Writing short Fiction

Death Walk

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

The Kill Zone
Reader Friday: Short Short Fiction
Posted: 26 Sep 2014 12:00 AM PDT

Using the above picture as a prompt, write a story in 100 words or less.

John rolled his head to the side without taking his eyes off his target. He wanted to yank the goddamn tie from his neck. It was choking him to death, but he didn’t dare. Sweat rolled down his back. He kept walking. Breathing was harder, suffocating. He pulled at the overcoat. He felt like he was buried alive. Ignoring the angry woman rushing past he glanced at the crosswalk, the changing light. He watched with horror as the man stepped from the curb and disappeared. He fell to his knees as her cries, “Daddy,” ripped through his soul.

Mom’s Vigil

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

FREE WRITE FRIDAY

MOM’S VIGIL

She stood in the window oblivious to the noise. All her focus on the street and the big clock on the wall, as minutes ticked away. When the call came, in the middle of the night, she thought the worst. It’s what every mother did. Late night calls never bring good news, except this time. Unable to go back to sleep, she’d been cleaning, dusting, changing linen, and baking all her favorite things.

Would she really come? She toyed with the pearls hanging around her neck and glanced at the clock.

“No later than 11 o’clock, I promise, mom.” The clock said 10:45am. A feeling of dread began to move up slowly from the pit of her soul. Her chest tightened as tears of disappointment began pushing upward. She glanced at the clock one last time, 11:30. Her hands trembled as she reached up to pull the curtain closed when the knock on the door came.

Improve with Flash Fiction

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 5 Comments

Flash Fiction seems to be all the craze right now with a story  between 1000 – 500 words. The shorter the story, the better.  I began reading the stories, paying attention. Flash fiction intrigued me. The stories were tight. I wanted to write like that.

I began combing through every self-help book and blog I could find looking for ways to improve my writing skills and tighten my writing. Practice makes perfect. So, I started experimenting by writing short stories. It paid off. My first flash fiction short story (480 words) was published recently in Every Writer’s Resource.

Writing short stories will help you improve your writing skills in a number of ways. It will help tighten your writing,  help you free think more, increase your creative thinking and you will learning more about the skill of writing.  In addition, short stories may be better for you, in the long run. That remains to be seen. Anne Allen discusses why-you-should-be-writing-short-fiction on her blog. Check it out.

Also check out some of the sites I use to practice and improve writing skills. One of the things I do on a daily basis is one word. This exercise sends one word, every day to your email. You have 60 seconds to free write. It is a great way to open your mind, let your imagination roam and if by chance you suffer from writer’s block, this will help.

Other sites like five-sentence-fiction  offer a single word as a prompt to write a five sentence story. But, probably one of my favorites is dailyfig.figment.com. This site is offers a daily writing prompt and so much more. It is a great resource for writing advice. I’m sure there are others.

The resources available are many to help all of us succeed as writers. Go for it! I’m pulling for you!