For today’s prompt, let’s take a popular horror trope and come at it from a different angle. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.) Here’s my attempt at playing with a horror trope: Pack Evan reaches into the bag and aims the most unimpressed expression across the table. It’s met with raucous laughter. “Very funny,” he huffs, […]

As always, if you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram (or anywhere else), don’t forget to use the #FlashFictionFeb hashtag. There are a lot of ways to write about time. Is it running out? Stretching out? Suspended? Is it being represented by a clock or a time machine? Is your character trying to get it back or are they trying to extend it? For today’s prompt, let’s write about time. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any […]

In my very first creative writing class in college, I remember my professor ripping pages out of a book of photos, crumpling them, and putting them in a bag. We would reach into the bag and pick out a page, uncrumple it, and then whatever object was pictured was what we had to use as inspiration to write. Instead of a book of photos, here’s a list of just a few objects: Hammer Key Fishing pole Lamp Book Bottle For today’s prompt, use one or more of these objects to inspire your story! Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are […]

Earlier in the month, we talked a bit about character motivations. I want to revisit that subject from a new angle today. For today’s prompt, write about a hoarder. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.) Here’s my attempt at writing about hoarding: Hoarder They’re coming, Arthur. It’s not like I haven’t thought about this, because I […]

Recently, a few of my friends and I were discussing how we’d neglected to pick up new hobbies during the initial 2020 lockdown. It got me thinking about all the new skills people threw themselves into; my dad put together a new building on his property large enough to house several cars from the 1920s and ’30s and has been hard at work restoring them since then. But are all hobbies ones that people keep up with? Can a hobby become dangerous or all-consuming? Does a hobby even have to be a skill, or can it just be something you […]

It’s no secret that I love animals—ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll probably tell you that they’ve suffered hours of their time listening to me rant about animal facts I find interesting. But animals are also cool ways to spice up your writing. I’ve written about world-building and animal characters for this site; author and trained fighter Carla Hoch has written about animals in fight scenes; and debut author Pamela Korgemagi has discussed how she prepared to write from an animal’s perspective in her novel The Hunter and the Old Woman. For today’s prompt, include an animal character. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, […]

I heard someone say something this past December that I can’t stop thinking about: “I’m possessed by this holiday spirit.” That statement has my mind galloping off in a million and one directions—if the holiday spirit could possess you, what else could? For today’s prompt, let’s write about a character being possessed by something … unnatural. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject […]

As always, if you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram (or anywhere else), don’t forget to use the #FlashFictionFeb hashtag. For today’s prompt, write about magic. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.) Here’s my attempt at making magic: The Necromancer’s Apprentice Tears usually taste like blood in his mouth. That is how Caekhar knows the woman is […]

Today I’m thinking about tension. What’s something that would add natural tension to your story—and your characters—without a ton of explanation needed? For today’s prompt, let’s make things tense by writing about someone being somewhere they shouldn’t be. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.) Here’s my attempt at writing about someone being somewhere they shouldn’t be: […]

I’m a big fan of love in all forms—familial, friendly, platonic—but as this is February, romance is a little more on the forefront of my mind. However, romance doesn’t always mean chocolate and flowers; everyone has quirks that their partners have to discover to best woo them. For today’s prompt, write something romantic. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction […]