Flash Fiction Challenge # 2 Begins!

Quick note: For those of you who saw this earlier, this is the same post, with just a quick update.

Hey, everyone! What have ya’ll been up to? Comment below; I’d love to chat for a bit!

Today, I’m excited to begin my second flash fiction challenge. Though I would have liked to see more participation, I know we’re still going to have a blast! One question: If you chose not to participate in this challenge, could you let me know in the comments? I want to make this better and more accessible to people, and your input helps me do that. Thanks!

Without further ado:

I will give a challenge to Leanne, who was awesome and contacted me by email. Since she doesn’t have a blog, I’ll be posting her flash fiction here on my blog.

Leanne will give a challenge to Katie Grace over at A Writer's Faith. Leanne, just comment on Katie’s most recent post.

Katie Grace will give Caiti Marie over at Blossoms and Thorns a challenge. Katie, just comment on her most recent post. 

And Caiti Marie will give a challenge to me. Caiti, you may either comment on this post with your prompt or email me at rachelleoneilwriter (at) gmail (dot) com.

In your challenge, give a prompt and a word limit, which you may choose. But the limit you impose must be no more than 1000 words. You have until Friday, October 10 to write your flash fiction, and you will post it on that Friday. Give your prompt to your partner before you start on your own flash fiction. No profanity, graphic violence, or sexual situations. After the entries are posted on the tenth, go to the entries from the person who gave you a prompt and the person you gave a prompt to. Provide feedback for both of them, as well as anyone else that you'd like to. 

Have fun, girls! I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

“Misnamed”: A Dialogue Sketch

Very quickly, I’d like to remind you all that you can still sign up for my Flash Fiction Challenge, which can be found here. Flash fiction is an awesome way to stretch your writing muscles without taking up too much time, and I’d love to have you participate!

Anyway, without further ado, today I want to share with you a short little interaction I wrote between the characters “Me”, “Myself’”, and “I”. Each is considered to be a separate person in this dialogue. This was written mostly for my own amusement and isn’t perfect, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it!

Misnamed

Me: I say, what a capitol day this is!

I: Excuse me? I said no such thing!

Me: *disdainful glance* You’re excused.

Myself:  Hey, be nice!

Me: *raises an eyebrow* Who invited you, anyway?

Myself: *confused look* You wasn’t invited. *gestures* See, he’s not here. It’s just the three of us.

Me: *rolls eyes**tapping his head, whispers to I* I think he’s a few wires short, personally.

I: *disgusted look* Will you kindly stop giving my opinions in my stead? I think no such thing, and you have no right to say so.

Me: *dryly* You isn’t here, remember?

I: *sighs*

Myself: *hesitantly* Well, I – oh, pardon me, when I use “I”, I mean me, or, no, I mean myself -

Me: *rolls eyes*

Myself: I think it’s a good day, too.

I: *hides a smile* Indeed. Wipe that ridiculous scowl off your face, Me.

Me: *innocently* Me? I wasn’t doing anything.

I: *narrows eyes* Watch it…

Myself: *wide eyes* Don’t argue!

Me: *glances over* Worry about yourself.

Myself: Why would I worry about yourself? Have I met him?

Me: *growls* Why are you here?

Myself: *frowns* You isn’t – oh wait, look! *brightens* There’s You!

I: *turns* Look at that. Good morning, You.

You: *shuffles forward, looking disheveled as usual* What? Oh, hello, I, Me, Myself. *furrows brow, mutters* Oh, oh.

I: *exchanges glance with Me* Is something troubling you this morning?

You: *pinched face* Oh, always, always! *mournfully* I can’t take the stress anymore!

Myself: What stress?

You: Oh, this, that, me, you, I…I can’t take it! *shuffles away, muttering*

I: Poor soul. His name is used so often for someone else that he can’t keep things straight.

Myself: If only everyone would just use the right words.

Me: *chuckles darkly* Right. Even you, oh conscientious one, can’t keep the titles straight.

Myself: *glances nervously after You* Shh! Don’t make it worse.

Me: *sighs* If only I could find the solution…

I: *suspicious glance* And who is I in that sentence?

Me: Why you, of course.

Myself: *distressed* Guys!

Me: *laughs* Don’t stress out, Myself. Everyone knows that I’m the smart one in this group. *strolls off whistling*

Myself: *furrows brow* What?

I: *sighs* Come on. Get back here, Me! *runs after him*

Myself: And I thought my name was hard enough to keep straight!

Flash Fiction Challenge #2

Back in April, I challenged ya’ll to participate in a circular flash fiction challenge, where we each had a prompt and a word limit of 1000 words or fewer. The exercise was a blast, and there were some very creative responses! Check some of them out if you’ve got a few minutes:

Out of Time by Rayne Speryll

Flash Fiction by Rcubed

And my own response

Well, I think this would be a good time to do another flash fiction challenge. For those of you who don’t know, “flash fiction” is a genre of short fiction, generally around 500 words, but examples can be up to 1000 words. For this challenge, you’ll be writing a response to a prompt given to you by someone else. In addition, you’ll also create a prompt for a different person. Prompts can be anything from a concept to a sentence starter to a picture, etc. If it can prompt a story, you can use it. The final element of this exercise is feedback: you are responsible for giving feedback both to the person you gave a prompt to and the person you received a prompt from. Of course, you’re welcome to give feedback to anyone else, as well.

If you’d like to participate, comment on this post with the name of the blog you would be posting your response on. If you don’t have a blog or a way of commenting here, you can still take part! Email me at rachelleoneilwriter [at] gmail [dot] com, and I’ll put you on the list. On Friday the 26th, two weeks from today, I will pair you each with your partners and give the official rule list. You may sign up anytime between now and then. For now, all you need to know is the following:

1. Your prompt is dependent on someone I assign to you.
2. No profanity, sexual scenes, or excessive violence.
3. Feel free to refer others to this post. The more, the merrier!

I’m excited for this! My last challenge was a blast, and I’m sure this one will be even better. It could also serve as an excellent way to get your writer juices going for Go Teen Writers’ 100 for 100 challenge or for NaNoWriMo! I’m looking forward to seeing your names on the list! If you have any questions at all, please comment. I’m happy to answer them for you!

Guest Post for Laura Mizvaria

Today I have the great honor of being featured as a guest poster on Laura Mizvaria’s blog Sir Writesalot. Here’s a peek:

Relationships take work, whether they be with a parent, sibling, friend, or spouse. It is universally acknowledged that, in order to have a successful relationship that goes beyond the barest superficiality, you’re going to need to invest some hard work into it. And that requires a commitment to the relationship. Writers have another type of relationship that they cultivate: the relationship with their stories. And our stories are like some of our deepest relationships with people: they depend upon an intense commitment. So the question then is this: Do You Love Your Story Enough to Commit to It? Continue Reading

Let Your Passion Flow Through Multiple Outlets

I’m a writer. Writing is one of my biggest passions, and I want to enjoy it all my life. But my artistic expression isn’t limited to just my writing. I also love singing, acting, and, to my surprise, graphic design. I run slides and lights at my church once a month, which is a blast, and I go through phases where I’m consumed with photo editing. In the past couple of days, I’ve ventured into the world of photoshop – the process, not the actual program. I’ve made well over 300 little edits to this one icon that I’m pulling out of a picture, and most anyone else would probably be going crazy at this point. But I’m still super excited! See, this is another avenue that I can let my passion flow through. And though, realistically, it’s completely unrelated to writing, it can still be a huge benefit to me.

How can multiple outlets benefit you?

• Variety – When you love both writing and singing, you can switch between the two. You may spend more time on one or the other (writing, in my case) But, since it’s easy to become stagnant, distracted, and/or bored if you spend too much time on one thing, multiple activities can give you a much-needed break. Because I enjoy two unrelated things like graphics and writing, I get to engage different parts of my brain with them and keep my mind from getting stuck in a rut.
• Emotional Depth –  I think this is one of the most important reasons for exploring different avenues of letting your passion out. Experience creates depth. And depth is what makes our interactions real and beneficial. Young authors often have the difficulty of being real because they’ve experienced so little. We don’t know much about the world. But did you know you can experience those things through other methods? Singing, for example, brings me in contact with many different stories and experiences than I’ve had personally. By absorbing those lyrics and emotions, I’m able to infuse them into my stories, as well. Acting can do the same thing. What gems might you discover through a different form of expression?
•  Ability to relate – Human beings are not carbon copies of each other. We all have different tastes, goals, abilities, and passions. How hard would it be to relate to someone when they only get involved in acting if you have no interest in drama? Or what about writers? How to do you relate to a writer if you’ve never tried writing? How does a writer relate to you when they’ve never attempted any of your passions? I’m not really a computer geek or an artist, but I can relate to both fields (in basic forms, anyway) because of my interest in graphics. Getting involved in more than one form of expression opens your world to the experiences of other people and gives you points of contact with more than just your tight circle. I’m not a huge sports person, but I enjoy watching football, hockey, and Nascar. Thus, I can converse intelligently on those subjects. Maybe you’re a poet. Have you ever tried drawing or ice skating? Expand your horizons and you will find new people to impact.

Now, of course you can’t do everything. But don’t limit yourself to one passion. You have an immense amount of passion inside of you; set it free through more than one avenue. What do you love? Expand it! How do you explore your passions? Let me know in the comments!