I’ve been pondering on flash fiction. This month I’m writing some every day. Here are a few thoughts about the process:
– It’s a useful exercise to use a prompt just to get the creative brain firing. Simply setting words down.
– A strict word limit can produce unexpected juxapositions. As in this micro I wrote this morning using Meg Sefton‘s prompt crisp for 50 word fiction:
First frost and the white ground is calling to me to imprint it. I run alongside tracks of mice and vole, earlier risers. Breath of dogs fogs the air, the shouts of their people boom and retreat. The colours of this time of day are muted, waiting for sun stroking.
I don’t think I would have come up with ‘sun stroking’ if it hadn’t been for the constraint of the work limit.
– Collaging the fragments which float out from my brain in response to different prompts may show up connections.
-At this stage this is all raw material, which I will return to later, to cut, shape and stitch into finished stories.
And here’s a picture, which could also be a writing prompt…..
Coming next: Guest post
Cath Barton 