How I Tackled the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge
Happy Monday everyone!
As I mentioned last week, I wanted to do a post on how I approached Challenge 1 of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge. With only 48 hours to put together a 1000 word short story and three specific constraints (genre, location and object) on what I created, anyone who has done this challenge can assure you… it’s harder than it looks. For a start, 1000 words? Not a lot of words to work with. Creating relatable characters and having them undergo a story/journey in that number is very challenging. Sometimes it’s easier to hide away in the bulk of words we write, rather than pare them back and see exactly what we have produced.
Regardless, I knew I was going to need a way to figure out which direction to go in. Despite groaning as soon as I read the genre category I’d been allocated (no disrespect to romance writers, or romance for that matter), my brain was already spinning with options. Part of me was tempted to run away with whatever took my fancy and see where it led me… Another part of me was more hesitant. I wanted the chance to think about it all in a bit more detail, to flesh it out and consider what my choices were. So I did some brainstorming. 
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen this image before. Basically, I got a number of sheets of paper from the printer and drew out some brainstorming circles. I thought I might put it all down in a list for ease of consumption.
- Write each required element of the story down on a separate piece of paper.
- Genre: what are the required conventions? I checked NYC Midnight’s genre list and noted what aspects of the genre they commented on, then did some further research to note if there were any other specific elements I should consider. For romance, this meant the story needed an
- Location: where does this location normally reside, and how can peoples’ perceptions of it be manipulated? Rather than use a nursing home for elderly care, I did some research (oh, thank you Google) and determined that it would be possible to have a nursing home for younger people suffering from terminal illness or debilitating injuries.
- Object: what are the options for the object? For the locket, I needed to think about whether there were any alternate interpretations I could use in order to create a different story line, or are there already associated images, symbolisms and subtexts I needed to consider. In Victorian times, mourning lockets might have a piece of hair in them (or some other part of a deceased person – ick), or a photo, or maybe a piece of a map. Then consider how your character came to possess that item & whether it’s going to be important in your story or just a minor observation.
- Create a list of possible ideas. Put some of these brainstorming possibilities together in order to create an idea. Then another. continue until you’ve combined the different elements as many ways as you can think of; even if they seem ridiculous, just write a full list of possible combinations. Choose one that seems interesting and a little left-of-centre, even if you’re not 100% sure it’ll work: as long as it ticks the boxes for genre, location and object, you should be able to manipulate the rest to fit your needs.
- Consider your characters. Who is the protagonist of your story? What’s their history and what has driven them to act the way they have/achieve what they’ve achieved/want what they’re searching for at the point in time that we meet them? A thousand words means we’ll only see a very brief snapshot of your characters; the better you know them and what has happened to them, the better you will be able to show snippets of this and give them depth without overloading your reader (and chewing up your word count) with unnecessary exposition.
- Create a timeline of events. [NOTE: This is not necessarily how the story will actually progress. You can use any number of techniques to play with the presentation of the timeline, but regardless of how you do it, life happens in a linear chronology (unless you’re The Doctor), so obey this as you map the actual order in which the story occurs.] Where did your characters first meet, or what happened in their past to bring them to the moment at which you want the reader to see them? It may not seem overly relevant to know what their history looks like, but like knowing about your characters’ flaws, desires and interests, it allows you to create greater depth in your characters by including small details you might otherwise not consider.
- Example: I made decisions that my protagonist’s love interest had a rough childhood, with her mother dying while she was very young. As a result of this she was very wayward and rebellious throughout high school and later absconded to Europe: that’s where she had the motorbike accident that put her into a spinal rehabilitative nursing home… Being able to hint at these things, or refer to them without telling the whole back story is a good way to provide rationale for what your characters do.
- Decide on your storytelling sequence. I like to use Freytag’s Pyramid here. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this is a tool (you can view at the above link in more detail) which allows you to portion out your words and consider how you’ll manipulate chronology to suit the story. Some parts may be disposed of, according to your preferences – if you start in media res (or in the middle of the action), you may dispose of the exposition phase. If you’re not using this, try checking it out: I’ve found it really helpful for organising my stories and working out where I’m going to situation everything
- Write it. Sit down and crack in. Accept that the first draft probably won’t be bang on 1000 words and it’ll probably need re-working: that’s the beauty of writing! Ask other people to have a read over it and ask them what doesn’t sit right: what are their questions and how can you address this in your revisions so that people don’t get confused? Then re-visit it.
I hope this helps you with some ideas for putting stories together, whether that’s for something like the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, or just for writing in general. It was really useful for me in generating something a little bit different and kind of cool for Challenge 1… We’ll see what Challenge 2 holds in September!
— Ana
[Image credit: Paul Gorman]
2 Comments
loulouplusfour
This is awesome! I often work backwards – I write and then come back and switch things around and adjust to ensure I have that rising action and the complication, etc. I can’t fight the urge to just write without thinking things through but it is really great to see someone else being so analytical about it all. It makes me want to sit down and do a challenge like this. Perhaps in a few weeks’ time I can join you on another. 😉
anapascoe001@gmail.com
No, no, I completely agree!! I’m writing a novel at the moment with almost no planning involved except whatever my brain comes up with as I go 😀 The only reason I did this for this challenge is that 1- I paid USD$ 55 to do it (extortion!) and 2- I really want to produce something decent so that I make it to the next round :p It was a fun way to approach something a bit different though, especially as part of my motivation was ensuring that I avoided a ‘simple’ or stereotypical response and to come up with something interesting and original. Which I think I achieved. We’ll see :p But yes, that would be awesome!