Only a Little Scary

As you’ve probably figured out, I’ve been busy. I regularly think about posting here and sharing what’s going on but many times there’s just more of the same and who wants to read about that?

I’m always coming up with cool creative things for other people to do but very rarely try these ideas out myself. A few weeks ago, I decided that I would give flash fiction a shot. I’m still pushing a few other people to try it, too, but this time I didn’t wait for other folks to try it first. I dove in.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. I’ve never been a fiction writer – I enjoy essays or rants or your basic blog posts. I didn’t feel like I’d have enough creativity in my brain to come up with anything interesting. I did a little research on flash fiction – word count, basic philosophy, stuff like that – and then found a writing prompt website. After a few minutes of poking around, I got a phrase to include in the story and got busy. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I had fun. It also surprised me where my mind took me. I’ve discovered that I like writing dark stories. And that I love the challenge of staying within the 500 word limit. It’s tough being pushed to find the words that can get my vision across in the fewest words possible.

I’ve only written six stories so far and they’re not perfect but they’ve gone a long way to prove to myself that I should stop limiting myself because of what I think I can’t do. I tend to stay away from trying anything that I have a strong chance of failing at. Probably stems from low self-esteem and that sort of thing. These tiny stories have really helped me gain some confidence – even if TJ has only liked the first paragraph of one. She’s my toughest critic but she’ll help make me better. And when she says she likes something, I know she really does. She won’t just stroke my ego. She’s a hard, hard woman.

Anyway, I’ve been posting them at the Off Topic site but plan to cross-post them here.

Ok, that’s it for now. Have a great day!