Hi all,
Thought you might be interested in this comp which took place on Sunday evening. There were 20 of us and we all received an email at 9pm (UK time) with the following list of prompts:

Cubes & Cuboids

Homework

Green & White

Miss Tavistock is Indisposed

What the Dickens!

We then had two hours to put something (300-500 words) together. I must admit, I sat and stared at the list for a good 10 mins and didn’t bond with any of them, so decided to pick one at random and focus on it.

I came out with something in 1h20 mins which I was satisfied with and retired to bed (I am an hour ahead after all!)

This morning I found we’d been given a mark, which went from 83 to 106. The seven entries which scored over 100 went on to the final. The winner will receive half the competition money (entry was £5 each).

We were also invited to exchange stories so we can see the variety and try to see why it obtained the score it did.

Anyway, I have to say, I enjoyed the immediacy of the competition and will definitely participate again.

Elspeth

The next frantic flash is 2nd January 2005 (with a hangover!) My experience has definately given me a lot to think about concerning my writing, and seeing the other entries is a real insight too.
Elspeth

This sounds fun. Thanks for letting us know when the next one is. Can't wait until Xmas as I have loads of time off work, and this falls quite nicely with it. So hopefully I'll be really in the swing of things by then, and not feel quite so stretched.

Ben

Ben, I'd recommend it. I didn't do quite as well as other WW's who took part (Very well done to Elspeth for getting short-listed!) Even so it was a thought provoking exercise. I agree that it was just as useful reading other entries as frantically trying to do my own.

I don't suppose any WW's would be up for our own pre-competition 'Friendly Flash' challenge. The practice might come in handy if you were going for the actual competition. Even if you weren't it still might be an interesting exercise. We could even extend the actual deadline and leave it to member’s honesty that they only took 2 hours on their piece!

Any takers?

(Not sure if we would want to mark each others work, just getting out a story in two hours using prompts would be good exercise!)

Sam, I think that's a great idea.

Excellent. Anyone else? How about on or around the 27th December?

I'm in and I'm sure Ani will be when she gets back.
E

Yes! Yes! Yes!

How come your reaction doesn't surprise me, Ani?!!

About the fflash, also read this:

http://www.eclectica.org/v8n4/feature.html

Exciting stuff

Elspeth

Hey, are we still going to do this? It's about a week away now!!!

Yeah, I'm definitely still up for it!

It's less than twenty-four hours away now! 8pm tomorrow (Monday) ready with our prompts....

Hi to all on the list

There are currently 20 people entered and the prize is guaranteed at £50.


Just wanted to make sure you realise (if you are interested in the Second Frantic Flash and not just a fun thing run by yourselves) that there is no word-count rule.

The winner last time was about 800 words. We had a finalist with 1800 words, but a good 250 COULD win it.

My guess would be that the most likely winners would be 500-1200 words
where the story contained "essence of flash", that pungent moment, that feeling.

Certainly a fully-fledged story could easily win it but I would advise against doctoring
an old story to fit a prompt as they simply don't have that exciting feeling a good flash has.

Incidentally I do not do the final judging, only the shortlisting for the judge.

Last time seven stories came out obviously clear of the rest and also very close
together. The judge (working blind) picked the same first three as me but changed the 1-2
but then they were only 2-3 points different anyway.

After the last FF, because we had a group of email addies, many agreed to post
their stories to the group and all agreed on the top three as far as I know.

Anyone want to know more about this comp (Frantic Flash) or the Bimonthly 2K
(CD officially dec 31st but 2 day's grace and email entry possible) can ring me

01635-34317


AK

Elspeth mentioned reading yhe prompts

Cubes & Cuboids

Homework

Green & White

Miss Tavistock is Indisposed

What the Dickens!


and thinking YUCK. I agree.


I run flashes every day in my workshop. When I'm stuck i try to write aomething which uses ALL the prompts as early as possible, not caring "what it is". This sometimes produces very good stuff because while the left-brain is concentrationg on word-strings other good, surprising, exciting stuff is happening. Two such flash prompt-sets produced far longer works both of which are now off doing the rounds of Atlantic, Glimmer Train, New Yorker etc


I would just grab that lot

Cubes & Cuboids

Homework

Green & White

Miss Tavistock is Indisposed

What the Dickens!


and rush out something like:

Miss Tavistock is indisposed. Again. So we get more homework. Cubes and Cuboids. Oh joy!
She was wearing green and white yesterday. Today she's indisposed. Last week, green blouse,
white skirt, and she's "sick" again. So is Mr Dickens from Eng Lit.

How come we all see it and the Head doesn't?

And bingo, don't know what it is going to be, but I can write some sort
of romance or reflection on relationships, and maybe grenn and white will matter
(eg Celtic/Catholicism)... maybe it won't.


it's all about letting go and letting the subconcscious have fun


AK

And then she answered,” Miss Tavestock is indisposed” right down her nose and I looked round the box-shaped office, row after row of identical cubicles and I thought, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean, in this day and age?”
And if I’d had one of those old green phones with a twisted-up dirty wire, I would have slammed it down on the silly bitch.
Miss Tavistock. Huh! Made her sound like some starchy old school ma’am with black, half-moon glasses, giving out cos someone hadn’t done his homework, using antiquated farty old expressions like “What the Dickens!” and “Oh my goodness!”