Countdown to 2015 Flash Fiction Calendar

[zanzjan]

Trying something new this year, as we wind down to the end of 2014. This is sort of like one of those advent calendars full of chocolate, except it'll carry you to the New Year, and instead of cheap chocolate you'll get tasty, tasty gourmet prompts each day. What could be better?!

Here's how it works:
This thread will be updated every day of December with a new prompt. Some will be serious, some will be silly, but all will be sensationally fabulous*.

Here's what you do:
If you wish to participate, start a new thread with your own name, e.g.: zanzjan's countdown thread. When you see a new day's prompt (open that little tiny imagination door!) you should write and post a piece inspired by the prompt in your own thread with the subject Dec. 1st, Dec. 2nd, etc. as matches the calendar countdown day. There is no specific time limit, unlike the regular Flash Fiction Challenge. If you miss a day -- pesky holidays, peskier relatives -- it's okay to catch up on another day, but don't lag too far behind because the prompts will build up fast! Microfiction and poetry are entirely acceptable, as are novellas and sweeping odes to the awesomeness of the FFC mods.

Participants and non-participants alike should feel free to read and comment on each other's pieces. If your piece includes triggery content, put a warning in the subject line.

At the end, we mods will look at all the threads and declare a Flash Fiction Emperorperson for 2014.

--
(* as judged solely by us. No grumbling: free prompts.)

 

[zanzjan]

The Countdown

Here's your Calendar Countdown prompts! Highlight to view!

New prompts added below each day:

Mon, Dec. 1st: the unlit candle
Tue, Dec 2nd: a bell tower
Wed, Dec 3rd: peace on Earth
Thu, Dec 4th: deep beneath the snow
Fri, Dec. 5th: fuzzy red pants
Sat, Dec 6th: mistletoe
Sun, Dec. 7th: unwrapped

Mon, Dec 8th: the gift delivered late
Tue, Dec. 9th: small things
Wed, Dec 10th: the secret life of toys
Thu, Dec 11th: Aunt Gladys's Fruitcake
Fri, Dec 12th: snow
Sat, Dec 13th: The elves are building...
Sun, Dec 14th: the snowman in the neighbor's yard

Mon, Dec. 15th: the gift
Tue, Dec. 16th: lost mitten
Wed, Dec 17th: not the usual office party
Thu, Dec 18th: the night
Fri, Dec. 19th: there's something on the roof!
Sat, Dec 20th: wrapped
Sun, Dec 21st: the solstice

Mon, Dec 22nd: ancient rites
Tue, Dec 23rd: 101 Easy Tricks You Can Teach Your Druid
Wed, Dec 24th: light
Thu, Dec 25th: a star
Fri, Dec. 26th: at the bottom of the stocking
Sat, Dec 27th: relative
Sun, Dec 28th: the visitation of ghosts

Mon, Dec 29th: friends
Tue, Dec 30th: the last song left to sing
Wed, Dec 31st: a new beginning

...and that's the last prompt.

It's been fun. Feel free to leave comments below on whether you found this useful/challenging/dull/whatever, if you'd like to see it next year, what your favorite prompt was, or any other feedback you want to leave.

I hope 2015 brings each and every one of you a fantastic year of inspiration and wild successes with your writing, and wonder and joy all around.

 

[Sage]

I found it quite fun! I love having something to look forward to each day, and the challenge of coming up with an idea I could work with somewhat quickly (because I tried to stay current on it). Yes, some stories were not as fun to write as others, and one I half-assed because the next prompt seemed more fun, I'm not going to lie. But overall, I enjoyed the experience, and soon I will have 28 (two were two-parters and one was a soundtrack) short stories to play with. If only I knew which were worth pursuing in a short story market!

My only suggestion (for next year ) is to put new prompts in a new post, so that I don't have to haunt a single post quite as much (I can just subscribe to the thread then)

My favorite prompt for writing, I think, is "the solstice" or maybe "friends." My favorite prompt as a prompt, though, was "deep beneath the snow," because it seemed to me to evoke the most varied interpretations of where to go with it, and because it was both specific and vague.

 

[lwaxana]

countdown calendar

I loved it because having a prompt everyday gives me more of a challenge.

 

[lilyWhite]

I'm genuinely surprised at myself having stuck the entire thing through. But I had a lot of fun, had a lot of ideas pop into my mind, and got to read a lot of interesting stories from others who participated. The lack of a strict time limit meant that I could let a prompt mull in my head without feeling too pressured, so that was nice. (Also people said nice things about what I wrote and that maybe helped a wee bit. =^_^=) I'd certainly be up for this next year.

Favourite prompt? I dunno. I'm not good at picking favourites, and I had a lot of great ideas from many of the prompts. I will have to say that "Aunt Gladys's fruitcake" shall hold a special place in my heart.

 

[Sage]

Totally unsolicited, but later today I'll be posting my favorite of each person's stories as they are up so far (and I'll rep you guys a list of all my favorites of yours). Sometimes I have a hard time talking about what I love, so it's not necessarily going to be the ones I commented on

 

[tianaluthien]

I really enjoyed doing this and I feel immensely pleased with myself for having stuck with it and written something every day (ish). It was a great exercise.

I think two of my favourites were "Deep beneath the snow" and "The elves are building" because they introduced me to some stories and characters I really love now

 

[indwig]

Although I didn't finish them all, I had fun...mostly. A lot of them weren't inspiring much from me, so I felt like I was forcing myself to go through with those.

"Fuzzy red pants" and "the elves are building" came the easiest to me, but I'm rather proud of my earlier ones, which are (not coincidentally) the ones I spent a bit more time on.

And if we do this next year, I'm going to disagree with Sage and ask that the prompts be kept in one post. I write pieces in clusters, so the prompts tend to build up on my end. It's simpler for me to refresh the page and look at the ensemble. Plus it'll save me some scrolling.