A few years ago, I hit writer’s block. I was halfway through writing my first novel and I was stuck. I needed a side project, something to give my brain a break from my work-in-progress but keep me on track with my writing habits. This was when I discovered flash fiction. Flash fiction is an…
Tag: short stories
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Market: A Report from the Field
Three years ago, I decided to try Ray Bradbury’s challenge to new writers to write a story a week for a year. I’ve seen other people do it, although most of them were writing pretty short pieces. I averaged 3,595 words per story, with 186,937 words total by the time I finished. The challenge was…
Crafting a Killer Title
Since I’m between drafts on my novel-in-progress, I’ve been working on a lot of short stories lately. Besides honing my writing skills, the experience has given me new appreciation for an oft-overlooked element of the short story: the title. It may be the smallest part of the story, but the title gives the biggest first…
Rocky Mountain Writer #106
Saytchyn Maddux-Creech & Writing Short Stories Are you comfortable writing short stories? Have you thought about it, but don’t know how or where to begin? Well, Saytchyn Maddux-Creech is teaching a 15-day online class called, Write An Amazing Short Story in Two Weeks. The course is being offered online through RMFW-U beginning Dec. 2. On the…
Details, Details
Go find a copy of Lucia Berlin’s short story collection, A Manual for Cleaning Women. Find “Point of View” within. (Actually, okay, read the whole book or maybe one short story a week for as long as it takes. The title story is a masterpiece of humor and narration.) But “Point of View” is a…