By now ya'll already know that I am back in school and that homework has become a big part of my life. Homework includes a lot of writing. A lot.I've written poems, scenes, short stores, songs, research papers and flash fiction. As in stories written in 600 words or less.
I wasn't familiar with flash fiction until this class, and by my third try I became more aggravated than inspired. I figured that after a second assignment, flash fiction would be something to read, not something to write - again.
I was wrong.
Of course my professor would assign -yet another- flash fiction story. At this point, knowing that my best writing comes from real life experiences (suggestion from my professor), my exciting life as of yet didn't seem to inspire anything worth writing about. (That's what this blog is for - HA!)
I walked for inspiration, but with the heat and my husbands hunger mood, we opted to eat al fresco instead of writing down a few ideas for my story. The tube didn't have anything to write about either. Then I put on my headphones - music maybe?
Nada.
On a last ditch effort I scrolled through my Facebook stream. Maybe a photo, snarky post or even quotable something would inspire me...
Then I found it. The perfect quote. So fitting for my flash fiction story. I tried to save it and then...I turned off my phone accidentally!
I panicked and started scrolling on my laptop Facebook feed. Nothing.
Started looking through friends feeds that normally post quotes. Nothing.
The entire process took me an hour only to come up empty handed. I had all but given up, then remembered a little bit more about the quote and "Googled it."
Not in the first page, not in the second, but by the third page I saw "it."
I heard cherubs sing and unicorns sprinkled pixy dust on my laptop. I started dancing in my chair and got to writing.
An hour and a half later I wrote my third flash fiction story.
It was twisted, raw, gritty and completely unlike anything I have ever written. It wasn't based on my life or anyone that I know. I broke all of my rules, yet my story was the best reviewed story to-date.
Funny how things work out - and all I had to do was to make a change from my norm.
