Ficlets Are Incredibly Fun
Well, I finally got the website somewhat presentable, so I’m going to try and actually start using this thing now. It will be pretty bare bones until I find some time to write something interesting.
One thing I can post about now is something I read about on Wil Wheaton’s Blog. As he is prone to do, he blogged about writing. This particular post extolled the writing of Ficlets, more specifically writing a prequel to a ficlet. Ficlets are short stories told in no more than 1024 characters. The exciting part, as Wil mentions, is the fact that users are encouraged to not only create their own tiny stories, but to write prequels and sequels to other users existing stories.
I thought the idea sounded like tremendous fun and a great way to try and get back into the swing of actually putting words together in a coherent manner. Thus far I have had mixed results, but have had tons of fun in the process. My current Ficlets are:
- No More Tequila For Me (first attempt)
- Bob Should Move (hopefully a full series)
- Sorry (someone even wrote a prequel)
My other two Ficlets are sequels to a story that was originally created by Ridcully Calvert called A New Job. Steve Fairweather (the nice man who wrote a prequel to Sorry), took the story in a whole new interesting direction with The Same Old Life. I had a tremendous amount of fun running with that and creating Paying The Price, which Ridcully followed up with the amazing A Mysterious Package that totally changed the dynamic I was going for. This is exactly what makes this whole process exciting and a useful learning experience. I created a scene that I had anticipated going in one direction, but someone else took it someplace completely different. So far the latest installment is Sending A Message, a Ficlet I created today.
I haven’t had this much fun writing in a very long time. I find myself checking Ficlets.com every so often just to see where this little story we created goes, while keeping ideas for new stories in the back of my head. Hopefully this will help me become a better writer; even if it doesn’t, I couldn’t think of a more fun way to try. Do yourself a favor, and sign up with an account and tell your own little micro story in 1024 characters or less.
If you want to keep up with the stories I currently have running, here’s my profile. I’m going to try and figure out a way to keep a feed of my stories on my Portfolio page here. When I find time to pull myself away from writing that is.
Update: My ficlet feed is now automatically updated on my Portfolio page. Awesome!