The Write-In

Saturday, 15 June 2024

NFFD 2024 Prompt #4: Fast Burn

Prompt #4: Fast Burn
FIRE prompt A

Welcome to The Write-In! This year, we're celebrating the 2024 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of The Classical Elements - Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one time-related prompt on the hour every hour from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all. You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In. We'll start posting responses on Sunday, 16 June 2024....

It's the 13th year of National Flash Fiction Day, so let's celebrate in style with this prompt. Write a micro flash of exactly 13 words. Give it a title.

The title does not count towards the word count. Hyphenated words and words with apostrophes count as one word. For example, ‘five-o’clock shadow’ would count as two words.

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 4: Fast Burn.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 16 June 2024 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting the badgifier here (hosted by the NFFD website).

Image by freepik

NFFD 2024 Prompt #3: Why on Earth?

Prompt #3:Why on Earth?
EARTH prompt A

Write a flash or micro in which every sentence includes at least one use of the word 'why'.

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 3: Why on Earth?.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 16 June 2024 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting the badgifier here (hosted by the NFFD website).

Photo by Alin Andersen via unsplash

NFFD 2024 Prompt #2: Bread Upon Water

Prompt #2: Bread Upon Water
WATER prompt A

Write a story in the form of an ingredient list. This could be the ingredient list for a recipe, a list of ingredients in a cupboard or fridge, the ingredient list on the back of a package, or whatever else you can imagine.

(Your story doesn't have to involve bread or water; we were just shoe-horning a water-themed title into this hermit crab prompt!)

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

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 16 June 2024 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting the badgifier here (hosted by the NFFD website).

Thank you to Audrey Niven at The Propelling Pencil for this prompt.

Image by azerbaijan_stockers on Freepik

NFFD 2024 Prompt #1: Castles in the Air

Prompt #1: Castles in the Air
AIR prompt A

Pick a fairy tale, fable or folk story. Write a version of it where you change at least one very important element. Maybe Sleeping Beauty has insomnia. Maybe it's Little Red Riding Hood's Grandmother who eats the Wolf. Maybe Pinocchio's nose grows but he's actually telling the truth....

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 1: Castles in the Air.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 16 June 2024 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting the badgifier here (hosted by the NFFD website).

Photo by Simon Berger via unsplash

NFFD 2024 Prompt #0: Braving the Elements

Prompt #0: Braving the Elements
ELEMENTS prompt A

For the first challenge of 2024, write a four-sentence story that includes all four classical elements: 'earth', 'air', 'water' and 'fire'.

You are welcome to use these words in any derived form...'earthen', 'watered', 'airy', etc. are all fine.

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

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 16 June 2024 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting the badgifier here (hosted by the NFFD website).

Image by bedneyimages on Freepik

Friday, 14 June 2024

Badges are BACK for NFFD 2024!

Badges are BACK for National Flash Fiction Day 2024!

Just to make things a little more fun, we have a set of virtual badges that you can download if you finish each prompt, and a few more that you can find when you explore other National Flash Fiction Day activities.

These are all honour-system badges; they'll become available to download as the prompts go live (possibly with a little lag). You can find out more and see a list of all the badges available to collect here.

Happy writing!

Sunday, 9 June 2024

Write-In 2024: New Prompts Launch at 00:01 BST on 15 June 2024!

Not long now!

National Flash Fiction Day
15 June 2024

This year, we're celebrating the 2024 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of The Classical Elements - Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one time-related prompt on the hour every hour from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.

You have until midnight on Sunday, 16 June (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In. We'll start posting responses on Sunday and continue until we've read all of your wonderful words....

You can find full details on our Submit page.

Due to the increasing popularity of this event, we are now nominating work for awards such as Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.

We look forward to writing with you!

Photo by Agê Barros on Unsplash

Friday, 2 February 2024

2023 Best Small Fictions Nominations

Every year we are more and more impressed with the quality of submissions and the wide variety of stories that come through our queue -- no mean feat when authors only have a weekend to write, polish and submit their work. This year, we've decided to start nominating work for awards. It's a nice chance for us to honour some of our authors, and with luck, introduce some of our Write-In stories to wider audiences.

Congratulations to the following stories and authors, whom we've nominated for this year's Best Small Fictions: