Flash Fiction is a literary form that takes a few elements, and tells a story very quickly.

It’s a great tool for a writer to have in their writer’s toolbelt! It is difficult to write a good Flash Fiction story, but it also feels very good–like stretching muscles during a workout makes a person feel healthy and fit.

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway once made a bet with some other writers that he could write a short story in six words. He won the bet with this short story that contains all the elements of a story (beginning, middle, end), as well as conveying emotion and creating a bigger story, as it allows the reader to fill in the blanks of the story and continue writing it in their head and heart:

Flash Fiction is a style of story telling that very quickly creates a compelling story without wasting a lot of words, but still has a beginning, middle, end, compelling story line, interesting characters, and a plot twist that leaves the reader thinking about the story long after the words have been read. Writing Flash Fiction is a great skill to learn.

Sign up for the Flash Fiction Online Writing Class for assignments, examples, video instruction, feedback, writing prompts, and mentoring from writers to learn how to write in this style. Publishing opportunities available, too.

Free gift for you! Download the first Flash Fiction lesson for free.

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Flash Fiction is a literary form that takes a few basic elements (larger than life character, thought-provoking story line, quick conflict), and tells a story very quickly.

Charles Dickens could probably take 14 pages to describe the wart on someone’s chin (because he was being paid by the word), but Flash Fiction tells a story in less than 1000 words, complete with interesting characters, compelling plot, established setting, etc.

Writing a Flash Fiction story, gives you another great tool to have in your writer’s toolbelt! You will be surprised at how difficult it is to write Flash Fiction–but it will also feel very good–like stretching your muscles during a workout makes you feel healthy and fit.

Sign up for the online writing classes, and be sure to take advantage of the special rate for students.

In this eight-week session of Write Now, we’ll take you through the process of writing a Flash Fiction story and explore:

• how to pick a topic
• theme
• character development
• ways to use dialog and setting to enhance the story
• and then we’ll write it, and revise it, talk about it, and share it!
• And you might be invited to publish your story!

One winner will receive an eight-week membership to Write Now for this Flash Fiction session.

You can have more entries by sharing, too! Tell your writing friends and share this on your Facebook pages!

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The winner of the Grand Prize Student Writing Contest is:

Rachael M. The Dawn Bringers’ Prophecy

Rachael is fifteen years old. Her interests vary widely, but her true passion is to create honest stories that her readers will enjoy. She strives to execute those stories well, so that the struggles and strife of the characters, and their ultimate victories, encourage her audience by reflecting the hardships of real life. This led her to write about Audren, a young, out-of-place prince who lives in a time when the world is turned upside down, and there seems to be no way to turn it back again.

Rachael also enjoys the art and storytelling style of Japanese-style animation, and is currently writing a graphic novel, called a manga, and dreams of eventually animating it. She has won numerous writing awards, such as the Master of the Written Word award, and several 4-H awards for presentations which she wrote and presented at both regional and state levels.

She is also passionate about training and riding horses, and is currently training her two horses to compete in endurance races. She enjoys broadsword and kung-fu lessons, as well as longbow and compound bow hunting in the mountains around her home, and often draws upon her knowledge of weaponry in her writing.

The Injoy Team is looking forward to working with Rachael to design her book cover, help her complete her book, and then edit and format it, print it, help her market it, award her free copies, and publish it to e-book and print.

Anyone can write a book, but it takes talent to write a short story!

To establish interesting characters, create a compelling plot, and weave in conflict and resolution in less than 1000 words takes skill and effort!

Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature that can be as short as 300 words, or might be capped at a 1000 word limit. It’s kind of a break-time story; flash fiction is the kind of story you can sit down and read while eating a candy bar during break-time. And wouldn’t you like to write a story that leaves the reader going back to work wondering about what might happen next?!

The next session of Write Now will explore the elements of a good short story.

When you subscribe to Write Now, you will have the opportunity to participate in online classes that contain some of these features:

• writing lessons
• feedback and critique from authors and writing coaches
• opportunity to interact with other writers
• chances to see your writing published
• videos and other resources
• encouragement
• writing tips
• Q & A and more

The fee to sign up for a whole month of Write Now writing lessons is less than you would pay for one piano lesson or one movie; you can unsubscribe at any time.

Click here to enroll in the next session of Write Now for the student rate of  $7.95 per month; you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button.

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 Quicksilver

Point of view is how the story-teller views the story.

What do they see? How? Why?

Common Points of View:

•     First Person (a character is telling the story, and you only know what they know). Uses I, me, my a lot.
•     Second Person (written as though the reader is the main character: you jump out of bed, and suddenly realized that you aren’t in Kansas anymore). Uses you.
•     Third Person (written from a character or narrator or some other observer’s point of view). Uses he, she, they, it.
•    Omniscient and Limited Omniscient: the person telling the story is all-knowing. They know what everyone is thinking, and feeling, and what they have done or are going to do. Uses person’s names.

Writing Exercise:

Just for fun, take a common nursery rhyme, and retell it from a different point of view in less than 300 or 400 words. Use the selected example of Humpty Dumpty, or pick another one you like– maybe Jack and Jill, or Alice in Wonderland, or Mary had a little lamb.

Example:  Humpty Dumpty is told from third person (they couldn’t put him back together again). Try writing it from another point of view.

• First person: I was sitting on a wall, and the wind began to blow, and I began to totter, and. . .
• Second person: You’re sitting on a wall, and suddenly you’re not. Suddenly you realize you have egg on your face. . .
• Third person: Try writing this from the perspective of a bystander, or one of the king’s men. “Hey, does anyone have any superglue?” one of the men called out, as he knelt beside the wall. . .
• Omniscient: There was a loud crack as the egg splatted on the ground. Meanwhile, in the castle, the king’s men were putting on their armor. . .

After you finish your point of view writing exercise, try writing from another point of view. Then go to your bookshelf and see if you have an old nursery rhyme book, and identify all the points of view in the rhymes. It’s good practice!

To subscribe to to Write Now online writing workshops, click here.

To sign up for Student Writing Lessons for $7.95 monthly, click the subscribe button.

Write Now Online Writing Workshop

Write Now is an online writing workshop experience which includes weekly writing help in the form of optional assignments, encouragement, writing tips, and critique to make your story even better. You will have access to writing exercises, Q&A, chats, videos, and more. The cost to participate in the Write Now online workshops is $9.95 per month. You can cancel at any time. To enroll in Write Now,  simply click the subscribe button.

 Student Writing Lessons

We also offer a special discounted Write Now! for students. The student rate for writing lessons is $7.95 per month.  To enroll in the Student Writing Lessons, click the subscribe button.

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Laurel Popejoy is our head Graphic Designer. She loves coffee, studying food and cultures of the world, photography, graphic design (of course ), Neckties (check out her Etsy Account!), Crafting, good books, comfy window seats, warm southern weather, and sweet tea!

Here are a few examples of Laurel’s bookcovers!  Need a cover designed?  Email us!

Injoy, Inc. specializes in helping authors go to the next level with their writing.

Our writing contest isn’t just to pick a winner, but to help develop a writer.

If you have talent and ability as a writer, we want to recognize that talent and help you to develop it.

Do you have a great idea for a book? Do you envision interesting characters, a suspenseful plot, an underlying theme that tells a great message?

We can help you finish your book. We can help you publish your book.

We will select the writing samples that show promise and talent, and we will work with you over four to six weeks to develop a proposal that outlines your book, puts together a timeline for completion, and defines your characters, plot, setting, and story line. From the proposals, we’ll select the grand prize winner, and work with the winner to complete their book, and then let them watch as it goes through the process of having a cover designed, manuscript edited, text formatted, book published, and more. In the publishing world, it takes many months to go from manuscript to market. We want to begin the process and get you on the road to a successful journey as a writer.

So, you don’t have to be close to finishing your book to work with Injoy, Inc. Have you check out the Writing Contest? Part of the prize of the contest is having the Injoy Team help you, and encourage you, and offer tools to help you finish your book. That’s the fun of writing–the process, and we want to share that with you!

Injoy!

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Are you busy writing, tweaking, and revising your writing sample for the Injoy, Inc. writing contest?

You don’t have to write a whole book. You don’t have to be almost finished with your book.

We just want to see a sample of your writing so we can see your writing style, and how you put words together, and what kind of characters and dialog you use in your fiction writing. If you’re writing a nonfiction book, we just want to see how your express your ideas on your topic.

Your sample can be one chapter from anywhere in your book. Your sample can be one chapter from the front, and one from the middle OR back of the book.

Maybe you haven’t even started writing your book, and you just have a great idea. Well, go to one of your favorite spots where you can think. Take a notebook and a couple fresh pens, and begin writing. Just begin to create your characters and your world—or just jump into the middle of the story and write a really fun and interesting scene!

Writers love deadlines, and even if you think you don’t have time to enter this writing contest, YOU CAN STILL WRITE A WINNING ENTRY by February 28th!

A good writer can sit down and write for a couple hours, and then lay it aside, come back and review it, lay it aside, and go away and think about it, and then come back and revise and proofread and edit, and be ready to submit their writing sample for the writing contest right here.

If you are selected as a finalist, then we’ll help you put together your proposal (some sample chapters, your characters outlined, a listing of calendar dates of when you will submit your chapters and the final manuscript, and your ideas for the final book). From those proposals, we’ll select the grand prize winner, and help them finish and publish their book.

You could be our next author. Check out these book covers from some of our other student authors.

Have more questions? Read our Frequently Asked Questions, and if you still have a question, you can contact us here, or come over to our Facebook page, like it, and ask your question there.

A. Absolutely. Part of the prize is having the Injoy team help you finish your book. The finalists are selected from the quality of their writing sample and book idea. We’ll work with the finalists to submit a professional book proposal that has a few sample chapters, a time-line for when the book is expected to be completed, and other info that a publisher wants to see in a book proposal. The grand prize winner will then work with Injoy to publish their book based on the deadlines they have helped establish in their time-line—it’s the real publishing process you’ll be experiencing.

A. Yes. You may submit more than one entry in the writing contest. Students (eighteen and under on April 30, 2013) can even enter both the student and the adult contest with the same entry. The finalists are selected primarily on the quality of their writing sample, so just be sure to submit your best work for each entry.

A. Yes. The length of the finished manuscript will be determined by writer and publisher in the proposal process. Some books are complete at 30,000 words. Some–are much longer! Finalists will work with the Injoy team to estimate an appropriate word length for their proposed manuscript.

A. Yes. Finalists will be selected on the quality of their writing, and their book idea. Nonfiction books require a different proposal process than fiction books, but the Injoy team will help finalists prepare a nonfiction book proposal to enter for the grand prize.