Flash Fiction: The 22nd Coming

Thanks to Chris for today’s six word prompt: “Traveler, Cadence, Management, France, Gonads, and Turkish Chocolate Candy.”

The 22nd Coming

Travelers came from all over the world; their footsteps tromped a broken cadence across the desert floor. Men from France, Germany, China, even Venezuela, all to reward him with gifts of jasmine flower garlands, leather sandals, and Turkish chocolate candies in the shape of gonads.

The management team said this would be bigger than the Pitt and Aniston break-up. Sherice squealed about his PR campaign to his agent and wouldn’t let up about the necessity of having a row of seven camels in the background of the photo shoot. If this man from Kenya was going to insist he was not only the son of God, but also the sole heir to the late George Lucas fortune, then nothing could stop them from riding his coattails all the way to the bank.

Don't Be Afraid To Be the Someone Else

Sometimes you get into ruts of who people think you are, who you think you are, and the perception of you from people who barely know you. Most of my life I've been seen as witty. I hated this for a long time until I realized how to use that sharp tongue to my advantage.
I've also been seen as serious. I was a serious child. Today I've found ways to bridge the gap between that wit, which is hilarious at times, to serious, which is highly functional in a bazillion ways.

Also, I didn't write much as a child, but now writing is my passion and career as an adult. Before I could pass myself off as a writer to friends and family, however, I had to decide to be just that. I had to make the choice to call myself a writer. I had to be someone else to everyone I knew so they would finally see me that way.

Being someone else means releasing the old stereotype of you and embracing that element you want to be.

In my stories, most of the time, if I don't include this character, I think of her. She's a bohemian gypsy with prophesy. She probably wears lots of purple and brown skirts and clinky jewelry. She's always there guiding me. She helps make choices with me. Call her a muse if you want, but when I kept brushing her off, not calling myself a writer, she kept coming back to the surface story after story.
Before I gave her the time of day, I thought I just wrote some things, some bad short stories, some good poetry, but I wasn't a "writer." And, to be honest, for as long as I thought that, no one else thought I was a "writer" either.

You cannot be afraid to be the someone else you wish to be.

I am a writer. Period. That is my stance and not everyone will "get" that. Even today, some people in my life still don't understand me or this process, but every now and then someone, family or friend, will make a statement that tells me they have owned the idea that this is who I am. Because I made the leap to be the someone else, they now see it as fact.

You shouldn't fear the creative element inside of you. Ridicule. Doubt. Uncertainty. You're going to experience those anyway, but at least you can enter each day with a tag on your shirt that reads, "Hello, I Am An Artist."

Flash Fiction: Hindsight

Thanks to Brain for today’s six word prompt: "Velociraptor, Congruent, Plight, Instantaneous, Dirge, and Foolhardy."


Hindsight

The dirge went on. The trumpet sighs carrying over the rain-soaked, bowed heads. Perhaps if they weren’t all so foolhardy none of this would have happened. They could have lived their whole lives never dressed in black, never having ridden in limos with purple flags attached to the hood. The same way they were congruent to going with the flow in the past, today they slosh through the mud in heels, cry out loud, say clichéd phrases reserved for times like these, and talk about how he’ll never be forgotten. Their plight, like the velociraptor and T-rex, was instantaneous. One minute you’re cruising, sixty maybe seventy miles per hour, singing at the top of your lungs, and the next…the car doesn’t make it around the bend. Driving on pavement or grass all feels the same at that speed.

Flash Fiction: The Political Streak

Thanks to Liz for today’s prompt: "Troy Mason is planning to streak at a political fundraiser..."

The Political Streak

Sure, there had been times when he questioned his motives, his upbringing. Hell, he thought the rest of the world might benefit from a little loosening up, but for Troy Mason, these were actions you wanted to do, not that you did. That was…until the 2008 election. Then he started thinking differently.

Today, the archway of red, white, and blue balloons led down an aisle which opened up to a podium draped with a flag. At the podium stood Governor Ficklin, unfolding lies and a toothy smile. If ever there was a man that deserved an interruption, it was Ficklin.

Troy crouched behind a “Heart of America” banner, pulled his shirt over his head, and slipped the elastic band of his sweatpants and boxers down to his ankles. In one motion, he leapt to his feet and tore off down the carpeted aisle, determined to make the evening news.

Flash Fiction Mission

Hello everyone! After a day off from writing following the craziness that is NaNoWriMo, I wanted to shift into some shorter pieces just for you. My dream would be to post all kinds of stories on the blog for you to be able to read my work, but alas, I want to sell those awesome, share-worthy stories to publishers, so I don't feel comfortable sharing publicly (and for free) what I want to sell the first printing rights to in the future.

So, I had an idea to do flash fiction for you. The flash fiction I'm thinking about is typically under 100 to 150 words and gives you enough of a story to get in and get out. The best flash fiction is, by far, Hemingway's six word story: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn." Good, right?

I also thought that I'd like to know what you want to see. With that in mind, I'm exclusively asking only the followers/likers of my Facebook fan page (not just friends) to tell me what they want to read either in a basic summary, or in four to six keywords.

If you haven't done so yet, click "Like" to the right of this post (just above "I Tend to Write About These Things) and then head over to the page to leave a comment on the post about this saying what you want to see me tackle. I'll pick the one or three that I think I can master, write the story, and post it here on the blog for all the world to see.

All right, put your thinking cap on and give me your thoughts. (It's okay to make me work for it, so have fun.)

Day 30: Celebrating Victory

Today is the last day of the 2011 NaNoWriMo. A mere 50,000 words and you are a NaNoWriMo winner!!!!

My hope if you're reading this is that you are a NaNoVicTo.
I finished my word count goal last night and when you cross that finish line it is time to celebrate.

Do something tomorrow that has nothing to do with writing, no matter if it's a walk, a few hours with a good book, a long bath, attend a sporting event, do a major workout to get your blood pumping again, or chase stray children down the street.

Whatever it is, do it. Celebrate your success to lead you onward to more writing and editing in the future.

How will you celebrate?

Day 29: The Post-NaNo Ritual You Need to Know About

It's winner's eve today. Tomorrow is the day you've won or not, and like your mother always told you, if you tried your best then that was good enough. Today's goal is 48,333 and then you're almost finished.
If you haven't hit today's goal, then you'll want to push today so you're not toeing the line at ten minutes to midnight on the 30th. If you're like most everyone else I know that's still writing, seeing this goal met somehow fuels you through the last 1,667 words. You will become like some crazy motivated train that would be going 100 miles an hour if it wasn't for this steep hill of words and plot.

I say, climb it. What's on the other side is totally worth it.

Since I know you'll be too busy celebrating tomorrow to think of things like this, I wanted to share my post-nano rituals with you to guard yourself against yourself. (I can tell by the way you're sitting that you've lost a document or two in your day.)

1) Save a copy of your novel to a disk, USB flash drive, or cloud (frankly I don't know what these clouds are, but hey, if you do, save it there.)

2) Email a copy of the document to yourself at an Internet held account. For example, I use MS Outlook for the majority of my mail, but I don't know how to check that mail when I don't have my laptop with me, so I email my document to my less used gmail account for safe keeping. Google offers gmail for free, so there's no reason not to do something like this.

3) Print. The nerdy nerd in me who might own a Staples customer rewards card (discount card, NOT credit card) might go onto the Staples website, upload her document to be printed, and she may go to the store, pay the $15, and pick up a physical printed copy. This is a cheaper ink option for me and I don't have to babysit my printer and hand feed it paper every five to ten pages. This copy, of course, is the rough draft which needs major work, not a manuscript to be shared. This gives me a hard copy to stash, edit, and make plot notes on when I don't want to be in front of the computer, but do want to work.

4) Wine or margaritas. Self-explanatory.

There you have it. Have a great winner's eve day!

Day 25: The Beginning of the End

Well, here we are. We're doing it. We're shifting from the Middle of the story and into the End. With a word count goal of 41,666 today, you are officially in the last 10,000 words of this year's novel.

By the End of your story you should be thinking of all those loose ties you've put out there and considering the best possible climax to the story that lets your character be challenged and either succeed for fail as the story deems fit.

Writing the End is a really motivating portion of novel writing because the action and events that have taken place have all built to this point. You can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel and it only gets brighter the more words you put down on the page.

While it is invigorating, it's also bittersweet. There are only five days left of NaNoWriMo, the crazy, ridiculous adventure that comes just once a year. Savor the feelings you have about your story in these last days and give your readers the best possible climax and ending you can to leave them wanting more and loving the time they spent with you.

How do you plan to celebrate on December 1st?

Day 24: Happy Thanksgiving! Get Back to Work

It's turkey day!!! I'm traveling all over creation for the next three days, literally eating a Thanksgiving meal three days in a row including the day I'm the host and chef. Not only will I be stuffed, but also, I'll be behind in my writing if I don't get a jump on it.

The T-day word count goal is 40,000. Sadly, the goal will not wait for you, so while it's nice to relax and digest, Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to practice asserting your writing self and stepping away (before, after, or during the day) to work.

While it seems cruel for NaNo to sit on top of Thanksgiving, it actually helps you. The more you see yourself as a writer that NEEDS to write, no matter the day, the more others will too. Your adoring family will kiss you on the cheeks, say, "We'll see you in an hour, dear," and then they will go on doing what they do while you do what you do.

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

Day 28: Are We There Yet?

Here we are, Day 28, and the word count goal is 46,666. If you're close, but not there yet, then this is the time for final pushes. Reach down deep, grab the beating heart of the writer inside you, spike it down onto the floor, and go for the finish line.
As for me, I'm sitting at 48,119 words and I couldn't be happier. This progress leaves me especially happy considering that my first NaNo year left me writing over 10,000 words on November 30th, but by God I was finishing that sucker.

Learning from that old frustration, I'll actually hit 50K either tonight or tomorrow and that is just as great a feeling as powering through up until midnight on the 30th.

As you work, make sure you backup your story, turn on some motivational music, and get the words down on the page. This isn't the time for taking a few hours to think about the plot, this is the time to push and push hard.

Also, don't forget to validate your word count when you reach the finish line (find this under "edit your novel"), and pat yourself on the back.

Are you sailing on through or busting your butt?