Flash Face Off – 6th September

Hey hey writertron! Here’s your Flash Face Off prompts for the week.

Second set of prompts for our September ‘Writing as Resistance’ festival!

Scroll to the bottom of the page and find out what we’re actually doing>>

The week’s prompts are:

ENERGY Vs EXTINCTION

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.

Nikola Tesla

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

John Muir, The Mountains of California

Rage — whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders’ insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us — is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.

Bonnie Myotai Treace

I think of what wild animals are in our imaginations. And how they are disappearing — not just from the wild, but from people’s everyday lives, replaced by images of themselves in print and on screen. The rarer they get, the fewer meanings animals can have. Eventually rarity is all they are made of. The condor is an icon of extinction. There’s little else to it now but being the last of its kind. And in this lies the diminution of the world. How can you love something, how can you fight to protect it, if all it means is loss?

Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

Of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don’t know why. Some by wanton extinction, some through natural catastrophe, some destroyed by meteorites and asteroids. In the light of these mass extinctions it really does seem unreasonable to suppose that Homo sapiens should be exempt. Our species will have been one of the shortest-lived of all, a mere blink, you may say, in the eye of time.

P.D. James, The Children of Men

Our planet has not seen an extinction crisis as serious as the one in progress for 65 million years.

David Suzuki

Wind turbines in a beautiful dusk sky by Pixaby at Pexels

Pink and Purple ball of energy by Pixaby at Pexels

A golden hour sun above the ocean by Sebastian Voortman at Pexels

Skeleton of a woolly mammoth by Boris Hamer at Pexels

A sketch drawing of a Dodo by McGill Library at Unsplash

What are these prompts for please?

Every week, we post a set of flash fiction prompts. You write a super small story (500 words or fewer), post it on our forums, give and receive feedback, and at the end of the month we pick our faves for a Friday night online open mic night. It’s pretty amazingly awesome and you should definitely join us. Yes you should.

It works like this:

Use the prompts to write in any way that inspires you. Pick a side, pick both, pick a quote or pick an image, or just go with the general aesthetic and vibe of the themes. Whatever floats your writerly hoozits. And remember—flash doesn’t have to be dark and traumatic to be effective.

Edit your writing into a beaut 500 word story and post it on the Flash Face Off forums (please submit no more than 2 stories per week thanks!)

While you’re waiting for the awesome writerly community to read your story and offer wise words and critique, read at least two other stories and give your constructive feedback.

That’s it! At the end of every month we gather all our faves and have a big ol’ open mic party. Sign up here.

NO WAIT ONE MORE THING!

Please do make good use of the workshopping forums to offer feedback to others, receive feedback on your own story, and tweak/edit as much as you like. This really is the absolute best way to develop your writing (and it’s a really nice way to be part of this

Ok now we’re really done. Go write.

Posted in: Blog Flash Face Off

By: Kathy Hoyle