Liquid Wisdom and Flash Fiction

Posted by Jennifer B. at The Writing Cocoon. 

Jimmy Buffett said “There is a lot of wisdom in a bottle of whiskey.” I didn’t end up sipping wee drams of Scotch last night, but I did have a couple of glasses of wine while contemplating yesterday’s post. The wine told me that it really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you’re writing. Who am I to argue with Buffett or wine?

Anyway, I’ve been productive before noon, today. What a great feeling. I should try to recapture it - daily.

But, I have to back up, just a bit, before I tell you about today’s successes. Saturday, I finally started writing flash fiction. I visited AW’s Flash Fiction Challenge thread to find the daily prompt, and a few hours later, I had my first flash fiction piece of the challenge. Today I picked up the next prompt and had twelve-hundred words only an hour or so later.

Today's prompt reminded me of a scene I’ve got rolling around in my head for my next novel, and I thought it would be a good pre-writing exercise to write it as a flash fiction story. It was a really fast write, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not sure what POV I want to use in my new novel, so I let this be an opportunity to try out first person (I always write in third person limited).

At first blush, the scene seemed…perfect. I felt really pleased with the result. The scene came together so nicely, the characters sparked to life in their debut. I love them already.

But, that’s the problem with being the creator - it is sometimes too easy to become enamored with the creation. So, I forced myself to take a deep breath, drop the self-satisfied grin from my lips, and read more critically. It was difficult.

First off, I wrote a scene, not a complete story. Second, it is nearly twelve-hundred words, not my target of one-thousand. Third, the POV is all over the place - not surprising as I haven’t written fiction in first in recent memory. It is a great rough draft of a scene, but it is no flash fiction prize winner. Bummer. This is just as tricky as I imagined…and trickier.

I thought about revising and rewriting the scene, but I don’t think I will. It will be saved in a folder with my other pre-writing tasks for the novel, and I will move on to the next prompt.

It is very tempting to jump into these prompts with little or no preparation, after all, it is only one-thousand words. But, that is a bit of a lie. It is an entire story in one-thousand words. If anything, I need to plan more and tighten the structure till it sings when plucked. I need more control, not less. Next time I will use the plotting techniques I’ve been studying and map out the story in a diagram.

Now it is time for lunch, but what should I work on after? I missed Sunday’s prompt, so I may write another flash fiction piece. Of course, there is also the remainder of my pre-writing for the next novel. Something to contemplate over my curry.

Playing with flash fiction

Posted by Jennifer B. at The Writing Cocoon. 

Lesson learned. Writing a blog post is more easily accomplished if undertaken before writing of any other kind. I’ll try not to ramble, but my fingers are wobbly and my brain is fuzzy. Coming out of a good writing stretch feels like waking from a deep sleep, the kind induced by total physical exhaustion. I know I had an idea for a blog post, but it is all hazy now.

I’ve been writing today, not on my new novel, but flash fiction. I’ve been poking my browser around various flash fiction sites, forums, etc., and I’m hooked on the concept. The idea of writing an entire story in one sitting is very appealing. I like instant gratification as much as anyone else. Not to mention the benefits of learning economy of words, a lesson for which flash fiction promises to be a great teacher.

Two flash fiction sites, a blog here and a forum thread here, have given me lots of inspiration and plenty of prompts to get started. In fact, I’m trying to convince myself to join in the F3 blog and start posting a “Flash Fiction Friday” post every week. Just need to find the courage to start posting some writing samples. Might as well jump off one more cliff, since I’ve seemed to develop a taste for it lately, and put myself out there.

Sometimes I long to click that little red “x” in the corner of my screen, grab my now-cold cup of tea, and slither out the door of my office to find the TV remote. Ah yes, to get lost in mindless daytime TV, to waste more hours of my life hiding from the computer screen, it almost seems easier than continuing with this writing madness.

So, yeah, I’m a little nervous about posting my fiction writing samples. It took me six months from decision day to the first post on this blog; here’s hoping it takes considerably less time to get to the next step.

I'm all tapped out - catch y'all later.