The Minster’s Western Front (Wikipedia)
I was in York at the weekend, attending a wonderful conference where I also delivered a workshop. Participants attending ‘Flash Fiction: keeping it short’ came from across the phases of education, all with an interest in developing writing for themselves and their students. I shared a range of prompts aimed to get those less experienced in writing flash started. These included:
- Looking at classified advertisements for inspiration
- Getting ideas for writing from Dulux colour cards (this prompt originates from Calum Kerr, Director of National Flash Fiction Day)
- Using pages from small, illustrated notebooks to focus the mind on purposeful word selection
- Drawing upon a photo to think about the story behind the image, from the photographer’s point of view
- Describing stereotypes from ‘Come Dine with Me’ to create characters you love to hate
- Self publishing mini books by folding and cutting a sheet of A4 paper
- Finding markets for your writing: a selection of websites and magazines that accept flash fiction.
I’d like to thank everyone that came to the workshop for engaging so readily in the tasks, for being willing to share the outcomes from the prompts and for the feedback provided. Read the rest of this entry »
the writer is a lonely hunter 