theparisreview: We often do think in prose. But we don’t think in the simple past, and we don’t think by the agency of an omniscient narrator. We just think. We didn’t go to the bank and withdraw some money from the cash machine. Nor are we being looked into by somebody who stands outside of us with complete knowledge about our motivations, and a sprinkling of depth psychology. That problem with the mechanics of the conventional prose novel are not true to my experience of life—which is chaotic, immediate, present tense, and not directed by some supernatural being. I just can’t do conventional, narrative fiction. The Browser interviews author Will Self on his influences.

theparisreview:

We often do think in prose. But we don’t think in the simple past, and we don’t think by the agency of an omniscient narrator. We just think. We didn’t go to the bank and withdraw some money from the cash machine. Nor are we being looked into by somebody who stands outside of us with complete knowledge about our motivations, and a sprinkling of depth psychology. That problem with the mechanics of the conventional prose novel are not true to my experience of life—which is chaotic, immediate, present tense, and not directed by some supernatural being. I just can’t do conventional, narrative fiction.

The Browser interviews author Will Self on his influences.

friday-fiction:

Today is #FridayFiction!

#FridayFiction is a flash fiction workshop that runs every week on Twitter from 3 - 6 p.m. PST, facilitated by Richard Hugo House. Each week, we pick a theme and create a story based off of that theme. We share it with the community of #fridayfiction writers by using the tag in our tweets. You can contribute more than one story. You can use the same character in every story, or multiple characters. The important thing is that your story, with the tag #FridayFiction, not exceed the 140 character limit that Twitter sets.

Why do we do this?

Flash fiction gives us a chance to re-examine our language in a way that we normally wouldn’t be able to do. The confines of the tweet force us to think of different ways of saying something, finding the word that communicates the biggest idea in the shortest way, and using Twitter allows us to find other writers on social media.

For more on why we write flash fiction and use Twitter to do it, read “Exercises in Brevity” on our website.

Last week’s #FridayFiction was “Endure”. We received a lot of wonderful stories last week on being pushed to one’s limits and choosing to go beyond it. I was blown away by how people handled the prompt and the creativity that each story showed!

This week’s prompt is “Forgive”. There is nothing tougher for a person to do than to forgive. We often confuse forgiving with letting go of our rights. Often, “I forgive you” can mean “I’m going to let you do this again to me”. Forgiveness is supposed to mean that releasing someone from the debt they owe you, a moral, emotional or physical debt. What keeps us from getting there? What happens for a relationship when real forgiveness, real release, is achieved? How does it affect the person who’s forgiven? How does it change the person who forgives?

Write a story about forgiveness. Your character can be the one giving it, receiving it, or refusing to give it. Maybe forgiveness is just too hard to give. Maybe your character receives forgiveness but can’t accept it. 

Hint at the hurts, the mistakes, the problems that drove the divide in the first place. Create a story that shows us how forgiveness would affect the characters were it given, received, denied or accepted.

As you write, try and experiment with POV, different characters, and feel free to write more than one story! Writing within the confines of a tweet is difficult, but it gets you into an incredible mindset. Find the right words to create the mood, the plot and convey character in the tiny space that you have.

Also, interact with the community! Every week, a lot of amazing writers gather together and share their stories. These people don’t just offer up great stories, they are great people to follow throughout the rest of the week as well. Being on Twitter is all about curating the conversation you want to be apart of and this is a great way to meet people who love being creative.

If you’ve been reading for a long time, please continue to enjoy our great stories, but also, feel free to offer up your own! You wouldn’t think, as vast a social network as Twitter is, that it’d be a safe space to offer up your fiction, but it is, and it’s a wonderful way to network with other creatives online.

Hope to see you and your flash fiction this afternoon!

friday-fiction: Richard Hugo House’s #FridayFiction flash fiction workshop runs every week on Twitter from 3 - 6 p.m. PST. Each week, we pick a theme and create one single story based off of that theme and we share it with the community of #fridayfiction writers by using the tag in our tweets.  Flash fiction gives us a chance to re-examine our language in a way that we normally wouldn’t be able to do. The confines of the tweet force us to think of different ways of saying something, finding the word that communicates the biggest idea in the shortest way, and using Twitter allows us to find other writers on social media.  For more on why we write flash fiction and use Twitter to do it, read “Exercises in Brevity” on our website. Last week’s stories, pictured above, were written on the theme of being “Terrified”. This week’s prompt is “Freedom”, inspired by Occupy Wall Street. Write a story about a moment of freedom that for your character. Write about a struggle against a personal issue or a physical struggle. Try, in the small space allotted in a single tweet, to convey as much information about your character and the scene as you can using the best words to fit the situation. I’m excited to read and retweet your tales today!

friday-fiction:

Richard Hugo House’s #FridayFiction flash fiction workshop runs every week on Twitter from 3 - 6 p.m. PST. Each week, we pick a theme and create one single story based off of that theme and we share it with the community of #fridayfiction writers by using the tag in our tweets. 

Flash fiction gives us a chance to re-examine our language in a way that we normally wouldn’t be able to do. The confines of the tweet force us to think of different ways of saying something, finding the word that communicates the biggest idea in the shortest way, and using Twitter allows us to find other writers on social media. 

For more on why we write flash fiction and use Twitter to do it, read “Exercises in Brevity” on our website.

Last week’s stories, pictured above, were written on the theme of being “Terrified”.

This week’s prompt is “Freedom”, inspired by Occupy Wall Street. Write a story about a moment of freedom that for your character. Write about a struggle against a personal issue or a physical struggle. Try, in the small space allotted in a single tweet, to convey as much information about your character and the scene as you can using the best words to fit the situation.

I’m excited to read and retweet your tales today!

Flash Fiction

atlantispractice:

is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category. Some self-described markets for flash fiction impose caps as low as 300, while others consider stories as long as 1000 words to be flash fiction.

— good ol’ Wikipedia

It all started with the Hugo House’s flash fiction Fridays on Twitter. They provide a prompt; you deliver a story in one tweet. It’s that “simple.”

I can’t wait for Fridays any longer.

I’ve opened up a new twitter account where I will be posting my “short” fictions (which will also be delivered on here). Feel free to follow me on both platforms and join in on the writing fun. Drop me your latest works to share or suggest prompts— I’m game for everything.

Keep practicing,

Any

This is incredible. 

When #HHfiction started a couple months ago, I was hoping it would create a wider literary community online and inspire people to write more. However, seeing something happen is different from hoping it would happen. This post popped up on my tracked Hugo House tags last week, and it blew me away.

I love using the internet to help deepen our love for and our skill in creating fiction. Whether it’s meeting other writers and getting inspired on Twitter, or creating Tumblrs to help us further connect with the online literary community. This is the age we live in. It’s a technological age and I think it’s brilliant. Writers who shun this kind of thing can keep on shunning it, but for those of us who use the tools we have at our disposal, the internet can be a place where we branch out. We sharpen our skills, meet people who inspire us, and forge encouraging friendships… and for the typical hermit-like writer, that’s a big thing. 

So keep writing, writers. Any way you can. On a napkin, on your hand, on your phone, and here on the Internet!

And to any of you other #HHfiction writers: Tell me if you’re taking your Friday fiction further! I’d love to know and give your efforts a similar shout out!

sarahsamudre: It’s Friday! That means that once again, I’m running #HHfiction, Richard Hugo House’s flash fiction workshop, on Twitter. Share a story, with the hashtag, and have fun writing and reading other stories as you follow the tag. Today’s prompt is “Discovery” and we’ve already had some great stories posted. I hope you tumblroos will join in~ Log onto Twitter and share your stories!

sarahsamudre:

It’s Friday! That means that once again, I’m running #HHfiction, Richard Hugo House’s flash fiction workshop, on Twitter. Share a story, with the hashtag, and have fun writing and reading other stories as you follow the tag. Today’s prompt is “Discovery” and we’ve already had some great stories posted.

I hope you tumblroos will join in~

Log onto Twitter and share your stories!

“Rowling wrote Hermione to eschew stereotypes. She doesn’t end up with the hero; she is never there to function as Harry’s love interest. She prefers Arithmancy to Divination in school. Hermione is also a total badass, despite her prim and proper reputation. (…) So often, female characters are allowed to be aggressive or rebellious, but in exchange are stripped of any traditionally feminine qualities and instead are forced to pick up traditionally masculine traits. However, Hermione is never made to do that. Most notably, she is written to be highly logical AND emotionally expressive, a combination not commonly afforded to most of today’s leading ladies.”

Liz Feuerbach, The Women of The Harry Potter Universe (via writingadvice)

(via jennhoney)

#HHfiction Later today on Twitter!

Here at the Hugo House, we’re constantly looking for ways in which to grow and enrich our  literary community. This day and age, that means going beyond the classes and readings we host here, and connecting with people who love to write online. Our main goal is, as ever, to get people in here so that we can continue providing great opportunity for writers in the Pacific Northwest. However, Twitter is a great place to meet up and write in a new way, and hopefully, give you a taste of the passion for literature you’ll find if you come and take a class with us in the future.

 

Every Friday we host #HHfiction on Twitter, our way of building our literary community and encouraging other writers online. It’s hosted from 3 pm to 6 pm on Fridays, although our social media intern does check the account late Friday and on the weekend, so late entries are still encouraged.

Why write a story on Twitter? Other than getting a chance to collaborate and meet other writers in a new setting, it’s a great way to work on things like word choice. Every week, you’ll be encouraged to pack as much plot into a tweet as you can. This means a greater focus on word choice than you may normally give to your stories. The incredible constraint of a single tweet pushes us to focus on words we normally wouldn’t reach for to communicate ideas in as short a space as possible.

Every week a prompt is picked and you have 140 characters, not including the hashtag “#HHfiction”, to write a story. For those who want more details about how to use Twitter to participate, or a better explanation of why we’re doing this on Twitter,read “Exercises in Brevity”, our post on the launch of this weekly event.

Here are a few from last week’s prompt, “Battles”. People interpreted it both realistically and also with a nod towards Harry Potter in honor of the film’s opening last Friday….

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