It’s that time of year again. The clock is ticking on 2013. If we haven’t fulfilled our resolutions by now, it’s almost certainly too late. But most of you are probably already contemplating your pledges for 2014. Hopefully that includes a fair bit of writing in your future.

If you don’t have something specific in mind, then I invite you to join me on the Twelve Month Writing Challenge. Each month I will write one short story entirely within that month. By the end of the year, I’ll have a collection 12 stories.*

Here are the rules:

1. Each story must be completed within a month
2. The title of each story must include the name of the month
3. Each story must be posted publicly by the end of the month
4. Each story must be accompanied by an original photograph that is thematically related and which was taken during that month
5. At the end of the year, the 12 stories must be collected into one volume and made available to readers for free
6. Minor editing can take place subsequently, but the writing for each story is finished when the month ends

Please note that there is no restriction in terms of content or story length. The story doesn’t have to be related to the month. For example, March can refer to the month, the verb, or the hare. The idea is to create a construct that will help motivate you to write, and to write publicly, while still allowing for a great deal of freedom. By the end of the year, we should all have something to share with readers. That’s the whole point.

I’ll be posting my finished collection as a free download on Amazon and other online bookstores. If you don’t have a place to post your work, submit it to me and I’ll be happy to post yours stories on my blog.**

I’ll be tweeting updates throughout the year using the hashtag #12monthchallenge and I encourage all of you to do the same. We can help motivate each other and provide feedback. If you’re worried about the time commitment, don’t be. Each story can be 100 words or even shorter. In fact, it’s better to set small goals and exceed them than to intend to write a novella each month and give up half-way through January.

Happy New Year everyone and I look forward to reading your stories.

*No need to double check that math. That’s cold, hard fact!

I’m glad you asked. For something so brief, flash fiction has origins going back thousands of years, all the way to Aesop and his fables. Historical practitioners included Saadi of Shiraz, Bolesław Prus*, Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Franz Kafka, H.P. Lovecraft, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, and Lydia Davis. But it has only been the past couple of decades that the genre has thrived. Outlets for publication of flash fiction, with names such as SmokeLong Quarterly, Flash Fiction Online, and Vestal Review, have proliferated in print and on the Internet, a probable reflection of our shortening attention spans.

*I have no idea who Bolesław Prus is, but the awesomeness of his name demanded his inclusion.

Broadly speaking, flash fiction is a style of narrative marked by its brevity, with stories ranging from as long as 1,000 words to as short as six. They might have an upper word limit, or they may proscribe an exact word count. Through the years, flash fiction has been gifted with many names, including sudden fiction, microfiction, micro-story, short short, postcard fiction, prosetry, and short short story.

Bear in mind, no matter how long or short, to qualify as an actual story a piece must have a beginning, middle, and end. It makes the idea of six-word fiction seem nearly impossible. However, the following story, commonly attributed to Earnest Hemingway, stretches the nanolimits of fiction:

“For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

The first two words form the hook, creating the question of what’s for sale, before immediately supplying the answer, ‘baby shoes.’ The action quickly moves to the conclusion, as we learn the tragic fate of the child meant to wear those shoes. In six simple words, we’re given all the ingredients for a complete narrative.

It seems unlikely that Hemingway actually wrote the above story, as its first recorded mention was in a 1996 play by John DeGroot about Hemingway’s life, entitled Papa. Nevertheless, it is one of the most remarkable examples of flash fiction we have today and neatly illustrates the power of the genre. Not only does it break down the necessary ingredients for a story to their most fundamental level, it does so with emotional resonance.

At A Story In 100 Words, we’ve found that what began as a daily writing exercise has helped us improve as writers, grow more precise and efficient in our use of language, and become much more popular with our friends. In fact, we could not recommend the endeavor more emphatically, whether you are an aspiring writer or just wish to find a new avenue for expressing your creativity.

But the question we are most often asked is why does it have to be exactly 100 words. Why not provide a word range, say, 75-150 words? That would certainly seem reasonable, especially if the aim is to inspire us to write a complete story every day. Who wants to be counting words and obsessing over the fact we exceeded our limit?

As it turns out, the word restriction is the most essential element of our daily writing exercise. Having an exact word limit will task your writing skills in a way a more liberal policy cannot. Economy becomes a virtue more essential than vocabulary or grammar. All other considerations are secondary, as the restriction will force you to discover the simplest means for relaying an idea, much like a city surveyor lays out roads in the most direct manner possible (except in the city of Louisville).

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the many ways short fiction can improve your writing:

Practice

The first advice for any aspiring writer is no secret: WRITE. If you want to be a carpenter, you need to practice using the tools. Astronauts don’t get into outer space until they’ve had thousands of flight hours. If your desire is to become a writer, you need to work at writing stories.

I often hear people express a desire to write but make excuses for why they don’t have the time. EVERYONE has time to write a daily 100-word story. You can finish one in less than 15 minutes. Your first attempts may not be as god as you hoped, but it doesn’t take long before you see improvement.

Economy

Writers must often convey complex ideas in a concise manner. Nothing can be more useful in honing this skill than writing to a word count, especially a short one. With only 100 words in your arsenal, you can’t afford to waste any. After a few months, you’ll be producing prose of which Hemingway would be proud.

Creativity

One of my biggest worries when I set out to write a daily 100-word story was that I’d repeat myself or run out of new ideas. Two years on, and I’m still surprising myself with the stories I come up with. It turns out, the more often you write, the more ideas you generate.

Even so, it helps to have some new sources of inspiration, especially as you are starting out. Here are some hints on how to keep things fresh*:

• Keep a notebook and jot down ideas.
• Look for inspiration in the books and articles you read, or the movies you watch.
• Ask people for prompts. For example, I wrote the story, “Black Market Tears” based on a prompt from a friend.
• Mix and match ideas. Think about someone you know and imagine her in an unusual situation. Take two prompts and combine them into one story.
• Try to write a story in a particular style, genre, or voice. I did an entire month of genre stories (Thriller, Western, Joyce) and found it particularly invigorating.
• Jot down ideas until something sticks.
• Don’t let bad stories get you down. Not every story will be a triumph. You’ll appreciate the good ones all the more when you struggle through some bad ones.

*See Appendix Two for more ideas on inspiration.

Voice

Writing a new story every day is a great way to experiment with voice. You can switch between first and third person. You can give second person a try. You can write from the perspective of all sorts of characters, people that you would never have imagined could help drive a story. 100 words don’t amount to much, but it’s just enough to get a tease of a character or style. Today you might try to mimic Hemingway, tomorrow Dostoevsky, and the day after Austen.

Accomplishment

Beyond all these technical points of writing, however, I have always believed the most important reason for writing a 100 word story every day is the sense of accomplishment. After just a few weeks, you can look back and find you’ve actually built up a body of work.

With any creative endeavor, the chief reward should be the feeling of elation that is achieved. This is true whether you are writing for an audience of millions or your immediate friends and family. Don’t worry about ‘how good’ something is, just write. Every time you finish a 100-word story, rest assured that you are 100 words better as a writer.

The Failings of 100 words

For all of its benefits, the 100-word limit is not perfect. Sometimes, no matter how lean your prose, it’s impossible to fit everything you have to say into a set number of words. I chip and chisel and pare down the sentences and find that what I’m left with doesn’t express exactly what I intended.

“Ghost Story” is a good example. It could really use another sentence or two to get across the original idea, that Jackson is thoroughly uninterested in the ghost of his dead wife until he gets fired and realizes he can use it as an excuse. The perfect story should not be written with a word count in mind, but should use the exact number of words necessary to convey what you want to say.

There are plenty of other stories that feel incomplete. They introduce a character or a situation that is worthy of further exploration but leave the reader hanging. You should always remember the 100-word story is not the destination, but is part of the journey. Some of your stories will be perfect at 100 words, but others will be teasers for future stories of more depth. That is as it should be.

Unless you’re writing for a specific publication, don’t force yourself to make a 150 word story fit into 100 words. The 100-word exercise can help make you a better writer in all the ways mentioned above, but don’t stick to it even when it doesn’t make sense. As a writer, you set the rules, and you know when to break them.

The Oregon Trail trip is in support of my upcoming novel, Quitting The Grave. I will be filming a series of mini documentaries that will accompany the digital version of the book.

To learn more about the novel and to follow along with my trip, you can visit my Facebook page.

It’s down to nail-biting time for my Kickstarter, in support of my novel Quitting the Grave. If you are a fan of this website, please consider contributing. Even a small amount will make a huge difference.

For 5 dollars, you’ll receive a copy of my collection of microfiction, Picasso Painted Dinosaurs. For 10 dollars, you’ll also get a copy of Quitting The Grave.

You can also help out massively by sharing the link to my Kickstarter with your friends and family. You can read more about the project on the Kickstarter page or on Facebook, but I’ll just reiterate that I’ve made a firm commitment to publish as an independent author, which means I need to work extra hard to find my audience. The fact that you’re on this website indicates you should at least take the time to go read about the project.

The book sells for the low and extremely reasonable price of $2.00. It features original artwork by Seattle artist Mike Simon. It includes two essays on finding inspiration and writing flash fiction. It will make you a better person. Korean parents give it to their children because it will make them taller.*

Here are the links:

Amazon
iTunes
Barnes And Noble
Sony

The book is called Picasso Painted Dinosaurs, and it sells for the low and extremely reasonable price of $2.00. It features original artwork by Seattle artist Mike Simon. It includes 100 100 word stories, plus two essays on finding inspiration and writing flash fiction. I can promise there’s something for everyone. If you don’t like it, I will make you a pancake breakfast.*

Here are the links:

Amazon
iTunes
Barnes And Noble
Sony

And as an added thank you to all of you for your support, here is a picture of Vicki from Small Wonder:

Thanks for your support.

So what is Picasso Painted Dinosaurs? It’s an e-book collection of Microfiction, 100 100 word stories to be exact. Some stories will be familiar if you are a regular reader here, but the majority are brand new, never before read, exclusive stories that will only be found in this e-book. In addition, the collection includes two essays that I wrote, one on the Art of Microfiction, and another on Finding Daily Inspiration. Most fabulous of all, the collection features original artwork from Mike Simon.

This Kickstarter is something of a test run. We’re only asking for $300, enough for us to publish the book across all major e-book platforms, including iBooks, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. In the future, we’ll be launching more ambitious projects, including a multimedia version of my long-gestating novel, Quitting The Grave.

Please donate now. Even the minimum contribution of two dollars will make a difference in us reaching our goal. And even if you don’t donate, tell your friends about the project. The most important thing for us at this point is to get the word out.