It used to be that a short story wasn't very short. Take a look at a book of short stories by Poe, or Fitzgerald, or other classic short-story writers. Short? Hardly! But these days writers spare words and time spent reading by creating flash fiction stories that take about five minutes or less to read, and generally are about 1000 words or less. My favorite length for flash fiction is about 500 words, give or take a few hundred.
Here are my best flash fiction tips:
1. Choose a prompt or idea, and a main character, then start writing. What is your character doing? Where is your character? What is the character's motivation? Put all these together and you have the opening lines of your story.
2. Don't worry much about where the story is going. You probably won't know when you start writing. If you do - that's fine too. But don't let uncertainty about the plot stop you from doing the writing.
3. Accept that story writing involves magic. You will start your story not knowing the path or the outcome, but soon it all becomes clear and the story magically resolves itself, using you to record the details. Good work!
I love writing flash fiction, and do it often. Flash fiction writing is a great way to practice fiction writing skills.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Decluttering My WIP Collection
Just like last year at this time, I'm focused on decluttering my WIP collection. I read a tip on the SquidU forum. A lensmaster mentioned that she had a separate account only for storing WIP lenses because she didn't like seeing them cluttering up her main account.
A lightbulb turned on for me.
I hurried to Squidoo to create a new account. A WIP decluttering account. And it occurred to me I might use the same name as one of my lesser-known blogs, Declutter Diary.
Voila! A new Squidoo account was born! The Declutter Diary Squidoo account.
I transferred all my WIP lenses there from across four ($) !!!! other accounts. Yay, now I can see what my lensrank averages are. Finally!
But I couldn't resist making a few lenses for the new decluttering Squidoo account. Honestly. Couldn't. Help. It.
I love to write about decluttering. I could write about it all day long. This. Is. My. Life. LOL ...sorry to say...
One of the lenses was a WIP I had IN PROGRESS when I transferred all the WIPs... Top Ten Best Firewood Log Racks and Bins. A friend challenged me to create a "Best Firewood" lens many months ago on the Content Writers Forum. I try... but best firewood? Really? I know what's best around here because we heat our house with wood, but it was mind boggling to think of what might be best in other places around the world, so the lens was in WIP status for a long time. I hate when that happens!
So now it is done. I used it to feature firewood ORGANIZING racks and bins... kind of a keep-your-house-clean topic ... believe me, if you live in an area where the only heat is firewood in a woodstove, you would understand.
A lightbulb turned on for me.
I hurried to Squidoo to create a new account. A WIP decluttering account. And it occurred to me I might use the same name as one of my lesser-known blogs, Declutter Diary.
Voila! A new Squidoo account was born! The Declutter Diary Squidoo account.
I transferred all my WIP lenses there from across four ($) !!!! other accounts. Yay, now I can see what my lensrank averages are. Finally!
But I couldn't resist making a few lenses for the new decluttering Squidoo account. Honestly. Couldn't. Help. It.
I love to write about decluttering. I could write about it all day long. This. Is. My. Life. LOL ...sorry to say...
One of the lenses was a WIP I had IN PROGRESS when I transferred all the WIPs... Top Ten Best Firewood Log Racks and Bins. A friend challenged me to create a "Best Firewood" lens many months ago on the Content Writers Forum. I try... but best firewood? Really? I know what's best around here because we heat our house with wood, but it was mind boggling to think of what might be best in other places around the world, so the lens was in WIP status for a long time. I hate when that happens!
So now it is done. I used it to feature firewood ORGANIZING racks and bins... kind of a keep-your-house-clean topic ... believe me, if you live in an area where the only heat is firewood in a woodstove, you would understand.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Rushing to increase my lens-holdings
I've become re-enthused about Squidoo after taking a break from making new lenses for most of this year. I was slightly burned out and needed something new to do. . . so I worked on my personal websites and got that work organized, time-wise, and under control. Feels so much better that way!
Now I'm back to my lens building activities. Older, wiser, and hopefully better prepared to make successful and worthy lenses! In the past few days I've made eight of them. The first one to come to mind is about making homemade castile soap. My significant other, dear partner Bob, wanted me to find the instructions so we can make some. And what better to do when you're researching something than to put all the results on a Squidoo lens. Wow. Now I know so much about soapmaking - both bar soaps and liquid castile soap. The main different there is the type of lye used... and the process of course.
I have a separate Squidoo account for writing about the Baha'i Faith. I'm sort of an on-the-fence Baha'i. I thought I quit the Faith ten years ago but a few weeks back I got a phone call from a woman who told me I'm still officially a member. They didn't accept my resignation! So anyhow, I do love to write about Baha'i as I was an active member 30 years and now an inactive member another 11 years. I know a lot about this religion!! To say the least!! So a couple days ago I wrote a lens about the Baha'i Greatest Name - Allah-u-Abha - and what it means.
Awesome cool. IMO
Then today I woke up early and was inspired to write about morning prayers. In particiular, the Baha'i morning prayers from our prayerbook. Along the way I said some prayers and found some new Baha'i songs on YouTube videos. Anyhow, I plan to create a lot more Baha'i lenses because the only other person making lenses for the Baha'i area is a woman who has no roots in the faith, and she's making very off-topic lenses about Christmas and Valentines Day - both of which are not holidays Baha'is even celebrate. Eeek. So I need to represent Baha'i more on Squidoo since I am one.
Next. . . I made a lens for my Geniyyah Squidoo account which is more woo-woo type spirituality. This lens is just to define spirituality. I thought that getting my definition of spirituality right might help me along my spiritual path. Thing is, it seems like everyone defines spirituality differently, and I had fun watching a lot of videos of people trying to define spirituality. I posted those on the lens. My personal definition is that spirituality is best demonstrated via creativity. I'm sort of an "Artists Way" kind of spiritual believer.
Gosh, there's more!
The next to come to mind is my new lenses about Christmas. OMG I think I'll just leave this for another posting. This one is getting so long. I do wish that Blogger.Com had a wordcount meter on the new-post page. That would be so helpful. Well, more later!
Now I'm back to my lens building activities. Older, wiser, and hopefully better prepared to make successful and worthy lenses! In the past few days I've made eight of them. The first one to come to mind is about making homemade castile soap. My significant other, dear partner Bob, wanted me to find the instructions so we can make some. And what better to do when you're researching something than to put all the results on a Squidoo lens. Wow. Now I know so much about soapmaking - both bar soaps and liquid castile soap. The main different there is the type of lye used... and the process of course.
I have a separate Squidoo account for writing about the Baha'i Faith. I'm sort of an on-the-fence Baha'i. I thought I quit the Faith ten years ago but a few weeks back I got a phone call from a woman who told me I'm still officially a member. They didn't accept my resignation! So anyhow, I do love to write about Baha'i as I was an active member 30 years and now an inactive member another 11 years. I know a lot about this religion!! To say the least!! So a couple days ago I wrote a lens about the Baha'i Greatest Name - Allah-u-Abha - and what it means.
Awesome cool. IMO
Then today I woke up early and was inspired to write about morning prayers. In particiular, the Baha'i morning prayers from our prayerbook. Along the way I said some prayers and found some new Baha'i songs on YouTube videos. Anyhow, I plan to create a lot more Baha'i lenses because the only other person making lenses for the Baha'i area is a woman who has no roots in the faith, and she's making very off-topic lenses about Christmas and Valentines Day - both of which are not holidays Baha'is even celebrate. Eeek. So I need to represent Baha'i more on Squidoo since I am one.
Next. . . I made a lens for my Geniyyah Squidoo account which is more woo-woo type spirituality. This lens is just to define spirituality. I thought that getting my definition of spirituality right might help me along my spiritual path. Thing is, it seems like everyone defines spirituality differently, and I had fun watching a lot of videos of people trying to define spirituality. I posted those on the lens. My personal definition is that spirituality is best demonstrated via creativity. I'm sort of an "Artists Way" kind of spiritual believer.
Gosh, there's more!
The next to come to mind is my new lenses about Christmas. OMG I think I'll just leave this for another posting. This one is getting so long. I do wish that Blogger.Com had a wordcount meter on the new-post page. That would be so helpful. Well, more later!
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