So recently I did my first short story challenge.
The idea is to ask people for suggestions of an opening sentence and then go on to write a (somewhat coherent) short story from that. The main point of it, of course, is to get more disciplined with my writing - but also it allows me to associate ideas and stories from other people’s random garblings and in turn, to practice my creative writing a little bit.
Since most of this blog has been non-fiction writing, it's a welcome change.
So let me outline a couple of rules to help me keep disciplined:
1) Open to suggestions for an hour or two and then I haveto choose one. Once chosen I will notify the thread and discount any offerings made after that.
2) I have until the next day (the finishing point being when I have to have uploaded it to my blog before the end of the day) to complete the story. This is to force a time limit on myself so that will force myself to write as well as practicing general speed writing.
3) The story needs to start with the chosen opening sentence with exactly as it is written, with the exception of spelling and grammar.
4) The content of the story needs to be adequately connected with the opening line and not just used as a non-sequitur going in to something else that is totally unrelated.
5) The story has to be at least 500 words, but not to exceed too far over that amount.
6) Once the blog has uploaded (pic optional), I can post the link up on FB along with the winner and their chosen sentence.
As long as I stick to this way of working it should be ok. If you want to check my first effort, click HERE. I’m going to try and aim to do one every week.
Laters ‘gaters!
12 July 2012
0 comments:
Post a Comment