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Flash fiction is anything under … 1000 words? Or is it anything under 500?
I can never remember…I keep thinking that we’ve stifled innovation in the space exploration field, because we aren’t pushing anyone to do anything. I’m hoping what SpaceX does and what they achieve will encourage more to push and create a true innovation race.
I’m going to respond to this with a hope of bumping it back to the top. Even if you’ve responded before, another Mental Health check-in for you is a good thing. 🙂
For me, I’ve never actually been away from my bill-paying job. They’ve found ways to get us working from home. I still have to go into the office once a week. It’s nerve-racking, but as long as I stay in my own work space, I’m okay, since I’m the only person for more than 100 square feet.
I’m admitting now, my anxiety and such has killed my reading and writing mojo the last few months. My dad is 80, my mom is 74. (Mom actually caught the bug but had a mild case, thankfully. She’s now back to talking the ears off the nursing home staff.) I’ve finally felt a break in the writing dam the last few weeks, pushing a couple projects forward. Not sure they’ll reach completion, but a few hundred words here and there is good, right?
And as a way to Procrastinate, I’ve starting working on making my own writer space discord server. My initial set up might be overly ambitious, but I was thinking big and trying to create good work spaces for different things. Anyone interested in the link is welcome to DM me. If you just want friend me on Discord and not worry about the server, I’ll share that link too.
Oh, forgot to mention, end of June, while trying to get exercise and some mental health work, I fell off my bicycle. From that fall, I broke my pinky finger on my left hand, sprained both wrists. A helmet saved me from a concussion. As of this past Monday, I’ve finally been cleared to get back to more or less normal. But I still have physical torturer … er therapy, to attend to get my finger back to proper functioning.
There’s a couple ways to look at it and how to keep it fun.
First: Treat the writing as the reward for doing something else. Even if it’s something silly and simple. Hey, I get to write because I managed to get out of bed this morning!
Second: If you are feeling like the writing itself is a chore, there must be something wrong with the story. If you aren’t enjoying writing it, then your readers could very well not enjoy reading it. Your trudge will translate into the words. (Unless that is what the section is supposed to have.) Try to find the play in the story. And let it draw you to the fun.
Third: Realize that not every writer has the same writing journey. You must establish the joy and pattern that works best for you. To do otherwise is to create resentment and frustration, because you are following tasks that aren’t what fits your work habits. If you want to truly learn about yourself and your writing habits, attempt a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge in November. Even if you don’t get 50,000 words, you learn who and what you are as a writer.
(Joke) So I step away for a few years to deal with RL things (like new car and marriage) and this is what you do to me? (/joke)
The site looks awesome! Thanks for all the hard work.
I don’t always hear these from new writers, though. I hear them from anyone not having “success” as a writer.
Of course, when they claim they have no “success,” I always ask what their idea of success is.
The response: Make tons of money and live like Richard Castle. *shudder*
When I start hearing responses like this, I start trying to find the source that the writer found these “rules” from. 99 times out of 100, I’ve found they come from someone who has 1 book on the market and that think they are now publishing royalty because of it. Of the five writing groups in my area (that I know of), we have two people with one or two books on the market that lord it over everyone else in the group.
They also tend to say if you don’t write things “EXACTLY AS I DO” (caps added to mirror their emphasis) then you are a horrible writer and will never get published.
I tend to sigh and walk away from those groups.
J.A. Marlow wrote:Thing is, with writing, it’s whatever works for that SPECIFIC writer. SI would add to that: Whatever works for that SPECIFIC writer and that SPECIFIC PROJECT.
Wasn’t this an argument that the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies used when arguing to “correct the SJW picks of the Hugos?” Or am I just out in left field?
I have so many ways I could respond to those three words… 👿
But I’ll behave myself. I’m not here enough to make the couch worth my time. :silly:
Quote:You are Sherlock Holmes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous mystery series. You are smart, witty, and love a challenge. You use rationality and reason in all things and don’t let your heart rule your head. You are measured and stable and you don’t let people push you around.Yeah, that works.
I’d lean toward the first like 7 books of the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.
It’s military Space Opera, but definitely has weak to strong. Not sure about the mythology links, though.http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288084
One of my other writing forums has a watch section with a thread related to this company. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware reads that forum as well. So might be worth a perusal…
My difficulty that I’ve always run across is that the critique group has no real focus.
What I mean is that the group has people who write both short and long fiction, news articles, and almost every genre under the sun. I had many frustrating moments trying to get critiques of a fantasy setting with obvious genre tropes from people who “couldn’t stand science fiction or fantasy.” (We had two of us in the group who read/wrote those genres.)
Every time I’ve thought of creating my own group, I find almost no one about.
So I feel your pain.
