Top 10 Reasons (Not?) to Be a Writer
Photo © 2008 Ed Yourdon CC BY-SA 2.0
Alan Baxter posted this list last week, and it’s still making the rounds.
“And before anyone accuses me,” Alan writes, “of being all jaded and defeatist, I prefer to look at it as arming myself with the truth in order to beat that f***er down and prove every point on this list wrong.”
He’s talking about superstar authors, who “prove every single one of these points wrong.” They’re the exceptions that prove the rule.
Or are they?
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#FridayFlash Favorites (for August 6)
Photo © 2008 Emanuele Rosso CC 2.0 BY NC ND
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On August 6, I posted a story about a date gone bad.
Of the rest of the stories that were posted Friday, here are my…
#FridayFlash Favorites for August 6
I found an even 100 stories (including the 80 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for August 6). Of those, here are my 8 favorites, listed with my 3 favorite authors first. (That is, the #FridayFlash authors who have most often appeared in these favorites lists.)
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#FridayFlash Favorites (for July 30)
Photo © 2007 dasroofless CC 2.0 BY NC ND
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 30, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because I was still recovering from my life blowing apart (although I did start on a story). Most of my time and mental energy has been taken up with a new software contract I’m on. But I’m hoping to do some serious writing in August.
#FridayFlash Favorites for July 30
There were 111 stories (including the 85 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 30). Of all those, here are my 7 favorites, listed in no particular order.
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#FridayFlash Favorites (for July 23)
Photo © 2006 David M* CC 2.0 BY NC
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 23, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because I was still recovering from my life blowing apart. (I also didn’t post anything today, although I did start on a story.) Most of my time and mental energy has been taken up with a new software contract I’m on. But now that I’m on the ground running on the project, I should have some brain cells free to do some serious writing over the next month.
More immediately, today I sent in my first invoice, and I gotta tell ya, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that many digits after the dollar sign (except on my credit-card bill). As a thank-you to God and the universe, I’m planning an Internet-wide Monster Book Give-away next month, hundreds of copies of my short memoir Love through the Eyes of an Idiot and From the Ashes of Courage, the first Ardor Point novel. The give-away is still in the initial planning stages, but if you have a blog and you’d like to give away a copy of one of these books, please contact me and let me know, and I’ll add you to the list.
With no further ado: of the #FridayFlash stories that were posted, here are my…
#FridayFlash Favorites for July 23
There were 103 stories (including the 82 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 23). Of all those, here are my 8 favorites, listed in no particular order.
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#FridayFlash Favorites (for July 16)
Photo © 2009 helix90 CC 2.0 BY NC ND
This is the second post in my getting-caught-up for #FridayFlash Favorites.
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 16, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because my life was in the midst of blowing apart.
Of the #FridayFlash stories that were posted, here are my…
#FridayFlash Favorites for July 16
There were more stories posted on July 16 than on most weeks, 112 stories (including the 88 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 16). Of all those, here are my 8 favorites, listed in no particular order.
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#FridayFlash Favorites (for July 9)
Photo © 2006 Brent Danley CC 2.0 BY NC SA
I missed a couple weeks, because my life exploded. So I’m trying to get back on track, and I’m starting with a #FridayFlash week: 3 posts for the three #FridayFlash Favorites I have due.
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 9, I posted a zombie love story, for the Zombie Luv Flash Fic contest. I wasn’t going to write a story for this contest. But then I was inspired, because I figured out what zombies need—deep down in that soulless psyche—that could make love meaningful for them. And then I was really inspired by something someone said to me, resulting in this story.
On the topic of the Zombie Luv Flash Fic contest—a quick aside—here are my favorite 3 zombie luv stories.
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#FridayFlash Favorites (for July 2—last week)
Photo © 2007 John Kratz CC 2.0 BY NC SA
Yeah, I was supposed to post this three days ago. If you want to read some of the sordid details of why I’m so behind, you can do so over on my personal blog. Posting is likely to be irregular, unfortunately, over the summer, as I’ve taken a software-development contract, because it’ll be nice to have some significant money saved. Even so, I’m still writing, as regularly as I can, and hopefully this week was an anomaly because of the holiday and the personal disruption that threw my life into a tizzy.
Still, better late than never.
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. This week, I posted an old character sketch from about 6 years ago, Abigail White, inspired by a news story I heard on the radio.
Of the rest of the stories that were posted last Friday, here are my…
#FridayFlash Favorites for July 2
Either there are a lot more stories that meet my overly opinionated standards, or else I’m getting soft. (Probably the latter.) Of 110 stories posted last Friday (including the 89 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 2), here are my 17 favorites, listed in no particular order.
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Flash Fiction Turn-ons and Turn-offs (part 2)
Yesterday, I began with part one, the first 3 turn-ons and 5 turn-offs. In this part, I finish with the final 4 turn-ons and 12 turn-offs.
(Sounds like I’m designing a freeway, doesn’t it?)
I briefly want to reiterate one small point from the introduction (just in case you didn’t read it or don’t remember it from part one). My opinions are just that: opinions. The more experience I gain as a writer and author, the more I realize that there’s no right or wrong when it comes to creative expression. There’s only what you like (or dislike) and what you like (or dislike) about it. Therefore, especially if I linked to your story to exemplify one of my dislikes, if you think I’m full of BS… well, you’re probably right.
(Also remember that I wrote this on Wednesday and Thursday, even though it’s posted on Friday. The #FlashFriday stories I link to are from last week.)
While I listed the first 3 turn-ons in order of importance, the last 4 I consider about as important as each other. These are more like pet peeves, but serious enough to keep me from favoriting your story.
The first of these is…
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7 Flash-Fiction Turn-Ons (and 17 Turn-Offs)
Photo © 2009 sylvar CC 2.0 BY
PJ Kaiser suggested—probably because I’ve been doing weekly “#FridayFlash Favorites” posts—that I write about what catches my attention in a flash story, and what turns me off.
I thought that was a pretty kewl idea, and I further decided to link to last week’s #FridayFlash stories (because they’re still fresh in my mind) in order to demonstrate each point. As it turns out, this post has grown long enough to span over two days. So I’ll go through the first 3 turn-ons (and 5 turn-offs) today, and finish up tomorrow.
(Maybe I’ll post another follow up next week, the short version, just a checklist without the explanation. That’ll be far fewer words, but you’ll probably need to read the long version to understand what I’m talking about.)
Having sifted through about 100 stories a week since I started these posts, I’m probably qualified at least to venture an opinion. On top of that, I (usually) know what I like, and (usually) know how to write what I like—which also comes with experience—so I know why I like it.
Even so, my opinions are just that: opinions. The more experience I gain as a writer and author, the more I realize that there’s no right or wrong when it comes to creative expression. (Us indie authors, that’s our rightful motto, you know.) There’s only what you like (or dislike) and what you like (or dislike) about it. So as you go down the following list of positives and negatives—especially if I linked to your story to exemplify one of the negatives—if you think I’m full of BS… well, you’re probably right.
In general, I look for pretty much the same in flash as I look for in any story. The only difference between flash and longer stories is that flash fiction is, uh, shorter. Therefore, the best flash stories respect the length and use it to effect. Other than that, I admire the same qualities in flash that excite me about short stories, novellas, novels, movies, TV episodes, graphic novels, …
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“Aha!” Moments and Character “Change”
Photo © 2006 Anna Lee CC 2.0 BY NC ND
I love character stories. In fact, I rarely enjoy a story unless it has a character-driven component.
So I was naturally surprised that I so enjoyed Al Bruno’s latest #FridayFlash story. It’s not really a character story, per se. Or is it?
I actually have a different take on that now, different than last week. I think it is a character story, but not in the traditional sense.
Entitled “Breaking the Girl,” here’s the story’s basic outline—
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