I've been completing Chuck Wendig's flash fiction challenges--not entering them, mind you, but doing the work--and I'm finding it easier to write short fiction!
Not too long ago I wrote about how I seemed constitutionally unable to write a story of less than 5,000 words.
Well.
A month or so ago I wrote a story of 997 words for one of Chuck's challenges. I was over-the-moon happy that I'd been able to write a complete story using so few words but didn't think much about it since the market for flash fiction is likely just marginally larger than the one for poetry. What I really wanted was to write a story in the 2,000 word range.
Then, a few days later, I wrote another short story, one of my own that I just plucked out of the air, and it was 1,800 words!
I danced, I sang, I called friends. It was great! (The feeling that is. I think the story is fabulous too, but I could be biased. ;)
So that little story of personal achievement is my way of encouraging anyone who is on the fence to get off and get writing! Practice may not make your writing perfect (I ask you, who is a perfect writer? Is that even possible?) but it can make you a darn sight better.
Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: Smashing Sub-Genres
Here's the Challenge:
Below is a list of 20 subgenres.Remember, post the link to your story on Chuck's website, here: Flash Fiction Challenge: Smashing Sub-Genres.
I want you to roll a d20 twice — or click a random number generator twice between 1 and 20 — and that will give you two subgenres. (Sure, you can choose them instead, but that means YOU HATE FUN.)
Smash those two subgenres into one story.
Write that story. Around 1000 words. Post at your online space. Link back here through the comments. Due by next Friday, May 17th, at noon EST.
Here’s the list of subgenres.
Men’s Adventure
Splatterpunk
Fairy Tale
New Weird
Space Opera
Southern Gothic
BDSM Erotica
Superhero
Sword & Sorcery
Noir
Dystopia
Sci-Fi Humor or Satire
Lovecraftian
Haunted House
Cyberpunk
Steampunk
Detective
Post-Apocalyptic
Weird West
Technothriller
Have you ever completed one of Chuck Wendig's flash fiction challenges? Did it help your short form writing?
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Photo credit: "St Michael, The Archangel Chapel - Rookwood Necropolis" by Luke Peterson Photography under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
