Interested in responding to the weekly flash fiction challenge?
Go to the BLOG to find the latest Flash Fiction Challenge (challenges post weekly on Thursdays under a dated title). Respond or link back to your own blog post in the comment section.
You can learn about flash fiction in this section as a writing prompt, form or tool. If you are looking for the rules of play, go to CHALLENGE RULES. If you aren’t sure how to go about writing a flash fiction, scroll down to FF RECIPES. If you want an advanced challenge, find out what’s TUFF.
You can subscribe to The Roundup to read interesting trios gathered from the previous month of responses to the Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenges.
Want to read more flash and about flash from the literary community at Carrot Ranch? Be sure to check out our first anthology, The Congress of the Rough Writers Flash Fiction Anthology, Vol. 1.
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In addition to weekly challenges, Carrot Ranch encourages literary writers to push their craft with creativity. If you are interested, you can take these advanced challenges at any time. These are exercises you can do to push into your creativity or learn more about your craft.
If you are a motivated blogger, who is looking to build up a readership, post your challenge response on your blog and link back to Carrot Ranch Literary Community.
If you are interested in writing a response to one of the Advanced Flash Fiction Challenges and can write about your process and its impact on your writing, submit a query for a potential guest post.
Carrot Ranch does not publish unsolicited stories and preference is given to the active literary community.
ADVANCED CHALLENGES
Sketchbook Challenge requires you to carry a print journal with you wherever you go. Take time to observe. Like an artist, sketch the stories you see and hear unfolding all around you. It might be something that catches your attention, an event in general or a specific detail. If you are into word counting, use these details to craft a 99-word free-write on the spot. Or, grab snippets from your sketchbook and later craft a 99-work of fiction from them.
6th Sense Challenge reminds writers to explore the world with more than the eyes. Writers create visual images for readers through all five senses of sight, sound, scent, touch, and taste. This challenge is to write the same 99-word story five times using one of the five senses. In the final sixth story of 99 words, create a sixth overall sense that combines the best of the sensory elements.
Nature Challenge takes you outside. Walk in the woods, hop rocks up a stream, hike to a vista, dig your hands into your garden, smell your neighbor’s roses. The more you interact with the natural world, the more inspiration you will find among leaves and bird feathers. Feel the vast expansiveness of the outdoors and distill the experience into your writing. In 99-words, write your way toward the masters: Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, Wallace Stegner, and Terry Tempest Williams.
History Challenge encourages writers to dig into the past to find forgotten stories. Possible places to look include one’s own family tree, vital records, scrapbooks, school yearbooks, archived newspapers, town histories, local cemeteries, and old house records. The idea is to start with the name and date of a person’s lifespan. Using local libraries, museum reading rooms, state archives, or online sources, piece together vital facts and imagine a story. It can be told in one, three, or five flash fictions of 99 words each.
The Ultimate Flash Fiction Challenge (TUFF) imitates the five steps of writing a book. It’s a progressive, five flash writing activity. Your own results will surprise you and improve your approach to book writing. This advanced challenge welcomes all writers, especially those who write books or want to better understand how.
