Pick a color that appeals to you from the color wheel, or a box of crayons, or the Pantone color web site. Set a timer or stopwatch for one minute and brainstorm all the words and images that the color suggests to you. For example: blue = ocean, sky, blue note, having the blues, etc.
Next, pick a color that is the opposite of your original color. Set the timer again, and brainstorm all the words and images that come to you with that color. For example, yellow = sunshine, daffodils, banana, mellow yellow, etc.
Finally, set your timer for 10 minutes and write a short prose piece or poem that incorporates at least 3 words or images from each color prompt. If 10 minutes isn’t enough, keep going!
This week’s prompt: write a flash fiction (or nonfiction) story, or a poem, using pairs of opposite concepts, such as light/dark, sun/moon, sleep/wake, summer/winter, etc. You can brainstorm some specific opposites first, then use either the actual words or images that suggest them in your work.
I liked that we could craft whole conversations around lines from 1940s crime films. Or country songs. I liked that we could change the rules at any moment and not have to explain.
How are all of you doing out there? Are you writing? I know I’ve been having a hard time focusing, tuning out the rest of the world to get into that state of creative flow. Living through a pandemic can do that to you!
I miss my writing group. I miss the days when writing about dystopian futures meant writing fantasy. But I’m still going to keep up posting a new writing prompt every Monday. Some will be words, some will be pictures, and some will be specific writing challenges.
No deadline, no pressure. Use these on your own, however you like. I hope they provide some inspiration!
This week’s prompt: Write a short prose piece OR a poem that begins with a line (or fragment of a line) from a song lyric. Also incorporate the following: – A word having to do with rain (could be rain, rainy, storm, cloud, etc.) – A day of the week – A type of fabric
These are interesting times we live in. As a pandemic virus spreads across the world, many of us are practicing social distancing and staying home. We’re doing the right thing, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be boring, anxiety-producing, and frustrating at times.
Maybe writing can help. Starting now, I’m going to be posting a new writing prompt every Monday. Some will be words, some will be pictures, and some will be specific writing challenges.
No deadline, no pressure. Use these on your own, however you like. I hope they provide some inspiration!
Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash
Prompt #1
The Four-Year Itch (A/K/A the Leap Year Prompt)
Write a flash fiction story in four parts. Each section must have exactly four sentences. In addition, each section must follow the same character or characters, but take place four years apart.
Take aim at the Spider’s Web Flash Fiction Prize. Send your best, 750 or less.
The 2020 Spider’s Web Flash Fiction Prize Is Looking for Your Best Work
Do you have a flash fiction piece, 750 words or fewer, featuring a complex, female-oriented protagonist? The sixth annual Spider’s Web Flash Fiction Prize, sponsored by Spider Road Press, a woman-owned small press, is accepting entries through April 1, 2020.
I’ll be judging alongside writer Jae Mazer, and we want to read short stories that dazzle and sing. Stories with a female lead who is strong, or learns to be strong. She doesn’t have to ride dragons, fight crime, or single-handedly dismantle the patriarchy (although if you have a good story about someone who does that, power to you.) Maybe your heroine shines because of her inner strength, quiet endurance, or courage of conviction.
First prize: $300 plus online publication. Four honorable mentions receive $15 plus publication. Entry fee: $10. Full details and link to enter on the Spider Road Press website.
In cooking, it would be the equivalent of making a reduction sauce, paring down each tale to its essence, giving it time to simmer, until you have an explosion of taste in just a tiny amount that lingers on the tongue leaving you wanting for more.
– Jayne Martin on flash
For the next four weeks, starting Tuesday, January 21, I’m teaching a flash fiction workshop through the IWWG (International Women’s Writing Guild). We’ll be meeting for 90 minutes, 7-8:30 p.m., to read, discuss, and–of course!–write flash fiction. If you’d like to join, register here. I look forward to writing with you!
I am over the moon excited to have not one, not two, but three stories selected for the 2020 Best Microfiction anthology!
The stories chosen are: “Warsaw Circus” (Milk Candy Review) “Historic Preservation” (Cabinet of Heed) “Why I Got Written Up by the Manager at Uncle Earl’s World Famous Bar-B-Q” (100 Word Story)
Thank you to the series editors for selecting my work and to the editors of Milk Candy Review, Cabinet of Heed, and 100 Word Story for publishing these pieces!
I have two new award nominations to add! Both are for the same story–my shortest this year, and one of my favorites: “Why I Got Written Up by the Manager at Uncle Earl’s World-Famous Bar-B-Q,” published in the wonderful 100 Word Story.
I’m so excited to learn that the editors of 100 Word Story nominated this piece for both Best Microfiction 2020 (U.K.) and Best Small Fictions 2020(U.S.)! Sometimes stories just come to life fully formed, like happy little gifts, and this was one of them. “Why I Got Written Up …” was born during a Flashathon (marathon writing session), inspired by words from a restaurant menu. I had the chance to perform it at a Writefest open mic in May 2019 in Houston. It was such a fun piece to write and to read!
Workshops Taken
I had a busy writing year in 2019, with two Flashathon writing challenges, a Fast Flash workshop with Kathy Fish, and two flash workshops with Meg Pokrass. I challenged myself with a Novella-in-Flash workshop, trying a new form and writing several connected flash pieces. I’m still working on the stories that grew out of this workshop, a post-apocalyptic tale of twin sisters, and hope to continue this project in 2020.
Workshops Taught
In 2019, I taught two workshops, one far afield and one close to home. I spent a week in Houston, Texas, teaching a daily flash fiction class for Writespace as a lead-up to the Writefest conference. It was an intense and really productive experience, and I am still working with Writespace as a consulting editor. Back in Rhode Island, I was honored to facilitate a Veterans Writing Workshop alongside reference librarian Jane Granatino of the Barrington Public Library, who started the program after attending a library conference about veterans’ writing groups. We’ve been working with a small but talented group of veterans who are writing stories about their own military experiences as well as those of family members. That group will continue in 2020, and it’s open to all veterans.
What’s Next?
I’m awaiting the publication of two slightly longer stories, “What the Selkies Know” (forthcoming in Atlas and Alice) and “In the Time of Climate Change” (forthcoming in X-R-A-Y) and a new micro, “Halo,” forthcoming in MacQueen’s Quinterly. I’m getting ready to teach an online flash workshop for the International Women’s Writing Guild starting January 21, 2020. And I’m already looking forward to my next “working vacation”–teaching a summer flash fiction workshop on Cape Cod at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill!
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