First of all, what the fuck is up with WordPress not letting me indent the first line without indenting the whole frigging paragraph?
Needle Magazine is running a Flash Fiction contest on their website. Entries are to be posted on your own blog or similar, and the story should be 1000 words or less. Each story should feature some type of needle in the plot at some point.
So yesterday I stood on the cliff, shut my eyes, and stepped off.
This is the first piece of fiction I’ve completed. Writing it wasn’t nearly as difficult as it is to click that little blue button on the right that says, “Publish.” That little blue button right now looks about as dangerous as the first cigarette I picked up.
Actually, it’s more so. The first smoke I smoked could have led to no habit at all. When I click that button, short of panicking later and deleting the post, there’s no going back. It’s out there, man. There for the innertubez to see.
Ok. Here we go (and thank you to Steve Weddle who did a fine job giving me a title and a great suggestion. I appreciate it loads).
*CLICK*
I like it. Once more, you have a great command of language — frankly, an unusually strong command of language.
I have some questions, though, about some parts of this that I don’t quite grok — but, right now, I’ve got my head buried in the sand of a big project, so those must come later. Just let me know if you want the questions here or over email.
– c.
Shot you an email. Take your time.
Cool stuff. Love some of the hints here at the rest of how these people live. Nicely done.
Thank you!
I’m impressed — this is really the first piece of fiction? Ever? Well done. I’ve seen places like that, right down the salt and pepper shakers. While there may be areas to tighten or clarify, this story is well-written and quite engaging. You hooked me so I’m a follower now
— I better see some more fiction
chad
Thanks, Chad.
It’s the first piece I completed. I started something a few months back but got in over my head. I know the story, but I can’t quite dig into it. I tried a piece of flash a couple of weeks ago that seems like it would work better as a longer short, so I’ve been screwing around with it some more.
Otherwise I wrote a one page story in 9th grade.
My medium has always been the personal essay. I’d never really thought about fiction before. So far I can say that I’m not as fond of flash as I am even a few hundred words longer.
Wow, Julie. Very nice starters! I can’t believe I missed this yesterday. The flow is very nice, then only that distracts me is seeing Jesse and Sally so often. And I am not criticizing (or,not trying to do so in a mean way), just saying Sally and Jessie came up a lot.
I was amazed at how much I understood the world of these characters with how little was said. It felt like immediately stepping into the scene with very little need to figure it all out, and that is a very, very good trait. Write more!
Very enjoyable!
Thank you. That means a lot.
Nice job, Julie! I think this is a wonderful debut of flash fiction. Very neat title, too. Enjoy the process of writing fiction!
It really is hard to believe this is your first. Good exploration of the characters and their truly dysfunctional lives. Great work.
Thanks ladies. I appreciate it!
I’m thinking of going back and doing it again in third person just to play around a bit. There are some things I couldn’t convey due to the first person narrative.
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[...] 29, 2010 by Julie A little while ago I launched myself into a Flash Fiction Contest run by Needle Magazine so I could win a T-Shirt and look awesome while advertising their rag as I [...]