Morning peeps, and welcome back to the Flashes of Inspiration challenge – my bi-weekly flash fiction competition thingy. I’m trying to get into the habit of writing, stirring the pot of my imagination in order to keep things fresh. I’m also giving myself the licence to experiment. Making it a shared challenge seems to hook me in more and helps me drive for quality. I hope you get something equally valuable out of it.
A reminder – the images we use each time don’t have to be taken literally and needn’t figure in your creative writing at all (though they can do so if you wish). The intention is to prick the subconscious, to prompt questions, to set a tone or evoke some feeling. Take them as you will. Your work can be in any genre, take any style or form. As usual these days, I’m looking for no more than 400 words. It seems to be a sweet spot. Oh yes, and the following three words must be used:
Unobtrusive
Fiendish
Peccadillo
Variants are acceptable, but try not to bend things too far. Now, you may have noticed that today’s challenge has appeared a little later than usual. Health reasons delayed me this week, but I think it may actually work out for the better. Kicking things off on a Saturday gives us all the whole weekend to get going, with all next week to finish it off if needed. Please e-mail your entries to me at dion@thefinetoothed.com by Friday 7th June. (Midnight, GMT if you want to push it.) I’m looking forward to seeing what we all come up with!
An acknowledgement – The image we’re using is by the artist Jono Dry. It floored me. Every bit of it is pencil-work as far as I can tell, though it looks photographic. You can investigate his work further at jonodryart.com if the mood takes you. You may even want to order a print or two.