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Writing flash fiction

Anne J.Aside

It’s 02:30 in South Africa and I have just finished writing my 294 words for Cracked Flash Fiction. I started writing at about 17:00 yesterday. This is the longest it’s taken me to write 294 words. That’s almost 10 hours! And I don’t know if it’s any good.

Granted that there were other activities done in between and/or simultaneously such as eating pizza and doughnuts, glancing at the Lions’ rugby game, playing online casino, playing Pokémon Go, getting distracted by the TV, getting sidetracked by my little princesss, and more. I also had to research a bit about the Philippine mythical creature, diwata, also called encantada. It’s an enchantress or forest goddess, I suppose.

During this whole process of writing, I realized that I must be the only writer who writes with a lot of noise and distractions. Perhaps, this makes me a non-writer.

Back to my flash fiction, the story doesn’t have a single dialogue. I struggled… really struggled. In the end, I think it’s fine. It’s good enough for me or I wouldn’t have submitted it. The important thing is that I completed a story, managing to take it down to 294 words, and making the deadline with time to spare.

No doubt that I will most probably fail to wake up in time for the morning Easter Sunday mass but fortunately, we have an afternoon one.

Oh well, time to sleep. It is now 03:00.

Happy Easter to y’all!

Much love and hugs,

Anne

xxx

21 thoughts on “Writing flash fiction”

  2. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Not having dialogue is not that bad! Think of Virginia Woolf! Not much dialogue in a lot of places in “Mrs Dalloway”! As long as the voice is good/interesting, you can do as much “telling” as you want. He he

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    1. Ah, true. I need to learn to write good narrative. 😊
      I’ve seen from my own writing that I prefer writing on first person POV but I know I also have to challenge myself and write outside of my comfort zone so third person narrative, it is. 😄
      I actually love Mrs Dalloway. And of course the story of Virginia Woolf.
      Thank you so much my dear friend.

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      1. There is a great book on writing that I learned a ton from. I’ll find the title and post it here – ah! It is Alice LaPlante’s “The Making of a Story.” It’s maybe the best book I’ve ever found on how to write, do you know it? In this book she points out that the whole telling vs. showing thing is more of a spectrum, that is, authors blend showing and telling, it’s not always just showing. You can do a lot more “telling” with a voice that is unusual or very engaging. People read to hear what the voice is saying. You know? I think the prohibition against showing is more about avoiding the distance that comes when you haven’t anchored the reader either in the scene (setting/dialog) or with a captivating voice. 🙂

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      2. I’m embarrassed to say the last time I read a book on writing was in the early 2000s. At least I have Stephen King’s book to read now. I’ll check this one out as well. I don’t know if we’re as fortunate as you to have access to all these books. Sometimes, the shipping cost from Amazon to SA gets ridiculous it’s not worth ordering. I think hubby has a way where we can order as though local (US) – New York – and it gets shipped from there for much less. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge always. That’s why I say I’m always learning and it’s really great! 🙂 Hugs. xxx

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      3. I know what you mean about books. I have been getting many of mine out of the library – as for this one. Do you have access to a good lending library there? Hope so! If not, argh! 🙂

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    1. Thanks so much for the encouragement, Ronel. Yeah, at least I wrote. I almost gave up. And it’s okay even if my friend and business partner said the story IS familiar. This one lacks originality. Maybe, unconsciously, I wanted to write the familiar…?

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    1. Hello Beautiful Mermaid! Happy Easter! (Better late than never.) You’ve been away long. I’ve missed you, too. I hope you don’t have a boss who keeps you away. Much love and hugs. xxx

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