Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Writing Flash

The following is probably the shortest piece of flash fiction I have ever written.  It came out  originally to 39 words.  It is as I wrote it.  Took me about five minutes.

The weekly challenge on Lily Child's Feardom blog called for no more than 100 words that included the three words below.
  • Doom
  • Throne
  • Intrusive
The original - 39 words

The throne of a mighty civilization sat empty.  Its owner long dead and buried.  Intrusive and insistent, Mother Nature reclaimed the tumbled walls hiding Doom once again to await the next fool who felt an urge to overcome her.

The Re-write - 40 words

The throne of a once mighty civilization sat empty, its owner long dead and buried.  Intrusive and insistent, Mother Nature reclaimed the tumbled walls hiding Doom once again to await the next fool who felt an urge to challenge her.

~*~

Now that I have some serious time trying to master these Flash challenges, I have concluded that to do it well, the words just have to be there when I open up my brain.  Thinking too hard about the challenge and whatever the prompt might be tends to make me tense and more likely to flounder than if I just begin writing.  Come up with a starting sentence and go where it points me.

In addition I find that if I mess with the final product too much, I end up diluting the original idea, or worse, I lose it all together.  The above example is what I am talking about.  My re-write does not take away from what I was saying to begin with , but by just changing a word, adding another, and cleaning up some minor punctuation mistakes, I made it a better piece. 

Whether this is of any use to anyone else but me is up to anyone else but me.

See Ya.....................................................

3 comments:

BBC said...

That was pretty damn good, where America is heading.

BBC said...

In fact I'm taking a copy of it in case I decide to use it at some point. Not that I'll give you credit for saying it, as if you have ever had an original thought.

MRMacrum said...

BBC - My mom used to say there was nothing new under the Sun. So you are most likely right. Give whoever you want the credit. Or even use it as if it was your own.

I make no claim at original thought, just that what I write are my own thoughts. Whether they are influenced by and filtered through the many things I have read, seen, or heard is beside the point.