By:virtue_fernEven though I don’t do a lot of creative writing (that’s Shannon’s domain — except for that X-Files Fan Fiction from when I was eleven), I still like to be on the lookout for writing resources to spark creativity and force me to think outside the box. I’m a designer by trade (and nature), but it’s often words that inspire me to think about a problem in new ways.
Flash Fiction Challenges And Inspires
In my search for inspiration this morning, I came across Six Sentences. It’s a blog illustrating the concept of ‘Flash Fiction,‘ that is, crafting a very effective story in a very condensed wordspan (yup, made that word up). In this case, you get six sentences. Six sentences to be brilliant, tragic, informative, warm, abstract — whatever. Case in point, this post entitled ‘Sock Puppets‘ by Adam Armour:
There was a moment there when they just looked at each other in drawn silence. Ash, hand still on the door, and Renee, hand up one of Ash’s missing socks, her palm open so that the little face she had drawn on the dirty white cotton looked as shocked as the both were. Ash thought to herself, What are you doing, Renee, and So that’s where my socks have been going, and I shouldn’t have come home early, but she didn’t say any of this. Her roommate tried to explain: “It’s just something I like to do. I only took the ones that looked dirty; that you were probably going to throw away anyway.” Ash just nodded, told Renee it was “OK” and slowly stepped back through the door into the apartment complex’s third floor hallway, certain that one of them had done something to make the other feel awkward, but not sure who.
Who knew the subject and awkwardness of a roommate making sock puppets could be so engrossing? Check out the site, and even if you don’t submit anything, it may be a good exercise to get the creative juices flowing in your own work!
What do you think about this exercise? Effective or a waste of time? Does reading blogs like Six Sentences motivate you for your own work or distract you from the task at hand? Is Toni way behind the flash fiction curve? Let us know in the comments!
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