Last week I attended a writing critique group, which was great fun but also introduced me to a genre of writing I had yet to try – Flash Fiction.
For the uninitiated, Flash Fiction is simply very short form fiction (often 200 words or less). For last week’s writing challenge, we were encouraged to write a piece of 100 words, to begin with the following sentence:
In front of us, several heads were bowed in prayer, oblivious to our whispers.
Rather than going for a church or religious setting, as inferred by the prayer reference in the prompt, I decided to write something humorous to reflect on the almost God-like status given to technology gurus like Steve Jobs.
I really enjoyed the challenge of producing something so concise and I hope to post more Flash Fiction on a weekly basis. I would love your comments and feedback.
Here is this week’s piece – Blessed Are The Geeks – 100 words (not including prompt).
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In front of us, several heads were bowed in prayer, oblivious to our whispers.
Hushed incredulity from cynical journalists witnessing the latest product launch of Orange Industries. Surrounded by a gaggle of geeks murmuring the mission statement of the company they followed with such religious fervour.
Silence fell followed by gasps as on stage Oi boss, Dave Works produced a small object from his pocket. Someone fainted. Another screamed.
“We call it . . . the Oi Open!” said Dave.
I squinted at the beautifully designed but familiar-looking implement.
“Isn’t that just a tin-opener?” I called from the back.
Heads turned, scorn flowed and moments later I was frog-marched through the door marked ‘Non-Believers’.
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Have you tried Flash Fiction? What kind of writing prompts have you used? Why do you like short form fiction? Feel free to post your links in the comments section.
Love your take on that sentence – really enjoyed reading it. I keep meaning to try Flash Fiction as I like the idea of making my writing more succinct and using prompts to explore different themes and genres. I am at a bit of a loss of where to find good prompts though! As a reader, Flash Fiction is also great as it is something you can read when you have little time on your hands, and it always leaves me with lots of questions and imagining what happened before or will happen next.
Thanks for the kind words, Natalie. Yes, to be honest I wasn’t convinced that I would enjoy flash fiction, and really didn’t think that I would be able to put across any kind of narrative in such a small amount of words, but it was such good fun and really liberating.
With regards prompts, they really can be taken from anywhere – the challenge I have been working on for this week is to be based on a newspaper headline. You could also try turning to a random page in a magazine or book and choosing a sentence, or perhaps an interesting phrase from TV or radio? A friend of mine bought me a book that has over 600 prompts in it and I haven’t even tried that yet!
I am going to try to post one of these a week and you are more than welcome to use the same prompts and post a link to your work – I would love to see what you come up with too.
Sorry for the late reply but thanks for the tips for flash fiction. I need to get my head in gear and try some of them out. Love the sound of that book – I’d get obsessed with something like that!
I’m yet to even try any of the prompts, but will definitely get stuck in at some point. Here’s a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Things-Write-Francisco-Writers-Grotto/dp/1452105448/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1364333342&sr=8-3
Love it. As someone who tends to the verbose I am in awe of anyone who can write Flash Fiction!
Thanks a million. To be honest, I only tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and, like you, thought I would really struggle with it – but it’s such great fun and in a strange way, having limitations and prompts is liberating. You should give it a go, just for fun. Let me know how you get on.
I definitely will. At some point my daily novel will come to an end, so daily Flash Fiction for my post will be great. I’ll have to look up the prompt sources you mentioned and get some practice in.
In fact you should try Catherine Noble’s blog – her A to Z has a writing prompt theme – loads of great ideas! http://www.catherinenoble.com/2013/04/library.html
I will do, thanks!