Flash Fiction Challenges... what's the point?

I had the idea the other day, but I've been kind of busy.  My parents were in town to celebrate a just-a-little-late Christmas, and were here until early this afternoon.  And kids have been out of school and driving us all a little batty.  Thursday they go back.  It will be a long few days...  >.<

Anyway!  I had this idea for this posting and may not be quite as coherent about it all as the day I thought of it.  But here you go.

The point of my little fiction writing challenges!  Why do I do these?  Why do I host them?  Why do I try and get other people doing them too?  Why are the prizes my own work?  Here's my line of thinking on the subject:


Why do I do the challenges in the first place?
I started doing the challenges for myself.  Because I need to work on my beginning-middle-end. I need to work on my conflict and resolution.  I need to work on being concise.  I need to work on getting better about deadlines.  So I decided to prompt myself and get myself working at least weekly on something fictional.


Why do I host challenges?
Well, largely because I can.  If I'm going to challenge myself to do this, I want it to be READABLE.  So I write mine, then post it for the world to see.  This makes me work harder than I might if it was just for me and nobody would ever see it until I'd edited it 100 times.   I figure if I'm that way, other writer-peoples will be too.  So I share my ideas and try to spurn yours.



Why do I try and get other people doing them too? 
I like having people kind of keep me accountable on keeping these going.  If it's just me all by myself, it's a lot easier to procrastinate and put things off again and again (I'm a fucking expert at that!).  I need someone to kick me in my enormous ass if I don't get moving for one week.  I haven't slipped up yet, at least on posting the challenges.  I didn't manage to get last week's done on time, but I do plan on writing it.  And then writing this week's too.  *nod*

But I like to think someone would notice and care if I missed a week, and yell at me for it.  There, you have permission to yell at me if I miss one.  You can quote me on it if you must.  ;)



Why are the prizes my own work?

Because I am a lowly upstart writer and that's what I have to offer, mostly.  If you win a few times over and don't have anything else I can send you as a prize, I'm happy to edit something for you, within reason.  I have a family and I work outside the house too, so I only have so much time, but if you win, it's only fair you earn something, eh?  :)

Also, maybe it's a little bit selfish or self-serving or whatever, BUT, I also figure getting my work into the hands of other writers is something like free advertising if the people who read it happen to like it.  You are free to post reviews on Amazon if you happen to win, finish something, and feel the need!  :)

SO, if you are thinking about hosting your own challenges, that's my little bitty distracted line of thinking on it.  At least some of it.  I'm sure I have 1800 more reasons floating about in my head but I can't think of them right this second.  ;)

Anyway!  Get to work!  I see you over there.  Yeah, you with the cookies.  Get yourself a cup of tea, cocoa, or coffee, and get to work!  No, put down the remote.  Put away Facebook.  Buckle down.  At least for a little while.

You'll thank me for it later.  Promise.

In Which I Give a Mini Update

Orange juice, check!  Breakfast sandwich from cheap fast food place, check!  Tiny round wanna-be-potato thingies, check!

Ok, I'm up, I'm up!  Stop your nagging!  And the kids DID get to school...  only slightly late.  Nice start to my day, eh?  I'm trying to make up for it with food.

So last night, my assumptions were all proven correct.  I can't drink, not even wine, not even slowly, and get ANY work done.  I had guessed it, but wanted to try it out.  Usually it's my Absolut Citron with Simply Lemonade (Raspberry, please!) and that makes me more fun-drunk than simply laid back.  So last night, I got myself a bottle of Moscato d'Asti from Costco (I love you Costco!), and proceeded with my experiment.

Utter fail.  Nope, can't write.  Was trying to read instead, my new lovely book on writing (because, well, if you can't write, you may as well read about writing, right?  Were there enough "write" sounds in that sentence?  Writey writey write write, right?), Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey....  I had already finished the shorter writing book-thingy by the same most excellent writer dude, 250 Things You Should Know About Writing~  I couldn't read without getting overly tired either.  Damn it.  So I decided to watch a movie instead.  Watch a movie I knew I liked, but had not seen in a while, and pay attention to the STORY behind the visuals.  Let the story take me away...

So I did.  And it was not as awesome a movie as I remember, but I now have a child the age of the one the Main Character lost in an accident, so I got all teary and blubbery anyway.  Ah well, such is life.

Anyway, so the ramble ramble here is all gearing up to why I'm trying to crank out words!  I'm nearing completion on the first draft of a book I've been working on.  I started this one for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, in 2009, and I got to my 50k words and walked away even though it wasn't done.  I'm picking it back up, seeing where it goes, and taking it for a spin.  I'm about 79k words in right now, and have the end mapped out.  Just have to do the leg work!  And then, well, edit it about a gajillion times before I'm willing to let people look at it.  Well, unless you peek at my NaNo page, where I failed hard last year, and read the little excerpt.

So, I'm all quiet-like here, but I promise, I really am working.  ;)  Pinkie swear!