Flash Fiction For Your Audience

There are a lot of things you can do to rev up your writing. Sometimes, the mental exhaustion takes over even when you are ready to write. Those moments mean that what you are working on is too on the front burner and your brain is melting down as a result.

The best method: Flash fiction.

Flash fiction is taking three components and making it into a story.

Take an object, a character, and a place.

Then, make a story out of it.

The story doesn’t have to be good. It shouldn’t always be something you want to save or keep forever. It is a way to push those ideas forward, get yourself in the mood for writing and return to those things that you want to write about.

News reporting in many ways uses the flash writing beast the best. A snap of the fingers, too many little stories, little components in order to develop your writing. Forget the bad sentences, the wrong paragraphs or terminal edits. This is about you developing a small story to push yourself back into the writing mode.

That object: apple.

That character: A fat worm.

A place: On the kitchen counter.

Now, think of the possibilities. A lot of them. Including a side character who walks in on the worm coming out of the apple on the kitchen counter and shrieks. Or maybe the person eats the worm out of indifference (extra protein). Or what if its from the view of the worm, who gets stuck in the apple and is screaming as the human comes forward with a knife (or drops the worm’s living remains in the trash compactor).

A lot of ideas just came to me in this. It builds a story quick. Maybe its funny, maybe not. But who cares. It gets me in that writing mood. And that’s what counts.

IPad2s, Stephen King, & Dean Koontz, oh my!

I bought an IPad2 (32G, Wi-Fi) on wednesday. It has already turned into one of the best writing decisions I have ever made. The wireless bluetooth keyboard has helped me write a lot of words. A lot more than I thought possible. Let me explain:

One of the problems I've had is a pinched nerve in my left hand. It has affected me since the since the summer of 2005 when I wrote WAY too much on an old Dell laptop. I had to quit writing for a little while to let it heal, and it has been a barrier for me ever since. Whenever I wrote more than 8,000 words in a day, I would be up the entire night with a numb hand. Not good, even though my left was not my dominate hand. I felt it hindered my writing ability by not getting out those great sentences I was thinking up, or that fantastic idea I had, because if I did too much then I was punished for it.

The bluetooth keyboard is a light, little baby that works fine. I did check it out, ask friends and co-workers who had IMacs if they enjoyed their keyboard. The IPad2 was more of the convenience of a 10-hour battery, and the fact that I don't like laptops in general (they usually end up scorching my lap).

In three days, I have written about 20,000 words. A few short stories, and have started on a book idea I've had rummaging around for a while. All of this on my new IPad2 and bluetooth keyboard. No, this is not for everyone. The screen is a little small and I am attempting to adjust to the word processor Pages which does need to improve its zoom feature to push out the text a little farther. I don't always enjoy the text large unless it is a final draft that I am self-editing before pushing out to those who edit my work. I wouldn't mind folders to contain the different documents (writers rarely have everything in one document as they do compile from several others).

That being said, I have had few if any issues with the IPad2 at all. The battery is killer, I am able to sit in a bar and write (as I am right at this moment) and develop ideas without having to always sit in a stuffy office. The fact that the storage space is 32g means I won't be running out of space any time soon.

Which leads me to a question (and hopefully to prevent people from considering this an advertisement for the IPad2):

- Did typewriters or pen stop writers from being so prolific? Or did they chose their words so carefully, their ideas so restrained that it didn't allow for a lot of content to see the light of day?

I am conscious that there are a lot of things that I have written (ideas, paragraphs, sentences) that are not worthy of someone else's reading time. I get that a lot of stuff in everyone's blogs are essentially frivolous exercises in random thoughts. But does that mean that writers who provide less to their reader have a greater impact than those who provide as much as possible.

Joseph Conrad is scary as hell if you read his stuff. I wonder, if he had utilized the word processor (or had one accessible) in his time, would he have provided as much work as Stephen King. People enjoy knocking King's work, but they tend to overlook the fact that people purchase it for a reason. They feel a true connection between King and themselves which other writers have not managed to provide. Enough that they will follow him anywhere, through any story, no matter how convoluted (Rose Madder, anyone?).

Dean Koontz is just as prolific, but I wonder if he manages the same connection. He appears to be more of an airport author. I get his book in the airport, I read it on the plane, I get to the end by time I am done traveling. I have never felt the same connection between Koontz that I have had with King. I can remember several connective points that King put forth, images that scared me, ideas that still cause me to question. Koontz is an idea, a story, that's it. After you are done, it's over, baby. No thinking about it.

Some people suggest that about King. But I have to tell you, I am still scared of that damn clown from IT (the spider, no so much). I wouldn't take the garbage out at night when I was a teenager after reading IT because I thought that the curb sewer grade had the possibility of inhabiting something terribly evil. While I enjoyed Koontz's Dragon Tears and Watchers, I was neither afraid nor really thought more about those characters, images or situations until right now.

Everything is a disparity of being. Some readers may feel the opposite about King and Koontz than I do. Both were able to produce volumes of work because of the word processor. I wonder what the future holds now that we have trended in such a direction that anything and everything can be written down, sent out into the world in a matter of minutes. Whether it be this blog or someone else's, or an ebook. We may so much information that we overload as a result.

Waiting for a publishing contract from the big six is like waiting for Scre4m's Ghostface to call you

I've been trying to channel my inner "Konrath" on the topic of self publishing recent. I've not been successful, but still trying.

I've self published after years of trying to get a publisher for my work. Does anyone in their right mind believe a writer doesn't want to have the ego trip of walking through a bookstore with a friend and show off your latest work?

But it wasn't happening. One reason may be my location. Another may be that I am selling something that appeals to a smaller audience or one that is not focused in big city life. Regardless, I self published after receiving emails from Editors of 3 of the big six. Each said they liked the writing, the style, the story... But marketing wasn't impressed. Or two other people didn't like it. I had it in the hopper with the three publishing companies for six months. Then rejections after a little hope. Huh, imagine if they said that to James Patterson or Stephen King? The sad part, they probably have...

So I've self published. After having several edit the manuscript and go over plotting to ensure it didn't fail the reader. Okay, I've sold 45 in two weeks. But so what?

Things don't change right? To be published means published in book form. Really? I'm typing this out at a bar on a IPod touch. Stay where you are and hold your breath. Things are changing quick.

This is 1991 all over again.

Why is that significant? It's when a guy named Quentin Taratino debuted his independent film "Reservoir Dogs.

Some guy named Kevin Smith would go to Sundance with a film called "Clerks."

They didn't use the Hollywood studios to make those films. They had editing which wasn't done by an Oscar winner. No score that was off the Top 40 or a producer who had made the "thrill ride of the summer."

They succeed through blood, sweat and tears. And they didn't get in every theater in order to show their movie.

How is this different than self publishing? Should you write to have it sit on a shelf or collect dust? Movies are virtual now. Unless you haven't heard of Hulu or Netflix. Is it not a real movie or television show if produced to specifically air on those outlets? According to some, it's not a book if everyone has a chance to access it.

And here's the rub. It's also looking exactly like the film industry in the 1990s. Big Hollywood studio executives start swooping in, buying all of the good independent movies. And after a while, the word "independent" isn't a bad one in film. Studios start marketing the term because it suggests a fine, quality film which is not a blockbuster. It is only a matter of time that the publishing world will do the same thing with self-published ebook authors. Or they may create "independent" boutique brands to grab that market share.

So, what does this have to do with Scre4m? Kevin Williamson who wrote them was turned down several times because who wants a slasher movie with the novelty of self-aware characters? Well, after the "independent film" boom started to crest by 1996, Miramax made the film because they were buying anything unknown and "independent" (even as a boutique studio brand owned by Disney).

That film made box office gold. It propelled the illusion of sequels which continue to this day. Mirror that with how books will be in five years. All that self publishing that you are not doing in order to hold out for a contract from one of the big six is getting wasted. However it goes, my stuff is getting seen and bought, prepping for the chance to gain readership. If conformity to Publishing House standards is the key to a deal, then why do it? I write to be read. Why write if no one reads it?