As some of you may know, last year was my year of Flash Fiction. I put out 42 pieces of Flash Fiction, mostly as part of my Friday Flash efforts. Some additional Flash Fiction was posted here on Fiction with Friction as well.
At the end of the year, I had to sit back and re-evaluated where my time was being spent and I realized that I needed to cut back on the Friday Flashes and spend that creative energy and time on the stories I needed to finish that were either contracted or requested by my editors. (Okay, okay, I realized it AFTER my friends Tayla and Jo beat me over the head with 20lb sledgehammers and threatened me with coffee and chocolate abstinence. It worked, what can I say?)
This was surprisingly hard for me. My first male/male romance, Giving Thanks, has already done extremely well but I’m still afraid people won’t continue to read my books. The Flashes also did great things for my blog traffic and kept people coming back.
But it HAD to give.
I put a poll up on my blog for a month, asking people’s opinions of what they thought I should do.
This week I decided to use the next few Fridays for a series on Flash Fiction, how to write it, some of my own inspirations and what happened to them and then end in a contest where the winner of a drawing from among the commenters for the length of the series can give me 4 prompts and a sexuality preference and I’d use those to write a flash.
So stop by my main main blog and enter the drawing by commenting on the Friday Flash How To Series from today on. Let me know what you think, what you’ve gotten from Flash Fiction (mine, your own, other people’s).
At the end of the series, I’ll also let folks know what my decision is on the future of the Friday Flashes.
Written by Maura Anderson
Maura began writing on a whim and writing male/male romance on a dare. She enjoyed the results so much that her muse can't seem to turn off the ideas and she continues to write stories about acceptance, being true to one's self and love.
Visit The Author's Website
Tags: fiction, Maura Anderson
Sage wrote,
Sounds interesting — I’ll head on over there…
BTW, I loved Giving Thanks (though I bought it after the new year!) I am an aspiring writer myself, and I will tell you what many authors have told me… if you are a good writer, the people will come and read your works no matter what.
How can one forget the name of someone who has written a well piece of work? They are only gonna keep looking to see what is new — and in that vein, a little patience on the reader’s part will do them some good — they will apprechiate your efforts even more!
Link | January 10th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Maura Anderson wrote,
Thanks Sage!
I’m thrilled you enjoyed Giving Thanks!
I’m told the same thing and I think the issue is more my own emotional issue than one where me readers will just dump me :)
Link | January 10th, 2009 at 12:11 pm