always write in third person, but this gives you a chance to let loose and try first person, even second person! Past tense? Hello, present tense! Fantasy? No, horror! Fiction? No, non-fiction!
The sky is the limit during Flash Fiction Month, cliché as that may sound.
We'll band together and together, we will overcome the urge to quit - to stop before the month is up. Today is day two.
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FFM 2012, July 2 - Exegesis"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." The lecturer quoted, barely glancing at the thick black Bible. "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
His students were still alert and awake – they had barely passed Genesis 1 after all. "Obviously, 'rested' here does not mean God was literally tired, for God does not tire. It merely meant he was finished, done, with his work of creating Heaven and Earth, and could now take a moment to consider it – the Hebrew word shâbath..."
Unfortunately, the lecturer did not have time to finish. The earthquake swept across the campus, uprooting trees and collapsing some of the smaller buildings outright.
The cracks in the ground grew ever larger, cutting the Holmes Memorial Building in half, before the shocked eyes of the students. And from the cracks streamed
If they can do it, so can we!
Let's support each other, and have fun writing!
Together, we will make it to August 1st!
