Flash Fiction Chronicles

by Karen Nelson

If you’re like me, April surprised you with a whole lot more than you expected.  Roller-coaster weather matched an equally hectic schedule, so I know you didn’t get to every FFC article.  Here’s the re-cap for April, and a quick guide to the great items you might have missed.

A special treat in April was the chance to meet the winners of the String-of-10 Contest, and read their inspiring flash fiction pieces.  If you missed these, take a minute (come on, it’s FLASH) and drool over the talent displayed here:

• First Place, Linda Wastila

• Second Place, Robert Vaughan

• Third Place, Folly Blaine

• Patricia McFarland Memorial Prize, Stephen Ramey

The Chapbook Series by Bonnie ZoBell is in full swing!  This month’s guests were Diana Arterian of Gold Line Press, and David McNamara and Brian Mihok of sunnyoutside.  Their insight into the publishing process will have you polished and shiny for your small press submissions.

Stephanie Freele shared her writing process with us, and just her conversation is lyrical…

Perhaps all of these influenced my writing: the dramatic storms, the friendly people, the eye-crackling winters, the stunning autumns, the mid-western accents, the lakes, the snow, the many solitary walks.

Jim Harrington played his favorite games with us, trying to stump us with characters and how we perceive them in What’s In a Name, and he helps us grow in 5 Tips for Submitting to Writing Contests (note to self: dark and stormy nights are no longer menacing).  And as an avid reader of books about writing, I appreciated his balanced perspective in Writing vs. “Writing”.

Every Day Fiction let us borrow their top author – Michelle Ann King – and if you don’t get some ideas from her, you aren’t trying hard enough.

Be sure to read the rest of her interview HERE.

Girija Tropp really sums up the month for me, though.  This Australian-based writer says simply,

“I write best when the sun is out.”

Have an amazing and productive May, and Happy Writing!

______________

Karen Nelson is the Technical Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles, and also works as Curriculum Coordinator for Goldminds Publishing.  Her writing can be found in numerous niche magazines and educational curriculum, as well as via her blog (kbnelson.wordpress.com).  She homeschools her two children at their Ozarks hobby farm, where they look forward to every day bringing fresh eggs and fresh ideas!

by Jim Harrington

Stephen Ramey‘s story, “Jump,” won the 2013 String-of-10 FIVE Patricia McFarland Memorial Prize for the story that best incorporated this year’s theme. The contest challenge was to use four out of ten prompt words in a 250 or fewer word story. Those words were: EVENING-QUARRY-ACCENT-ROSE-TEAR-MINUTE-GRAVE-CLOSE-ENTRANCE-BOW. An aphorism was provided for inspiration, but not necessarily to be used in the story. Here is the one for this contest: “I want to put a ding in the universe.” -Steve Job

 To find our more about the contest, go to the String-of-10 FIVE Guidelines. (http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/string-of-10-five-starts-feb-3/)

Now for:

 Jump

 fiction by Stephen V. Ramey

 Eric was the boldest of us, the brother who grew a beard, and taunted teachers to suspend him in the minute before the period bell. I was with him when he got his tattoo, a rose pushing from a grave, petals changing into fingers as they tore from the bloom. “It’s symbolic,” he said. “You wouldn’t understand.” Scabs marked his inner arm.

I thought of bee stings, the pustules that would follow. “Symbolic” was a word I had learned in school, how one picture might mean something else. A heart for love, a skull for death, a spiral for our DNA. I tried to speak, but the buzzing needle drowned me.

That evening he drove us to the limestone quarry. Cheryl made sandwiches, and we settled on the hood to watch the sunset. While shadow filled the excavation we talked about Mom and Dad, how they had lost track of who we were. How maybe we should re-introduce ourselves.

“Fuck that,” Eric said. “I want to make my own dent, don’t you?” He tossed his crust aside, hopped down, and ran full speed over the quarry’s edge. For a moment he hung there, legs pumping, and then he fell. I held my breath, waiting for the splat that would mean he had hit one of the imperfect blocks left to rot in green water.

A splash. My breath came free.

A year later Eric left us for the city, limestone buildings stacked up to the sky, and thorned with needles.

 _________________

 Interview with Stephen V. Ramey

by Jim Harrington

 Flash Fiction Chronicles: I like the way you set up this reader’s expectations with your description of Eric in the first sentence. I knew he was going to do something “different.” How important do you feel beginnings are to a story? Do yours go through many rewrites?

Stephen Ramey: Thanks, Jim. I take great pride in beginnings, and I think they’re crucial to drawing a reader into the story. The shorter the story, the more important they are. My typical process is to try out several opening lines/paragraphs before I actually launch into the story. I have to find something that interests me personally before I can really go on. Once I do find a beginning, I can trust the process. I often have no idea where the story will go, but the seeds of that ending are almost always planted when I commit to an opening. It’s at that point that I understand on some level that I’m undertaking a worthwhile journey.

FFC: Did you choose the prompt words prior to beginning the story, or did they evolve as part of the process?

SR: A little bit of both, actually. Several words evoked a setting for me. With that established in the back of my mind, I found a character who interested me, and then concentrated on creating story action and tension. I allowed the prompt words to guide some aspects of this process (e.g. the rose tattoo, which ended up being rather important), but was much more interested in creating a gripping scene than incorporating the actual words.

FFC: Your story won the Patricia McFarland Memorial Award for best use of the aphorism. Did you know how Eric was going to leave his mark before you began writing?

SR: I had absolutely no idea. As the story developed, I saw that it was obviously about family dynamics, and I hit upon the idea of family dysfunction described in terms of a formal relationship, how they “had lost track of who we were. How maybe we should re-introduce ourselves.” That intrigued me, but it also stalled me out. Where to go from there? Fortunately, Eric is ADD. He had no use for that thinking, and thrust himself into the narrative in a pretty unforgettable way. It was at that point that everything came together. I went back to add the drug thread as a way to tie the pieces together and provide more tension to release in the resolution. Once Eric started running toward that cliff, I saw that he was forcing me back on topic. He was reminding me of the prompt text. I guess I owe him a drink or a lap dance or something.

FFC: Do you enter contests often?

SR: Maybe one or two a year.

FFC: Do you find yourself drawn to particular themes or genre?

SR: I like to think I’m drawn to Science Fiction and Fantasy, but that’s not entirely accurate. What I’m drawn to, it seems, is the dark, quirky places in our human soul. I like Science Fiction because I care about our future, and Fantasy because I long to foster good and vanquish evil. In the end, though, it seems I’m always more interested in character than idea, how we dress our desires in Burqas, simple to outward appearance, but many-layered within.

FFC: Writing a 250 word story isn’t easy. What advice do you have for writers regarding short-shorts?

SR: Write lots of them. Cast out the ugly ones that merely squeal for attention. Keep the ones that give you that Mona Lisa smile.

FFC: What can we expect to read next from Stephen Ramey? What are you working on currently?

 SR:  I’m glad you asked. My first collection of (very) short fiction, Glass Animals, has just been published by Pure Slush books, and is garnering positive comments from the folks who have found and read it. If your readers would like to number among these enlightened few, please send them to http://pureslush.webs.com/store.htm#899065535. I’m writing a serial novel at JukePop Serials, a steampunkish tale of class tensions and masonic alchemy entitled The Golden Heart of the World (http://www.jukepopserials.com/home/read/259). I’m also working on the next Triangulation anthology, and the big honking fantasy novel I wrote with my wife over a ten year span is being marketed by our agent. And, of course, I’ll be writing weekly at Show Me Your Lits (http://www.showmeyourlits.com) and co-moderating the popular Write 1 Sub 1 site (http://www.write1sub1.com). Stop by and set a while, y’hear?

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/stephenramey

_______________________________________

Jim Harrington began writing fiction in 2007 and has agonized over the form ever since. His stories have appeared in Every Day Fiction, Liquid Imagination, Ink Sweat and Tears, Near to the Knuckle, Flashes in the Dark, and others.  He serves as the Interim Managing Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles (http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/).   Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog (http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/) provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.”  You can read more of his stories at http://jpharrington.blogspot.com.

by Jim Harrington

I’ve been thinking about the kinds of articles I’d like to see here and came up with the idea for a series called 5 Tips For____.  I know.  That sounds an awful lot like Six Questions For. . .
(http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/).  Anyway, I thought this post would be the perfect inaugural piece to give the idea a try.

 If a 5 Tips For___ topic comes to mind as you’re reading, write it up and send it to us.

(http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/about/)

We’re open for business!

With 210 entries, String-of-10 FIVE was our most successful contest yet. We received many wonderful submissions and a few that, quite honestly, left the judges shaking their heads.  I want to thank Gay Degani, Aliza Greenblatt, and, especially Kathy Fish for helping judge the contest.  Based on the stories submitted, here are my five tips for submitting to writing contests.

Tip #1: Follow the rules

With so many stories vying for four prizes, a writer can’t afford to make silly mistakes. The rules for the String-of-10 contest specifically state that a story must use a minimum of four prompt words and be no more than 250 words. 251 or more words disqualified a story.  A handful of entries fell into this category.  A second handful contained stories that used fewer than four prompt words.  These were also disqualified.  Yes, we counted.

Tip #2: Don’t write about the first thing that comes to mind

We ended up with a lot of stories set in graveyards and big stone pits.  Not that this hindered the writer.  The winning story for the Patricia McFarland Memorial Prize, “Jump” by Stephen V. Ramey, was partially set in a quarry.  Still, I got a little antsy after reading fifty stories set in a quarry on a dark, ominous night.

When writing for a contest, I often sit down with paper and pencil and create a list of story ideas.  Then I cross off the first four and start from there.  Why?  Probably everyone else who plans on entering has written a story based on one of those top four ideas.

Tip #3: Spelling and grammar count

I don’t look for problems with grammar and spelling when I read a story.  I don’t have to.  They jump off the page all by themselves.  There were a few stories that didn’t make it past the first cut simply because they were poorly crafted.  In at least one case, the story idea was good, but the grammar was atrocious. There’s no way writing like that is going to win a contest, especially when competing against 209 other entries.

Tip: #4: Dare to be different

I don’t mean write a story about space aliens (oh wait, we had a few of those), or send a poem to a prose contest (yep, we received one of them, too).  But think about other meanings for the prompt words. Grave has multiple connotations. Explore them. Pull out your dictionary and make a list of the definitions before you start. Set your story someplace not suggested by the prompt words.

Gay looked at word use in the entries. Here’s what she found.

The words used most often were “evening,” “rose,” and “minute,” at around 13% each. The rest were evenly distributed. I liked that someone used “evening” as a verb, in that a character was “evening” out the dirt around a grave in an OCD way.  With “rose,” the sun rose, people rose, characters were named Rose, and things were rose-hued or rose-tinted.  “Minute” was most often used as time, but was occasionally used to describe something small.  Though “quarry” wasn’t used quite as much as the other three, it was used with interesting variety: the “Ali-Quarry” fight set the tone for one story; it served as someone else’s last name; most often it became a noun, a pit where rocks were removed and as a verb, removing or retrieving something from somewhere larger. It was also used as prey, of course.

“Tip #5: Have another writer read your entry

Yes, you only had a week to write and submit a story.  That’s no excuse.  I’ve participated in a 24-hour contest a few times and was asked to join a critique group set up specifically for that
challenge.  Another set of eyes may see things in your story that you miss, things that may make the difference between winning (or at least making it past the first round) and sulking around the house because you didn’t.

Following these tips won’t guarantee you’ll win the next contest you enter, but they should help improve your chances.

We plan on running a String-of-10 SIX in February of 2014. We hope to read your stories then, too. Maybe we’ll hit 310 entries.  Oh gosh, did I really wish that on myself?  And rumor has it that our guest judge for 2014 will be the one and only Gay Degani.  But that’s our little secret. Shhh…

Beginning Monday, we will publish interviews with the winners of this year’s contest. Give them a read and leave a comment for the authors. We know they’ll appreciate it.

_____________________________

Jim Harrington began writing fiction in 2007 and has agonized over the form ever since. His stories have appeared in Every Day Fiction, Liquid Imagination, Ink Sweat and Tears, Near to the Knuckle, Flashes in the Dark, and others. He serves as the Interim Managing Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles (http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/). Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog (http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/) provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” You can read more of his stories at http://jpharrington.blogspot.com.

by Karen Nelson

Spring came in like a lion – at least at FFC – with lots of changes and exciting news!

We bid “bon voyage” to Editor Emeritus, Gay Degani, as she cruises on to spend more time with her writing (don’t worry, we’ll be seeing her in special cameo appearances to come), and we welcomed two new staff members:  Yours Truly as Technical Editor, and Andree Robinson-Neal as staff writer.

The big news for flash fiction fans was the announcement of the String-of-10 Contest winners!  Congratulations go out to Linda Simoni-Wastila, Robert Vaughan, Folly Blaine, Stephen Ramey, and the other finalists – with a huge thanks to Kathy Fish for guest judging!  The fifth installment of the competition saw more participants than ever, and the coming year promises to be an inspiring one.

Flash Fiction Chronicles has a way of getting people to talk, and we enjoyed getting to know the talents of industry writers, editors, and publishers.  Rohini Gupta advised us on The Best Way to Get Ideas (hint: do nothing), while  Matt Potter of Pure Slush shared his quirky themed anthologies.

Susan Tepper gave us insight on how her many jobs prior to studying writing have culminated in four novels.

In the 80’s I was singing with any band who’d have me.  I did rock, country, folk, pop, you name it.  Well, not blues.  I couldn’t get a handle on blues music though I love it intensely.  I think all the arts intertwine and are feeders for each other.  I loved singing with the bands.  I loved the smoky rooms, purply-blue lights, stage, audience, musicians.  The intensity of it all.  It’s a sexy thing, being the girl singer in a band.  Sometimes it got a bit dangerous, a fight would break out in the audience or some other weirdness.  I remember ducking behind a bar in Keansburg,New   Jersey, to wait out a bar brawl.   Many of those experiences appeared years later on the page when I turned to writing.  I suppose it was a way of re-living those wild times.   

Adam Robinson of Chapbook Genius reminded us that “Chapbooks are supposed to be FUN” and gave us some great examples of this medium.

Our own Jim Harrington brought us Back to Basics by attempting (once again) to Define the Undefinable.  What is flash fiction?  He shared an apt description from Randall Brown, that it is “a very tiny thing that doesn’t want to be anything else”. 

Looking for a press that fits your particular style?  J.A. Tyler of Mud Luscious Press shared their “Nephews” style of chapbooks that, well, you’d better click HERE to see for yourself…

Michael Salesses is all about Writing with Restraint.  His latest book I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying utilizes the best of flash fiction craft, which he relates to everything being important because the form is so concise.

Reading has everything to do with writing, and Creative Writing Mentor Abha Iyengar has lots of practical tips for jumping in (and a few for sending yourself long messages while traveling.  Check it out.  It’s worth it.)

Finally, everybody likes the idea of a book trailer, but only Mark Budman can show how it’s done.  Don’t miss his Key Points in this interactive article that will have you crafting your own commercials in no time!

I hope you enjoyed the month of March as much as I did, and found a little inspiration on the pages of Flash Fiction Chronicles.  Visit these authors and learn from fellow artists to continually hone your craft.

_____________________________

Karen Nelson is the Technical Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles, and also works as Curriculum Coordinator for Goldminds Publishing.  Her writing can be found in numerous niche magazines and educational curriculum, as well as via her blog (kbnelson.wordpress.com).  She homeschools her two children at their Ozarks hobby farm, where they look forward to every day bringing fresh eggs and fresh ideas!

by Jim Harrington 

Market added

• Anotherealm (1000, monthly) Speculative fiction – visit site, view guidelines

Flash Markets Page news

• Last week I mentioned a new format for our list as we move toward creating a search page. Well, we ran into a problem that will delay this for awhile, so I reverted back to the old-style page. The information is the same, including a mention of poetry if applicable, only the display has changed to protect. . .. Oh, wait. Wrong show.

New Resources page

• On the far right of our top line menu, you’ll see a new RESOURCES option. This is the list of items that used to be in the sidebar displayed in a (hopefully) more user-friendly way. Take a look and see if there are any resources you find helpful. If you’re aware of other resources that might be helpful to our readers, please share them with me (jpharrin@gmail.com). I would love to have a Resources Editor on staff. This position won’t require that much time and may involve little more than sharing resources you already know about. Interested? Send me a note.

______________________

Jim Harrington began writing fiction in 2007 and has agonized over the form ever since. His stories have appeared in Every Day Fiction, Liquid Imagination, Ink Sweat and Tears, Near to the Knuckle, Flashes in the Dark, and others. He serves as the Interim Managing Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles. Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” You can read more of his stories at http://jpharrington.blogspot.com.

 by Jim Harrington

 New Markets

• Static Movement (1000, monthly) Speculative fiction and poetry – View guidelines
• Postcard Poems & Prose (250, monthly) Open to most fiction and poetry – View guidelines
  
• Conium Review, The (1500, bi-annual) Literary fiction and poetry – View guidelines
  
• Funny Times ($, 700, monthly) Humor fiction – View guidelines
  
• Literary Juice (100-600, bi-monthly) Literary fiction and poetry – View guidelines
• Fireside Magazine ($, 1000, varies) Open to most fiction – View guidelines
  
• One Word (100, daily) Open to most fiction and poetry - View guidelines
• pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture (1500, bi-annual) Open to most fiction and poetry - View guidelines
• ARDOR Literary Magazine ($, 1500, triannual) Literary fiction and poetry - View guidelines

If you’ve visited the Markets page in the past few days, you’ve noticed a change in format. We are in the process of creating a search page for finding publications by word count, genre, etc., and this is the first step. While the word count headings no longer exist, the list is sorted by word count from lowest to highest.

View the complete listing.

______________________

Jim Harrington began writing fiction in 2007 and has agonized over the form ever since. His stories have appeared in Every Day Fiction, Liquid Imagination, Ink Sweat and Tears,  Near to the Knuckle, Flashes in the Dark, and others. He serves as the Interim Managing Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles. Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” You can read more of his stories at http://jpharrington.blogspot.com.

Please welcome Andreé Robinson-Neal to the FFC staff.
Andreé works as an administrative faculty member in higher education and writes for relaxation. Her first speculative fiction story won an honorable mention and was published in her hometown electric company newsletter; she wrote it while still in elementary school and has been hooked on the genre ever since. She has published a number of scholarly articles since 2006 and in 2009 earned her doctorate. She writes her creative pieces and flash fiction under the name AR Neal; visit her blog at www.starvingactivist.wordpress.com.

“I look forward to having the opportunity to flex my writing muscles outside the world of academia. FFC will keep me inspired to also focus on my speculative and flash fiction as well.”

___________________________________________

by Jim Harrington 

I am, but I’m getting better. First, I have a confession. It’s not my fault!!

In seventh grade, the school placed me in a remedial English class due to a scheduling conflict. Because I did so well, I was assigned to the advanced class in eighth grade. I reveled in that accomplishment for about three days. That’s how long it took me to realize I was way behind everyone else in the class. Too embarrassed to admit I didn’t know what the teacher was talking about, I slogged through as best I could.

I still struggle with certain aspects of grammar. Here are some steps I took that might help readers who, like me, hold up a wooden cross whenever the word grammar appears.

Buy a style book*

It doesn’t matter which one, and you’re not going to read it cover to cover. I use it as a reference. For a while, I questioned every aspect of grammar from where that comma should go to am I supposed to capitalize the names of the seasons. I still use it from time to time. However, I find the more I write, the better I get at spotting errors. 

Read for grammar, not for content

Pull a few novels off the shelf and read them for grammar and word usage, especially when looking at dialog. From a grammar standpoint, ask such questions as: Where is the punctuation placed prior to he said? If the dialog ends with a question mark, is the he capitalized? Does the question mark go inside or outside the quotation marks? Where do the quotation marks go when the dialog runs across two or more paragraphs? Why is there a comma in one sentence but not another? When looking at usage, ask why that word? To answer this, replace the word with something else to see how the flow and context change.

I need to add a caveat here. When choosing books for these exercises, select ones that were published a few years ago. Too many recent books suffer from a lack of editing. This is especially true of self-published books. Unfortunately, these authors fail to realize they are branding themselves as amateurs when they put a mistake-laden work on the market. Readers notice!

Follow online sites

There are sites online like Grammar Girl that provide insight into grammar issues. On this site, you can ask questions and sign up for a free newsletter.

Write shorter sentences

This may seem like silly advice, but I’ve read many submissions with grammar issues that could have been solved by, as John Gardner suggests, getting to the period sooner. There are times when using longer sentences helps set the tone, but incorrectly punctuated ones can create an unintended response in the reader.

Grammar counts! Many editors say they will forgive a few mistakes, but don’t usually say how many that is. Other editors simply pass on a work that doesn’t show a certain level of professionalism (i.e., poor grammar). Getting it right is important, whether it’s grammar, or plot, or overall storytelling ability. How the manuscript looks is just as important as what it has to say. Grammar errors and misspellings stick out. Don’t let your manuscript be the one the editor sets aside because of poor craftsmanship. Make it one of your writing goals for 2013 to improve your grammar skills, even if you think you know it all. How about a goal to learn one new grammar “rule” a month? Even the busiest writer should be able to accomplish that.

*Online style book links:  The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and  GrammarBook.Com by Jane Strauss.

______________________

Jim Harrington began writing fiction in 2007 and has agonized over the form ever since. He serves as the Flash Markets Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles. Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” You can read his stories at http://jpharrington.blogspot.com.

 by Gay Degani
Scroll down for Monthly Miscellany

Life is a crossword puzzle done in ink.No matter the effort, I still mess up.  Thank goodness, I am not alone in this human flaw.   I put in the “perfect” answer with confidence until I run out of squares.  Why didn’t I count before I brandished my pen?

So I apply White-Out. Now I can’t read the numbers on the grid.  I squint, I use my nail to scrape, dig in the basket on the breakfast table for the magnifying glass.  I look at the numbers around the “unreadable” number and deduce.  Oh yes it’s number 4 or 7 or 9, isn’t it? Why don’t I just take my time?  Make sure everything fits before I go for it?  Sometimes I just don’t.  I want to “go.”  The trick is once I decide to go and it doesn’t work, I have to “let go” and get on with it.

This is how I feel when I write, too, that organic unwieldy process. Get an idea and dive in, feet first, an adventure that could lead me just about anywhere.  Let’s go.  Bombs away.  Then I realize I’ve gone on a tangent.  I look around for the white out, but there isn’t any for this particular kind of puzzle.  What I’ve got in front of me is a mess that doesn’t make much sense.  I highlight those 1000 or so words and let my finger hover over the “Delete” key. But wait, I don’t tear up a crossword puzzle when I screw it up, do I?  I reread, rethink, reconstruct and review.  And that’s what needs to be done with the story too, but this is hard.

There are things I understand about the revision process after years of trying to learn to write well, but sometimes knowing something intellectually doesn’t always translate into using the tools you should.  I’ve written articles, here in fact, about questioning the text, asking yourself what does your character want, what stands in her way, what does she do about it, and how is it resolved. But sometimes I cannot see through the jumble of words on the page.  I can’t let go of what came out of my brain the first time.  But I need to.  This is important.  I need to.

I need to push away from myself and search through my own writing as if I were someone else. And when those “other” eyes reveal that “the story doesn’t work,” “the story doesn’t satisfy,” “the character takes no action,” “there is no change,” “there is no meaning,” then I need to let go of the piece as it is and be willing to challenge the story in whatever way that  joggles me into better understanding its structure, its characters, its emotion, its theme.

First, it’s hard because there are often many things I love about what I’ve just put on paper, a turn of phrase, a character who is funny, a scene that really seems to work, but taken as a whole?  It has no meaning.  Sometimes it is easy to get rid of the mess.  That’s why they put trash cans on your computer screen, right?  Second, it kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?  The story I just whizzed through?  My subconscious  is more creative and original than the left-brained me, isn’t it?  Third,  there’s so much fun in that initial rush of words, I just wanna do that again. But I can’t  let any of this stand in my way because the reality is first drafts aren’t perfect.  I have to let go of that idea–and the idea that writing could be easy.

I have to realize that my  mess-up isn’t a mess-up.  It’s a search.  It’s like filling in a word in a crossword puzzle that turns out to be wrong.  Do I leave the incorrect answer there because it “fits?”   It looks right?  Am I really too lazy to change it?  Does that help me to complete the puzzle or does it lead me astray? I know that I must let go of first words and first thoughts and use the tools of craft to help me work toward a piece of art.

String-of-10 FIVE is LIVE

For the week of February 3 through February 9, Flash Fiction Ch

ronicles is having its Fifth String-of-10 Contest—String-of-10 FIVE—for the best 250-word story written from a randomly selected string of ten words.  GUIDELINES

 STRING-OF-10 FIVE PROMPT:

EVENING-QUARRY-ACCENT-ROSE-TEAR-MINUTE-GRAVE-CLOSE-ENTRANCE-BOW 

I want to put a ding in the universe. –Steve Jobs 

STRING-OF-10 FIVE GUEST JUDGE: KATHY FISH

I am pleased to announce that this year’s Guest Judge will be Kathy Fish.  Kathy Fish’s short fiction has appeared in Indiana Review, The Denver Quarterly, New South, Quick Fiction, Guernica, Slice and elsewhere. She was the guest editor of Dzanc Books’ Best of the Web 2010. She is the author of three collections of stories: a chapbook of flash fiction in the chapbook collective, A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Short Fiction by Four Women, (Rose Metal Press, 2008),  Wild Life (Matter Press, 2011) and Together We Can Bury It, forthcoming from The Lit Pub.

Coming this month:

Flash Fiction Chronicles Series of Creating and Publishing Fiction Chapbooks From Bonnie ZoBell:

by Jim Harrington 

Recently, a few editors in their responses to my Six Questions For. . . have suggested writers not submit a story before it’s ready. Huh? What do they mean by that?

Sometimes it’s a matter of the piece being full of grammatical and spelling errors. Most editors are willing to overlook a few typos, but when a story is rife with them the editor is more likely to move on to the next submission. Their thinking? If you (the author) aren’t willing to put in the work to submit a clean story, why should they (the editor) be interested in your piece–especially if there are already enough worthy stories to include in the issue written by authors who have put in the effort?

There’s a lot of competition for the few openings most journals have in each issue. Submitting sloppy work puts a story on the fast track to being passed over, no matter who the author is or where they’ve been published before. If grammar isn’t your strong point (it’s still not mine), find a friend or writing buddy to help you.

The bigger issue is the story that is grammatically correct, but appears to lack focus. There may be characters the author is attracted to who serve no purpose in the story, or plot lines that either aren’t needed or that lead the story in a new direction that isn’t resolved. Or it could be a story where the author hasn’t provided the reader with all the information needed to fully understand what is going on. This often happens when the story is personal in nature. The author forgets that the reader isn’t privy to certain pieces of information the author knows intimately. So how does the writer find these problems?

Perhaps the best way is to take advantage of one of the best editors out there–time.

Unless you’re under a deadline, writing — or publishing– isn’t a race to put out a fire. That publication you really want to see one of your stories in isn’t going anywhere. And if it does fold, it wasn’t going to be worth your time to place a story there anyway. Stories (and poems and essays, etc) need time to develop. Yes, once in a while I’ve had a story come out as close to perfect as I can make it in the first draft (maybe it only needs three or four rewrites), but it doesn’t happen often. It’s more common that after letting the story sit for a few days, I realize it needs more development. It’s usually at this point that I ask myself two questions about the piece. Why is this story important to tell? and What has happened to the character that makes it necessary for her to act now? If I can’t honestly answer those questions, then the story isn’t ready to send out.

So give your story time to breathe before you submit it. Put it aside for at least three to four days, or more. The longer you wait the better. This creates a distance between you and the work, a distance that allows you to look at the piece with fresh eyes, the eyes of a reader. Another opportunity for a fresh read might be after the story has been rejected a few times. The advice I’ve seen many times is to resubmit a rejected piece the same day you receive a rejection. This is a good way to keep a piece active and to ease the author’s disappointment. But maybe the story is being rejected because there’s a flaw in it, especially if it’s been out there for six months or longer. Why not give it another read to see if anything pops out as being a potential problem that’s keeping the work from being accepted.

Writing isn’t a sprint. Emulate the tortoise, not the hare, when you write. As that old story implies, slow and steady wins the race.

______________________

Jim Harrington began writing fiction in 2007 and has agonized over the form ever since. He serves as the Flash Markets Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles. Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” You can read his stories at http://jpharrington.blogspot.com.