Throughout the last half of the month of August, I participated in an informal challenge given by my good buddy and boss at Splickety Publishing Group, Ben Wolf, to write one flash fiction story per day for the rest of the month.
I didn’t do exactly that. For one thing, I didn’t finish all of the stories (although I’m still working to make up the days I missed) and I didn’t always do one flash story. A few times I did a longer story and divided it between two days. I mentioned when I started how I enjoy having challenges and goals, because it helps me be more productive. So, while I didn’t achieve the goal to the letter, what I did achieve was a lot of writing and a lot to show for my efforts. Including the story I’m about halfway through working on, I now have 13 new short stories in a variety of genres.
Some of them are stories that fit into series I’ve started, including The Amulet Saga, some of which I’ve posted here in the past. I also have a couple new stories that fit into another series I started a long time ago that is as yet unseen by all but a few. Along with those, I have several independent stories. Most of them, I didn’t know where I was going when I started. I just sat down and started to write and made it up as I went along. A couple of them I had an idea for or a direction I was trying to head. I wrote some to fit in with upcoming Splickety/Havok themes, not because I’m necessarily going to have a story in those issues, but just to explore the concept and stretch myself a little.
One thing that was hard for me to write was romance. I love a good romance as much as the next girl, and I have romantic tension in my novels, but I’m not a romance writer, and especially trying to get a decent love connection in a thousand words is quite a challenge.
And, the one thing I have so far failed miserably at is a mystery. I keep trying to come up with a plot for a whodunnit or a detective story or anything along those lines, and I cannot come up with anything. I can’t even figure out a decent plot, let alone a way to realistically convey the arc in a thousand words.
I guess I can’t be good at everything. Romance and mystery are not my strong points. But, the speculative stories I wrote I’m very happy with, so all in all I think this was a good challenge and I’m very pleased with not only the volume but also the quality of stories I wrote during this challenge.
