Clarion offered an affordable flash fiction workshop for July, to go with their Write-athon. I signed up because I do flash fiction for the DeviantArt July challenge. It also couldn’t hurt to join a critique group that would share expertise from established writers.
We met on Discord, read the prompt, and posted our stories by Thursday. Then we’d post critiques of these stories the preceding Wednesday. These were not strict restrictions, which helped. Some of the tales made me laugh. Others made me shudder. This group understood well what we had to do, to help each other. and provide support
Some of the prompts were challenging. My true stories fell flat, because I don’t have any ghost stories, apart from one involving a vanishing palm tree. Others were fun, like telling a story solely with dialogue. I got a cute story that I may try to sell.
Writing can be hard when you are balancing the joy with the work. You want to know what’s a good fit for a magazine, but overanalyzing can take away the fun part, especially when pitching nonfiction and posting to Medium as well. Workshops can help you find the joy, and refine the technique.
