Craft
“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…
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.…
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…
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…
Susan Tepper Prompt: Smoke billows thick and black from the chimney of the deserted house. Susan Tepper has been a writer for twenty years. Her sixth book, a fabulist linked-fiction, is set in 19th Century Russia and titled ‘dear Petrov.’
Rick Moody Write a story with no modifiers (I.e., no adjectives, no adverbs). Rick Moody is the award-winning author of twelve books of fiction and memoir, including The Ice Storm, The Black Veil, and Purple America. He…
Lore Segal I want to define habit as that which it is easier to keep doing than to not do. In my twenties I spent a summer with friends in Connecticut, a pain in everybody’s neck because I was never…
Mom Egg Review and Half-Shell Press Present February Flash Challenge #febflash Join us this month for the February Flash Challenge #febflash, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/febflash/) and Twitter (@themomegg #febflash. Participants set the goal of writing one piece of flash fiction…
The hardest thing I’ve ever done is be a single mother. It saps almost everything and takes the rest—your energy, time, creativity, hope, and . . . did I say energy? Parenting is hard work. Single parenting is hard work…