Writing Exercise: Flash Fiction from Photo

Primitive Tombstone in New Mexico, USA

From wikipedia.com:

Flash fiction is fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category. Some self-described markets for flash fiction impose caps as low as 300, while others consider stories as long as 1000 words to be flash fiction.

Other names for flash fiction include sudden fiction, microfiction, micro-story, postcard fiction, prosetry and short short story, though distinctions are sometimes drawn between some of these terms; for example, sometimes 1,000 words is considered the cut-off between "flash fiction" and the slightly longer "sudden fiction".

The term "flash fiction" may have originated from a 1992 anthology of that title. As the editors said in their introduction, their definition of a "flash fiction" was a story that would fit on two facing pages of a typical digest-sized literary magazine, or about 750 words.

EXERCISE:

Using 500 words or less tell readers a story with beginning, middle and end about how Baby Chatman died, the funeral, the people who made this crude tombstone, and who left the silk flowers.

Feel free to share your writing with us in the channel.

Write on!

The Management

Lilly's Poetic Challenge

Lilly is relocating and will be gone from #writer for approximately a week. She challenged us to write a poem in her absence using the following 22 words:

• cow
• cold
  
• Lily
• sad
• trees
• river
• pink
• chocolate
• bourbon
• sweet
• hot
• fingers
• miss
• leave
• home
• friend
• black
• love
• car
• happy
• moo
• dark
  

Feel free to share your results in the channel with us.

Write on!

The Management

Orhan Pamuk on Why I Write

“I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can’t do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake in real life only by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at all of you. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life’s beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but - just as in a dream - I can’t quite get there. I write to be happy.” ~Orhan Pamuk (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2006)

Write on!

The Management

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The Management

Freelance Writing . com

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The Management

Push by Sapphire

"Sure you can do anything when you talking or writing, it's not like living when you can only do what you doing. Some people tell a story 'n it don't make no sense or be true. But I'm gonna try to make sense and tell the truth, else what's the fucking use? Ain' enough lies and shit out there already?" ~ Push by Sapphire

The movie Precious is based on the book Push.

Write on!

The Management

A POEM THAT IS BULLSHIT : BY LYANNE WHEELER AKA _LILY_

This is a poem, that is full of pickles and bullshit.
I roar as I don't want to share this poem with wit.
but alas I must......even if my head is full of dust,
so pick up a pigeon and make it fly, this is the end....

GOODBYE!

Poem Challenge: Use These Five Words

Write a poem in the form of your choice using the following five words:

1. pickles
2. roar
3. dust
4. pigeon
5. bullshit

Thank you to R2dTodd and Antnz for the five words.

Feel free to share your work with us in the channel.

Write on!

The Management

From TheMOM's friend....a beautiful prayer....

God help me with Thy Grace and deny me none of Your Love

Help me not to be overpowered with my feelings, my pride…

Strike away the echoes of the voices deep within my heart that tell me I am unworthy, wrong or bad.

Heal my fragmented soul. Honor me with Thy Presence, so I may feel the warmth of Your Son.

Alter Thine direction of the Light so that it may get through the darkness, haze and confusion I find myself in.

Show me a Star that shines just for me, that will guide me to the completeness of Your Love.

God you have taught me through Your Love and Grace that I am a good person.

Convince me of that thought one more time, so I may place one more foot in front of another and believe in possibilities where the Sun Rises tomorrow.


Jeff Spatz, Christmas 1991

_Lily_'s Poem

Found on _Lily_'s Facebook:

I met you last week in #writer a channel for us writers,

You seem so lovely and you are sweet too....

When you talk to everyone and make people feel relaxed,

I know that others think lovely thoughts of you.

I thank you for taking me into your family on irc,

and now I have you also to talk to on here,

just want to show that with your openess to me

and others, I will always feel welcome there.

Now that I am the first to write a poem on here,

I set the challenge to each and everyone of you,

Write a poem for this beautiful and loving friend,

A poem that lasts forever and just for BLUE....!

Thank you! And keep poeming!

Write on!

The Management

SliM_sHadY Raps

Found on SliM_sHadY's Facebook:

They call her BlueDaisy,from what I see,
she drops rhymes better than JayZ.
She's never lazy,always finds the time to be crazy..
Cheers us up,like she sips beer in everyone's cup..
we're just chillin',yeah we're just killin',dealin'..
Writers they call us,but there aint a lot of fuss,
dont front with us,or you'll end up hit by a bus.....

Keep rappin' SliM_sHadY!

Write on!

The Management

Writing Exercise: Memorial Day

From Wikipedia:

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 31 in 2010). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War – it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War – it was extended after World War I to honor Americans who have died in all wars.

Write a poem, short story, flash memoir or song (yes, it can even be rap) using the following five words suggested by Slim Shady:

• war
• soldiers
• pain
• suffer
• mourn

Thanks Slim Shady.

Feel free to share your work with us in the channel.

Write on!

The Management

Poem Challenge: Use These Five Words

Here's a Poem Challenge created by lilly aka EvilVixen and bluedaisy:

Write a poem using these five words:

• fire
• lake
• cow
• blue
• tear

You can use "tear" as in cry or rip. Poet's choice.

Using "cow" was lilly aka EvilVixen's idea.

<@EvilVixen> I have a fetish for cows
<@EvilVixen> I collect them
<@bluedaisy> a real fetish?
<@bluedaisy> furry fetish?
<@EvilVixen> no a collect cows fetish
<@EvilVixen> I have cow everything just about
<@bluedaisy> ah ok

Yea, sure. :)

Feel free to share your poem in the channel with us.

Write on!

The Management

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

From Wikipedia:

Towel Day is celebrated every 25 May as a tribute of fans of the late author Douglas Adams. On this day, fans carry a towel with them to demonstrate their love for the books and the author, as referenced in Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Write on!

The Management

photo credit: XtrHotMarSpy
Inside this painting are several characters and strange animals. What is the peacock doing on top of the boy in the tree? What is the meditative lady in the red sari thinking about? What do the four owls across the barred windows symbolize? What book is the girl under the tree reading? Why is a baby monkey wearing a t-shirt and a diaper?

Look inside the photograph and see how many story ideas you can find. (You can view a larger version of the photograph here.)

Select one, and write at least 500 words in the genre or sub-genre of your choice.

You are welcome to share your work in the channel with us.

Write on!

The Management.