25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing

Here's an interesting list to get your writing year started. Below is a sample.

5. Stop Hurrying

The rise of self-publishing has seen a comparative surge forward in quantity. As if we’re all rushing forward to squat out as huge a litter of squalling word-babies as our fragile penmonkey uteruses (uteri?) can handle. Stories are like wine; they need time. So take the time. This isn’t a hot dog eating contest. You’re not being judged on how much you write but rather, how well you do it. Sure, there’s a balance — you have to be generative, have to be swimming forward lest you sink like a stone and find remora fish mating inside your rectum. But generation and creativity should not come at the cost of quality. Give your stories and your career the time and patience it needs. Put differently: don’t have a freak out, man.

The rest of the list.

The Posse

Recently, I accepted the Flash Jab Challenge to write a story of no more than 750 words based on a photo (included after the story). I had no problem with the word limit. :)

http://flashjab.blogspot.com/

An Interview about Flash

A recent post at FlashFiction.net referred to an interview Randall Brown did with Chad Simpson regarding Chad’s experience as “selecting editor” for the Wigleaf Top 50 [very] short fictions of 2008. In addition to the Top 50, the interview discusses flash in general. It’s a worthwhile read for anyone interested in writing fiction (notice I didn’t say short fiction). Here are a couple highlights from Chad’s comments.

On what he learned:

“I discovered things about structure, and voice, and metaphor, and language, and conflict, and image, and humor, and sentiment, and drama, and just about everything else having to do with making stories.”

On the future flash fiction:

“I think the form will continue to evolve and that writers will continue to find new ways of telling [very] short stories...”

On using flash in his writing classes:

“. . .most of the stories we read--and most of the stories in the Wigleaf Top 50--are larger than their containers, so to speak.”


This is an excellent interview that offers advice applicable to every fiction writer.

January at Six Questions For. . .

Below is the schedule of posts for January at http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/.

1/03—Six Questions for Beth Thomas & Tara Laskowski, Editors, SmokeLong Quarterly
1/06—Six Questions for James Todd Adcox, Editor, Artifice Magazine
1/10—Six Questions for Casey Quinn, Publisher & Editor, Short Story Library
1/13—Six Questions for Judith M. Ivie, Publisher, Mainly Murder Press
1/17—Six Questions for Michael Kannengieser, Fiction Editor, The View From Here
1/20—Denise Bartlett, Chief Editor, Gypsy Shadow Publishing
1/24—Six Questions for Patty G. Henderson, Publisher, Black Car Publishing
1/27—Six Questions for Eva Barrows, Editor, Imitation Fruit Literary Journal
1/31—Six Questions for Michelle E. Crouch, Editor, APIARY


If you stop by, leave a comment for the editor/publisher. If you’re an editor or publisher and would like to participate, or know of a publisher who might be interested, please contact me at sixquestionsfor@gmail.com. Finally, please share this information with your subscribers, authors, Facebook and Twitter followers, and writing friends.

My Story at LITSNAK

I'm sharing this here, because I thought you might find HOW this story came about interesting,

I have a piece up at LITSNAK. It began life as a Flash Factory 5 to 50/55 prompt back in November. The prompt words were lavaliere, taffy, sordid, babushka, and wedge. The story I posted to the group was 55 words. I edited it quite a bit, including changing all the prompt words, but the idea for the story remained. So, I still give modertor Richard Osgood credit for planting the seed. :)

Something different happened on the way to the finalized version. Dan Tricarico (the editor) accepted my original submission but asked if I'd consider expanding it. He liked what I had but felt it a bit short, even for LITSNAK. So, I went to work. In keeping with the original intent of the prompt, I selected five words from the submitted story and wrote two additional sections using variations of the five words (wistful, mistake, scarf, wince, expression). The published version has three sections, the first 57 words, the second 67, and the third 77. The word counts just happened. They weren't planned. I'll let you decide if the result is one story in three parts, or three stories posted as one.

The Story

Today at Six Questions For. . .

Today's editor at Six Questions For is {drumroll}--ME!

October issue

The October issue of Apollo's Lyre is now online. Check it out!

http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/index.html

Also note the new, quarterly publication schedule.