Category: flash fiction challenge

May 20: Arts of Brevity: Reading and live workshop at Clio’s Bookstore in Oakland, CA. Featuring Grant Faulkner, Nancy Stohlman, and Larry Smith.

On By nancystohlmanIn flash fiction, flash fiction challenge, Reading, the writer's life, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, workshops, writing

Grant Faulkner / Larry Smith / Nancy Stohlman

Arts of Brevity

Saturday 05.20.2023  //  4-8pm


Clio’s 
353 Grand Avenue, Oakland


(Seating is limited —> reserve below!)

CLICK HERE to reserve your spot!

A novel can be written on a postcard. A story needs only six words for the telling. (“For Sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”) Please join three contemporary masters in the arts of brevity at Clio’s to experience the joys and challenges of writing short. In a tradition that has roots in ancient aphorisms and parables, Grant, Larry, and Nancy create flash fiction, super-short stories, and 100-word novels. Over the course of their evening at Clio’s, they will discuss the why, how, and where of the short short and guide us through some brief exercises with pen and paper to produce our own six word stories—which Clio’s will proudly archive and display! Bring the kids! This will be fun.

Our guests numerous books will be available for purchase.

About our guests:Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. His most recent book is The Art of Brevity;he has also published Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories; All the Comfort Sin Can Provide; and Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo. His stories have appeared in Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, Flash Fiction America, and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, LitHub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. 

Nancy Stohlman is the author of six books, including After the Rapture (2023), Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities (2018), The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories (2014), The Monster Opera (2013), Searching for Suzi: a flash novel (2009), and Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction (2020), winner of the 2021 Reader Views Gold Award and re-released in 2022 as an audiobook. Her work has been anthologized widely, appearing in the Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and The Best Small Fictions 2019, as well as adapted for both stage and screen. She teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds workshops and retreats around the world.

Described by Oprah Magazine as “on a quest to spark self-expression in everyone,” Larry Smith is the founder of the Six-Word Memoir project, a bestselling series of ten books, a board game, and a live-event program found in classrooms, conferences, festivals, company retreats, and almost anywhere people gather. He is the editor of The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous and Obscure, co-author of The Joy of Cannabis, and director of the play A Map of Myself: A 70-Minute, One-Woman Revolution on War, Immigration, and Home. 

Order of events.4pm: Doors open
5pm: Reading and discussing
6pm: Writing and sharing 
7pm: Signing and sealing
8pm: Doors close

Reserve your spot here

Winter Workshops Now Open!

On By nancystohlmanIn Craft Essays, flash fiction, flash fiction challenge, flashnano, Reading, The Writer's Life, workshops, writing

NEW FlashNano Revision Rendezvous

Friday, December 9 (9-12 am MST on Zoom *good for U.S and Europe)

Tuesday, December 13 (1-4 pm MST on Zoom *good for U.S. and Australia)

Tuition: $99

REGISTRATION OPEN

Revision is the most important part of the writing process. As serious writers, you know the muse is fickle. It’s through the editing process that we begin to refine and sculpt our messages. We also know that there comes a point when we can no longer look at our stories with fresh perspectives. You need both honest feedback and encouragement.  After all, we write for an audience.

In these LIVE Zoom sessions we will gather in the spirit of revision, brainstorming and sharing. We will examine our stories and get a sense of how they are landing with readers. Is your storysaying what you want it to say? These sessions will be limited to 10 participants. Bring your Flashnano (or other) first drafts and expect to leave with clarity, vision and enthusiasm for the second draft.

Full payment of $99 is required upon registration. This holds your spot, as workshops fill quickly. The cancellation policy requires a 2-week notice – you will receive a refund minus a $50 cancellation fee. You will not receive a refund without the required 2-week notice. Please email me if you need to request an alternate payment plan.

Flash Flood: Write a Flash Novel (and Launch Your Big Idea)

January 23-Feb 3

(10 days, online asynchronous)

Tuition: $250

REGISTRATION OPEN

Do you have a Big Story Idea brewing, but you don’t know where to begin? Is it a flash novel? Novella? Collection? A regular novel or memoir or a million other things? Sometimes not knowing can stop us from getting started. Sometimes the scope of it feels overwhelming. Is 2023 the year you finally write or finish your book?

Flash Flood: Write a Flash Novel is my signature course designed to help you launch your Big Flash Novel Idea. For 10 days we will envision, draft, collage and create the momentum for that large-scale idea you’ve been wanting to tackle. We’ll begin breaking it apart and making friends with the scope of it, and in that process of discovery you will find momentum, insight, excitement, and sometimes a total pivot–that’s okay! For 10 days we’ll get out of our own way–10 days and a flurry of words and ideas and encouragement and camaraderie–and when it’s over you will have the bones (at least) of a longer project and a much better idea of where to go next.

Whether your book is fiction or creative nonfiction, if you are drawing on the skills of flash forms–from collections to novellas in flash to flash novels–then this class will help you launch your idea into the world. Many, many flash novels and other books have been conceived, executed, and written from the seeds of this class. Maybe yours?

NOTE: This class is the recommended jumping off point for the 12-Week Flash Novel Mastermind beginning Feb 13.

Full payment of $250 is required upon registration. This holds your spot, as workshops fill quickly. The cancellation policy requires a 2-week notice – you will receive a refund minus a $50 cancellation fee. You will not receive a refund without the required 2-week notice. Please email me if you need to request an alternate payment plan.

Beautiful Flash Fiction: Pop Lit and Flash Fiction Fusion

February 6-10

Tuition: $175

(5 days, online asynchronous)

REGISTRATION OPEN

The world is a constant and incredible source of inspiration–IF we are paying attention. We will engage with unexplored or under explored avenues of potential inspiration including pop culture, music, trends, politics, fashion and more to discover unusual angles and back doors into new ideas. In this 5-day generative class we will actively blur the distinctions between low brow and high brow art, and elevate the mundane to the miraculous.

We will examine the fundamentals of flash fiction, try a variety of approaches to the compressed narrative, and you will generate your own original flash pieces. As always, come with an open mind and expect to play.

*This course is open to writers with all levels of experience in the form, whether you are brand new to flash fiction, a writer coming from other genres, or a veteran flasher looking for a dose of inspiration and some writing camaraderie.

Full payment of $175 is required upon registration. This holds your spot, as workshops fill quickly. The cancellation policy requires a 2-week notice – you will receive a refund minus a $50 cancellation fee. You will not receive a refund without the required 2-week notice. Please email me if you need to request an alternate payment plan.

The Flash Novel Mastermind:

a 12-week incubator to get your manuscript across the finish line

February 13-May 5

Whether your book is fiction or creative non-fiction, if you are a dedicated writer, drawing on the skills of flash fiction, this is the container of inspiration, motivation, community and support you have been wanting to bring your ideas to fruition.

REQUEST INFORMATION

Do you ever:

  • Feel alone in the book-writing process, way out at sea and not sure what you’re doing anymore?
  • Feel unsure about what kind of support you and your manuscript need?
  • Feel directionless, like you are fighting or forcing your idea?
  • Feel impatient, like you just need to get to the end of a first draft so you can figure out what you’re trying to say?
  • Wish you had a cheering squad to keep you motivated and inspired?
  • Wish you had a creative personal trainer, someone to hold you accountable and celebrate your progress? 

NOW imagine going on the journey with others, in community, with expert guidance and lessons crafted especially for you and your creative process.

If this sounds like what you’ve been wishing for, then you are invited to join me on a 12-week journey through the first draft of your book with a small cohort of colleagues in a creative incubator of support, motivation, and inspiration.

This Mastermind is not an intensive–it instead honors the day-to-day of writing with the accountability that comes from being in a community that can witness and celebrate your growth. The Mastermind will be limited to a small group of serious writers in a dedicated, private online space.

Over the 12 weeks I will guide you through the inevitable ups and downs of the creative process, of harnessing your big idea and finally landing it on the page.

FIND OUT MORE

The Joy of Writing Prompts (or what I’ve learned from 11 years of FlashNano)

On By nancystohlmanIn flash fiction, flash fiction challenge, flashnano, writing

If you would have told me 11 years ago that FlashNano would actually become a thing I might not have believed you. That first November, in 2012, while we were worrying about the end of the Mayan calendar (and the upcoming apocalypse), I had been writing A LOT of flash fiction and I didn’t want to stop. So when a friend asked me if I was doing NaNoWriMo, I said, “maybe I’ll write a flash fiction story every day instead. In solidarity.” And she said, “If you send me a prompt every day, I’ll do it too.”

And that, my friends, was it.
Now it’s a November flash fiction tradition, and in 2021 we celebrated our 10th FlashNano with over 2,000 people and a slew of guest prompts!

What have I learned from 11 years of Flashnano?

So much!

1.  First, we all need more fun in our writing. So often we are just slogging through a project, dragging ourselves to the chair or the finish line with no consideration at all for whether we are having any fun!! Fun, as you might have guessed, is my specialty. And sometimes that’s straight up silly fun, but mostly I mean just that sense of playful wonder and joy at the process. We can get so wrapped up in the product that we forget to smile along the way.

2.  Regularity is a real thing. I say that all the time in my workshops, but I know it’s easy to say, harder to do. But the benefits of regularity far outweigh the occasional extended time, i.e. 15 mins a day is different than a marathon session on the weekends. Regularity keeps our ideas warm and simmering so that we never arrive at the page cold.  And writing a story every day for 30 days is habit forming, and if it takes 66 days for a habit to become automatic, well, you could be almost halfway there by December 1.

3. Momentum is the writerly sweet spot. And momentum, thankfully, is the natural by-product of regularity. It can be that feeling of flow when we are sitting down each day, or the in-between time when we still feel “possessed” by our ideas, thinking about them even when we are off duty in the form of signs and synchronicity.

4. Making art involves failing. But usually within the failure is the spark–the accidental smudge on the canvas becomes the happy accident around which the whole idea begins to coalesce. But often we don’t give ourselves enough room to fail–and we certainly don’t often find the gifts in the failure. We have to be okay wading through the bad to find the brilliant.  And let’s be clear: when you attempt to write 30 stories in 30 days, many of them will be bad. But some of them will be good…even magnificent.

5. Not all prompts are created equal. My preference is a prompt that has some room, some white space built in to allow for lots of interpretation. Some prompts are too prescriptive, they take up too much room in my imagination. For me the best kinds of prompts are those that open a door without telling you exactly what you will find on the other side.

6. First drafts are a beautiful thing. First Drafts are full of possibility. It’s like you managed to catch a firefly in a jar and you are marveling at the brilliance of its light. But a firefly in a jar is not the same thing as a polished Broadway light show. So remember: you aren’t done. December and beyond is my favorite part of the process: working and kneading and sculpting those first drafts into something stunning. (And yes, I’ll be offering some live revision sessions in December–stay tuned for that)

7. And finally, 30 stories in 30 days is not easy! Sometimes writers assume Flashnano is an “easier” version of NaNoWriMo. (I’m smiling.)


If that’s you, then I challenge you to JOIN US and find out for yourself!

See you on the other side!

xoxoo

Nancy

And here I am talking about FlashNano circa 2018:

Fall Workshops Opening August 1

On By nancystohlmanIn Craft Essays, flash fiction, flash fiction challenge, Reading, the writer's life, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, workshops, writing

Flash Flood: Write a Flash Novel (and Launch Your Big Idea)

August 22-Sept 2 (10 days, online asynchronous)

Early Access Registration opens August 1

Do you have a Big Story Idea brewing, but you don’t know where to begin? Is it a flash novel? Novella? Collection? A regular novel or memoir or a million other things? Sometimes not knowing can stop us from getting started. Sometimes the scope of it feels overwhelming. 

Flash Flood: Write a Flash Novel is my signature course designed to help you launch your Big Idea. For 10 days we will envision, draft, collage and create the momentum for that large-scale idea you’ve been wanting to tackle. We’ll begin breaking it apart and making friends with the scope of it, and in that process of discovery you will find momentum, insight, excitement, and sometimes a total pivot–that’s okay! For 10 days we’ll get out of our own way–10 days and a flurry of words and ideas and encouragement and camaraderie–and when it’s over you will have the bones (at least) of a longer project and a much better idea of where to go next.

Whether your book is fiction or creative nonfiction, if you are drawing on the skills of flash forms–from collections to novellas in flash to flash novels–then this class will help you launch your idea into the world. Many, many flash novels and other books have been conceived, executed, and written from the seeds of this class. Maybe yours?

*Participants should have a basic understanding of flash fiction. Come with your big story idea and be prepared to shake up what you thought you knew. (This course may be taken multiple times. It is also the prerequisite/jumping off point for the Flash Novel Mastermind, a private, guided, 12-week community incubator to write yourself to the finish line of the first draft–see description below)

Full payment of $250 is required upon registration. This holds your spot, as workshops fill quickly.

GET ON EARLY ACCESS LIST

Beautiful Flash Fiction II: Pop Lit and Flash Fusion (NEW)

September 5-9, 2022 (5 days, online asynchronous)

Early Access Registration opens August 1

The world is a constant and incredible source of inspiration–IF we are paying attention. In this brand new workshop we will engage with unexplored or under explored avenues of potential inspiration including pop culture, science, math, music, trends, politics, fashion and more to discover unusual angles and back doors into new ideas. We will continue previous conversations on what makes something beautiful, actively blur the distinctions between low brow and high brow art, and elevate the mundane to the miraculous. As always, come with an open mind and expect to play.

Taking a deeper dive into the concepts from Going Short, we will try a variety of approaches to the compressed narrative and you will generate your own original flash pieces. 

*This course is open to writers with all levels of experience in the form, whether you are brand new to flash fiction, a writer coming from other genres, or a veteran flasher looking for a dose of inspiration and some writing camaraderie.

You do NOT need to have taken Beautiful Flash Fiction I to participate.

Full payment of $175 is required upon registration. This holds your spot, as workshops fill quickly.

GET ON EARLY ACCESS LIST

Flash Novel Mastermind: A 12-Week Guided Community Incubator

September 12-December 2

To embark on the journey of a book is to lose sight of the shore, to surrender to the story and the muse. Now imagine boarding that ship out to sea with like-minded others, colleagues on their own creative adventures but together, in community, with expert guidance and encouragement.

The Flash Novel Mastermind is a private, guided, 12-week community incubator for flash novelists and flash novels in process…a space of content, coaching, and camaraderie where we build on the momentum from Flash Flood while also finding a rhythm that will sustain us over the long haul of actually writing a book to completion.  

Whether your book is fiction or creative nonfiction, if you are drawing on the skills of flash forms–from collections to novellas in flash to flash novels–then this is the community and support you need to write yourself to the finish line of the all-important first draft–that solid and complete lump of clay that lets you discover, finally, what this story has been trying to say.

*The Flash Novel Mastermind is only open to those who have already taken Flash Flood

Waiting list opens August 1. Registration and full details available August 25