Hey hey writertron! Here’s your Flash Face Off prompts for the week.
- Submit your story to the Flash Face Off forum by Thursday 19th March at 12 noon GMT.
- Book your place at Flash Face Off Live spoken word night (click the Flash Face Off button on the events calendar). The next one is Friday 27th March at 8 pm GMT.
- Click here for instructions on how to participate
The week’s prompts are:
Wail vs Whale
Gayle leans forward, pointing toward the windows. “Something’s going on,” she says. Large beaded bracelets on her wrist rattle as she points.
“There used to be glass there,” Irma says. “They’re burying us alive.” She nods at the video. “What’s that?”
“It’s a killer whale,” the receptionist replies. “This is a livestream from the aquarium.”
“The whale looks as bored as I am.”
“Look at that,” Gayle says with wonder in her voice. “There’s no one in the stands.”
Adrift by Lori Barrett Flash fiction in The Dodge
‘What cry-from out the moonlit blue of wood—
That lay the of this crimes if a scar
And stabs each pallid star!’
Wailing Lynx by Lew R. Sarett
‘…I wanted to cultivate honey from a tamed swarm
in the backyard. I wanted tender. You wanted to be blue
all the time, like it was purifying, like the stars board
up Heaven’s shop windows each night. You’d cry, wail, weep, etc…
if you couldn’t ache. I loved you; you wouldn’t dream to fell
the darkness inside of you, nursing it in your chest like a rock.’
Etcetera by Anna Westwig
‘You and I on the boat notice
the print the whales leave,
the huge ring their diving draws
for a time on the surface.’
The Print the Whales Make by Marjorie Saiser
Whale painted on a pier by Rod Long on UnSplash
Woman wailing by makabera on Pixabay
Couple with a crying baby by Zulfugar Karimov on UnSplash
‘The assembly work with the beaked whale, male, Valder’s skeleton. :: The spine laid out on the floor of the studio. :: The studio :: The skeleton of the beaked whale is mounted and hangs in the whale hall at the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History. When the beaked whale was seen along the coast, it came to be called Valder in the media. :: :: Part of a series of photo no. 7106 with pictures of the beaked whale as alive and during the work of assembling the skeleton.’ by Svante Lysén – Gothenburg Museum of Natural History, Sweden – CC BY.
A quick Flash Face Off primer
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 three 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 there’s 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.