Tag: micro-fiction

Eight is NOT Enough

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

Did you know that Mark Hamill played one of the 8 Bradford kids in the TV show Eight is Enough? He left after the pilot to go play some obscure movie character called Luke Skywalker.

But that’s not the 8 I’m writing about. My 8th out of 8 micro-fiction stories submitted to www.curatedmicrofiction.com was selected for publication. You can read it here. It’s not my favorite one I have written. I think I need to escape from the Literary/Creative prompts and get back to my humor roots.

I plan to keep submitting these until my streak is broken, or I find no value in doing them. I currently find them to be a useful exercise in editing. I took a look at the humor prompt for the current challenge and said, “Yuck.” You can read it here. I wasn’t sure where to go with that prompt. This was the first draft of my first idea.

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A Fine Story

~ Jim Flanigan ~ Leave a comment

No, not mine. I wasn’t too fond of my last micro-fiction story, but they published it HERE anyway. Maybe it was a mercy publishing, because I have been faithfully submitting every two weeks. More likely, it was because of the cool AI-generated picture I submitted with the story. Breaking News …

Old Person Uses AI

That’s right, the pic shown with the story was created using AI. I kept revising the description until the pic met my needs. The result is that I no longer am terrified of AI. I have embraced AI and all its benefits. And, oh, what benefits, if you know what I mean. I don’t, so please tell me if you do. Maybe this very post was even written with AI, hmm? Full disclosure … it was not. I don’t want to give AI an even worse reputation because of my shoddy writing.

The fine story referred to in the title of this post is this one that was published and awarded. Love the twisty ending. But I am working on a story with an equally twisty ending for the current challenge closing next week. It even suprised my wife who knows how any movie will end after seeing the first 5 minutes and before I’ve even started my popcorn. Sure, she knows how the movie will play out, but do we really have to leave after 5 minutes?

Here’s the AI website I used to create the sailboat pic – https://www.fotor.com/images/create. I didn’t pay anything, although somewhere down the line I am sure that I will be asked for money. Try it out. I mean the AI part, not asking me for money.

An Unexpected Award

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 4 Comments

In a recent post, I promised (threatened?) to share my 300-word micro-fiction short story with you that was comprised of dad jokes, a fart reference, and an invented word. I planned on copying and pasting the story here, but I don’t have to do that now. I received an email stating, “Your story ‘The Sarcopha Guys’ has been recognized by our curation team as exceptional in your category.” Exceptional? Me? What category, fart fiction?

I figured I had an outside chance for one of the $5 awards, but now my comfortable retirement is assured after securing a $60 award. Anyway, enough complaining about winning something. It’s time to share it with the world, regardless of the world’s recalcitrance toward reading it.

Click HERE to link to the page showing the weird prompt and my story that you can then click on to read. After the minute it takes you to read 300 words and ten minutes it takes you to stop guffawing, then click HERE to go to the current challenge. Pick a prompt and start writing. I think the first submission is free. Let’s see if some real writing can challenge my fart fiction. Yes, I do have a story planned in the Humor category. That’s another tough prompt, but somehow I have a story concepted about a librarian that involves flinging mashed potatoes. I think I really need to seek professional therapy.

Rejection Means Someone Read Your Writing

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

And they didn’t like it enough, but at least you had a reader. I tell myself that when I get a submission rejected, which is more often than not. At least this one that just hit my inbox was quite pleasant.

They didn’t technically say that my story was well-crafted, but at least that complimentary hyphenated word was included in the rejection email. So, what do I recommend after rejection?

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Get Unblocked!

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 4 Comments

Winter should be a great time to write. For me, winter is also a time for me to be seasonally depressed, so my writing does not flow nicely like pus from a lanced boil. That’s more of how I feel in the winter – like a lanced boil. It doesn’t help that we just had our first snowfall of substance this weekend, and there’s more snow forecasted on the way this week. Gross.

So, I thought I’d force my writing hand by looking for writing contests with deadlines coming up soon. There are plenty, but most seemed to require more effort than I am willing to give. That resolution I made to relaunch my writing career may be more difficult than I thought.

Then I found this writing contest …

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That’s a Short One

~ Jim Flanigan

A year ago, I blogged about a micro-fiction short story contest that I was entering, and I even shared with you the story I wrote and rejected. I reread it and kind of like my story “Sk8tr Boy.” I wish I had submitted that one rather than the story I settled on using that didn’t get me past the first round of judging, which is my goal for this year. I just hoped I would not get a prompt to write a story in the horror genre again this year. It’s not a comfortable writing zone for me. So, this year, I received these prompts.

Ugh, horror again. And a slang word – lite. I immediately reached into my humor bag o’ tricks to see what I could make work. Here are a couple ideas I contemplated.

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