For the first time, I competed in a Flash Fiction writing contest. Flash Fiction is not really my style, since I enjoy writing long novels of over 100K and working on long short stories of upwards of 5K or more. Still, I decided to challenge myself and see what happened.
A little background on the contest and the rules. The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction writing challenge takes place over 48 hours, starting a few minutes before Midnight on Friday night and finishing a few minutes before midnight on Sunday. Competitors are given a genre, a location and an object and must write a story under 1000 words.
Here’a what I’ve learned (from round one)
I really enjoy having a hard deadline.
For a long time, I’ve been under my own dedlines. I have been a procrastinator all my life and to have a deadline set by someone else (and 48 hours at that!) was quite refreshing. To have consequences if I didn’t follow through was a powerful motivator.
I’m learning more about craft than I thought I already knew.
When handed a genre I wasn’t familiar with, I had to do a little research and find what worked and didn’t work for me. I was given a genre I don’t usually write in, or write in exclusively and it was interesting to feel like a brand new writer again and release an few things.
Working on something complete new is rejuvenating
I’ve been working on the same novel series, and editing book one for what feels like forever. It was refreshing to take a step back and work on something completely new, and short and quick.
Handwriting is best for first drafts.
When I started writing, it was all on paper. I didn’t have a smart phone or even a computer. It was nice to return to my roots and get the messy first draft out on paper, then edit it on paper. A physical copy makes a big difference, feeling the letters form from your hand is a powerful feeling.
1000 words is a lot and a little when each and every one of them counts.
1000 words or less. When I first read that I thought “How the heck can anyone tell a full and complete story in 1000 words or less?!” As I started writing and trying things out, I realized a decent story can be told in 1000 or less if you plan each and every word to work harder and choose words that are powerful. In the end, I like where my first round piece ended up, but there was so much more I wanted to say, but couldn’t. I had to stick with what I knew to be the most powerful and pack the most punch in the approximately 980 words it ended up being.
The results are still pending for round one, but either way, I am proud of myself!