Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Micro Fiction March Writing Challenge



Now, those of you who have been reading this blog for many years will know that I am not adverse to the idea of a writing challenge. After all, I created and successfully completed one in 2012 and then failed in 2015 (wiping out on Day 13) and then failed even more convincingly in 2019 (when things went totally pear-shaped by Day 8). But, even the writing challenges that ended up fizzling out like a damp squib resulted in me writing some stories that I ended up reasonably proud of, so I figured it was about time that I tried again. So, welcome, to the Micro Fiction March Writing Challenge...

So how does this one work Oliver, I hear you ask...

Well, it's a Micro Fiction challenge. Which means that each day involves a maximum of 300 words. 

Which, unfortunately, isn't as easy as it sounds because - with only 300 words to play with - you really have to make sure that you've picked the right words. There's no room for waffle and fluff. No walls of meandering text. Just lean and mean prose.

The rest is simple. Every day, there's a new challenge. Some of them are a title to build a story around, others contain a vague description. I've tried to ensure there's a degree of ambiguity here, so that people can interpret things as they wish.

Don't worry if you don't manage to find time or inspiration to finish them all. And don't worry if you end up going over the 300 word limit. Just use this as an opportunity to have fun and explore your creativity. 

And so, without further ado, the challenges:

1 - The Tide
2 - The Last Stop 
3 - A children's story
4 - A poem
5 - First person train journey
6 - The Procession
7 - Rewind
8 - Fictional Academic Writing
9.- A con written in second person
10 - Honour Among Thieves
11 - Living The Dream
12 - Your Worst Holiday
13 - Only Dialogue
14 - Sorry
15 -  A bright memory
16 -  In the style of...
17 -  Burning Out
18 - Carapace
19 -  No repeated words
20 -  A genre you've never written in
21 - Addicted To That Rush
22 - The Spire
23 - A childhood memory
24 - A moment you'd time travel to
25 - The Long Game
26 - When It Rains
27 - Horror in rhyming couplets
28 - Inspired by a video game
29 - Cancel Culture
30 - An ordinary moment from yesterday
31 - All Good Things...

And that's it. Have fun with Micro Fiction March; and, if you do take part, please feel free to let me know in the comments so that I can read what you've written...