Flash fiction

For the month of April, Writers Victoria held a daily flash fiction competition - up to 30 words using a prompt. This year was my first year taking part. While I didn't do every prompt, I did a lot of them and found it so fun. Flash fiction is a really difficult form but I love it. It challenges me to think about language and what it is I'm trying to communicate. I love micro stories and trying to capture moments in so few words.

My tiny pieces and the prompts are below!

Prompt - Crease

'Before she died, Martha used to make tiny things out of paper, hands moving slowly. Only much later, would I learn what the shapes resembled.'

Prompt - Segmentation

'Birds loop round in the sky, waves with their wings. A rusty pink sunset glows. Alone, a woman watches from the balcony. Apart yet together.'

Prompt - Blossom

'It's the gentle unfurling. The way he leans down to tie his shoelaces, the smudge of milk on his face. Early light racing. His first day. I breathe out.'

Prompt - Hands

'Steam whirls; sunshine cascades through the window, lines of light on her face. She dangles the tea string. A thousand sighs open inside her. She sits, hands cupping the warmth.'

Prompt - Crumple

'Little ducks, with crumpled feathers, glide back and forth on the water. Blossoms dance with the wind. Movement, stillness, hope, mingling in the air.'

Prompt - Renew

'Back here again. Something’s different. The sky, bigger somehow. There are more birds, perching, singing, sailing through the trees? Colours - rusty yellow, forest green, blue. Lockdown, renewal of sorts.'

Prompt - Open

'Always two minutes too late. Large sliding doors, closing, as she ran up the path, glistening sweat on her forehead. The library, with all its books, endlessly shut to her.'

Prompt - Elaborate

'They sat on a cement bench in the middle of the park. Clouds hung low in the sky. He tapped his watch. She picked lint off her pants. Thunderous silence.'

Prompt - Unravel

'It was everywhere, this coldness. Like his body had been pulled apart, stretched out a thousand times, unravelled, then slowly joined together again. He breathed out, pulled his mittens on.'

Prompt - Manifest

'No eggs for days. We check the coop. Laura frowns. It’s about manifesting the eggs, she says, thinking them into existence, good vibes. I turn away. Porridge for breakfast again.'

Prompt - Scrunch

'Darkness rolled through her. A cool wind too. Scrunching her hands together, she waited for the car that would take her out of herself, away from town - a new beginning.'

Prompt - Burst

'For months, he'd seemed too small for the house. But now he was back, bright, triumphant, bursting through the door, a smile rippling across his face. Cancer free, he declared.'

Prompt - Explore

'Sunday. Parrots circle, tuck into the blue of the sky, nibble on yellow wattle. Swooping, they land on the balcony, twitch, bop back and forth. Birdsong echoes, exploring the air.'

Prompt - Reveal

'Behind the curtain, he fumbles. What to reveal? Plastic heart, bran, medal - all missing. Then, the girl who wants to go home. Nostrils flare: 'Out! I can't help you!'

Prompt - Expand

'Chalk white walls, vase of peonies on the table. ‘You’re doing well,’ the therapist says. I nod; I’m expanding, contracting, closing, opening. I smile - tentative flicker on my face.'

Promot - Emerge

'Seedlings, deep underneath the earth, take their time to emerge. Sunlight threads itself through the trees. Growth is slow, invisible strands, but it runs through everything.'

Prompt - Letter

'The sea, joining the sky, swell of summer. Tiny footprints behind larger ones. Tracing letters in the sand with sticks. Tomato sauce, fish & chips. Red-glow of the sun, gone.'

Prompt - Display

'Sadness is stillness. She cries from her bedroom window. The sky sits, the moon on display, watching, holding its breath, longing to embrace her, take her higher, deeper, away.'

Prompt - Betray

'Sips of coffee, Vegemite toast, divorce papers signed. Later in the supermarket, lights beating down, we scamper from one another like the possums in the roof you always complain of. '

Prompt - Become

'The lemon tree becomes in rain, sun, green, blue. Later, lemon wedges dance in my tea. We don't have to change the world to change the world.'

Prompt - Discover

'Egg-yolk, the colour of sunshine, shimmies, splays across the kitchen counter. 'Discovering the joys of cooking,' I say, watching my teary daughter tentatively crack a new egg into the bowl.'

Prompt - Unfold

'Today, unfolding honey soft, radiant, ripening in tiny bursts. Everyone on the street has autumn coloured skin; the sun sticks to all our senses. We breathe, watch the leaves dance.'