Saturday, 13 June 2026

NFFD 2026 Prompt #8: Strange Connection

Prompt #8: Strange Connection

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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The word bridge gets used a lot as a metaphor. For this prompt, write a flash in which a bridge — an actual, physical, structural bridge — does something unexpected, means something unusual, or is used in a way bridges are not normally used.

To make this prompt extra challenging, the following are not allowed: a bridge as a suicide location, a bridge as the setting for a romantic proposal, the phrase 'build bridges', any bridge that collapses, etc.  This is your invitation to some place new, strange, uncanny, off-kilter, silly or just plain weird!

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 8: Strange Connection.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Photograph of the Golden Bridge with hand sculptures in Da Nang, Vietnam by Kirandeep Singh Walia via pexels.



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NFFD 2026 Prompt #7: Bridge the Gap


Prompt #7: Bridge the Gap

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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Write two separate flashes, each no more than 100 words (and shorter is fine), that can stand alone but are connected by a single element: an object, a phrase, a location, a gesture. The element should appear in both but mean something different in each.  Let this element bridge the gap between these two distinct pieces.

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 7: Bridge the Gap.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Photograph of Tower Bridge by Inselmann via Wikimedia Commons.




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NFFD 2026 Prompt #6: Advance

 

Prompt #6: Advance

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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Take a look at Joanna Campbell's painting, 'Advance'. This artwork features a skyline backdrop and figures casting long shadows as they move forward across a textured landscape. 

Write a story about a group of people journeying toward a shared, unknown destination at either dawn or dusk. 

To make this extra challenging, the journey must not be the result of a war, funeral, or real-life political event. What strange, exciting, or mysterious event are they walking toward?

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 6: Advance

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Artwork by Joanna Campbell.




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NFFD 2027 Prompt #5: Erosion

 

 Prompt #5: Erosion

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology Mudlarking, its theme of Bridges, and the work of NFFD's new artist-in-residence Joanna Campbell. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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Write a flash in which each sentence is at least one word shorter than the sentence before it.  

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt #5: Erosion.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Photograph by Red Zeppelin via Unsplash.




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NFFD 2026 Prompt #4: A Bridge to Nowhere?

 
 Prompt #4: A Bridge to Nowhere?

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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Write a flash in the form of directions from one place to another. The destination may be real, emotional, impossible, long-lost, underwater, fictional, or not a place at all.  

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 4: A Bridge to Nowhere?

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Photo of Golden Gate Bridge by Stephen Leonardi via pexels.



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NFFD 2026 Prompt #3: What the River Knows

 

Prompt #3: What the River Knows

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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Write a flash from an unusual point of view, one that is neither human nor animal. You might consider writing from the point of view of a bridge, a stretch of river, a piece of salvage, a tide, a building watching people cross below it.

To make this prompt extra challenging, your narrator should not be omniscient. They should only know what they can directly observe or have directly experienced.

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 3: What the River Knows.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Image by Abel's Shots via Unsplash.




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NFFD 2026 Prompt #2: The Arch

 

Prompt #2: The Arch

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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Write a flash of no more than 100 words that starts and ends with the same sentence. The opening and closing sentence should feel different in meaning by the time we return to it. 

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 2: The Arch.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Image by Lovely Ruby via pexels.




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NFFD 2026 Prompt #1: Mudlarking

 

 Prompt #1: Mudlarking

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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This year's anthology is called Mudlarking, the practice of searching an exposed riverbed at low tide for objects lost, discarded, or forgotten. Mudlarks find Roman coins, Victorian clay pipes, Tudor shoes, wartime buttons. The river gives things back, eventually, on its own schedule.

Write a flash in which the past surfaces unexpectedly. It does not have to involve a river or a physical item, but use the image as inspiration in some way.

To make this prompt extra challenging, avoid the following: a deathbed revelation, a found will or letter, a character discovering they were adopted, cancer, dementia, and ghosts.

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 1: Mudlarking

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Artwork by Joanna Campbell.




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NFFD 2026 Prompt #0: Water Under the Bridge

 Prompt #0: Water Under the Bridge

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.

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To kick off our series of hourly prompts, write a flash about forgiveness or reconciliation.  Use water in your story in some way, but do not use the phrase 'water under the bridge'.  

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 0: Water Under the Bridge.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.


Photograph by  Gu Bra via pexels.




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Thursday, 19 June 2025

The Write-In 2025: The Complete List

2025 Prompts

 

2025 Responses 

 

 

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