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Writers Get Ready - The Ultra Flashblast - Ready, Set, GO!

laureatePosted for Everyone to comment on, 5 years ago2 min read

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So this post marks the beginning of the Ultra Flashblast. If you're not familiar with what we're doing, here's a quick introduction.

Each day (or so) a new post will be put up. You then have 24 hours to write a very short piece of fiction. Then post it below as a reply. Guidelines are below.

It will be critiqued. @laureate will 'crit' everything. @vit and perhaps others might also critique it for you. This process will be open ended so if you want extra help with reworking something to make it better, that is possible and indeed encouraged. Ultimately, if you want to try to find a fiction market to buy a really good piece we can work on that too. N.B. Whilst everyone is encouraged to submit, those aiming to be able to sell their work as professionals in the future stand to gain the most from this Flashblast.

As an experiment I will be using 'Impact Feedback' as suggested by @vit. Here's a few pointers on the fundamentals. Feel free to give it a try as well.

  • Note which words or sentences you’ve experienced as full of energy, true, powerful.

  • Summarise what you’ve read: quickly recap what you see as the text’s main points; then summarise them into a single sentence and then, into a single word.

  • Describe the feelings and thoughts you’ve had like a story: what you felt or thought first, what next, and so on.

  • Use metaphors if it’s difficult for you to explain your perceptions directly: if the text were weather, what type of weather? What animal or plant? What color, geometric figure, landscape, musical instrument, etc.?

And there's one other thing. Length of piece and time of writing. We're going for shorter and faster this time. Aim for a maximum of 30 minutes total writing time. And don't make it too long. Hopefully this'll encourage even more entries, and don't be afraid to double up and write another if you're in the zone.

Lastly, as a gentle teaser, this exercise might even be a prelude to a more ambitious project which will be invitation only...

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