In February 2023, I challenged myself to craft one piece of Flash a day. For the sake of defining what that means, I consider Flash to be anything between 800 and 1,000 words, and it could be fiction or non-fiction. What I learned was invaluable for my writer brain, and I broke two of the … Continue reading Write Flash to Cultivate Your Best Writing Process
Author: Chris
Before the First Draft
The problem, she said, with being a writer is, it's never done. The line never ceases movement even when the end arrives - The ripples created on the mind span an ocean so vast, so incomplete, There's no shore to find, no place to rest. The noise reverberates; The worst kind of one man band. … Continue reading Before the First Draft
Iris
28 days of Flash — 27 of 28 Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash Iris woke up on a floor. Not the concrete of the train station nor the unpleasant vibrating metal and rubber of the train, but a real floor. Varnished wood planks were under her and a thick red rug was just out of reach. She … Continue reading Iris
A Layoff Story
28 days of Flash — 26 of 28 Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash Mari was in the salad bar line at the grocery store at lunch when she felt her phone buzz with a new text message. She ignored it. Texts were for ignoring until you decided to pay attention to them. Mari didn’t want to pay … Continue reading A Layoff Story
One-Sided Conversation
28 days of Flash — 25 ot 28 — two different voice treatments of the same narrative — Method Writing Photo by eleni koureas on Unsplash Take 1: You — Straight Talk You are not going to believe what just happened to me. So we just got back from the big health fair I had to coordinate. Our … Continue reading One-Sided Conversation
No Boundaries
28 days of Flash — 24 of 28 — Part 1 — Boundaries Photo by Josep Castells on Unsplash Jayne sat in the front passenger seat of the RV and stewed. She couldn’t even look at Katie, right next to her, chomping on popcorn. Katie just kept pointing and reeling off names. “Look, there’s Gina the Prom Queen. Oh … Continue reading No Boundaries
Boundaries
28 days of Flash — 23 of 28 — Omniscient POV practice Photo by Fabian on Unsplash Katie turned her RV into the parking lot of the Stardust Convention Center an hour before the start of her 30th high school reunion. She parked in the back of the lot, out of the way but where she could see the … Continue reading Boundaries
Writing the World Alive: Earth
28 Days of Flash — 22 of 28 — Using the prompt for a title, I might have taken it a bit too literally. Photo by NASA on Unsplash 28 days of Flash — 22 of 28 Oh sure. It seems like it would be fantastic to be the fifth largest rock in the galaxy. At least I have … Continue reading Writing the World Alive: Earth
Getting Evan
28 days of Flash — 21 of 28 — Part 3 Read: Breaking Ben and Thea Beginning Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash When Evan looked at his phone, it was still showing “Do Not Disturb” and had five notifications silenced in the background. Two of them were sales texts, one was a missed phone call from his erstwhile trainer Drew, … Continue reading Getting Evan
Fitting In The World
28 days of flash — 20 of 28 Photo by Bruce Hong on Unsplash “She’s hard to get to know,” they say behind my back, and awkwardness extends from that reality like slips of ribbon that tie around my throat, disabling conversations and making me all the more aware of the impact I have on … Continue reading Fitting In The World