Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s Flash Fiction Saturday. Come back to 40DayWriter.com tomorrow to read the winning submission.
This Week’s Flash Fiction Title: Long Line of Crazy
Main Storyline: A psychiatric patient recounts the true tales of his family history and the surprising antics of his ancestors.
Plot:
- As a psychiatric patient is being checked into the mental ward, a young doctor makes the mistake of asking for his family’s mental history.
- A psychiatric patient begins to recount the tale of his parents romantic first meeting in the lockdown ward of a mental hospital.
- A psychiatric patient recounts the story of his grandparents getting married at the family reunion where they first met one another.
- A psychiatric patient begins to sing a cheery tune relating all the dysfunctions of his family tree.
- The young doctor realizes that he recognizes some of the stories and discovers that he and the patient are first cousins twice over.
Character Profile 1
A Psychiatric Patient
Greatest character flaw: his inability to explain the reality he sees to other people
Greatest character strength: his sense of humor
Goal: To escape the confusion of living life among the “normal” people.
Motivation: He just wants life to be peaceful and quiet so he can hear the voices in his head more clearly.
Apparent Conflict: He struggles to make himself understood by others.
Actual Conflict: He’s a man who can see color trying to describe it to blind people.
Epiphany: Until people have lived it, they just can’t get it.
Submit Your Work to the 40 Day Writers Facebook Group Today!
You have until Thursday to complete this, but the sooner you finish, the sooner your work can begin to be judged by the other members. Judging closes on Friday, the winner will be announced on Saturday, and posted on Sunday. New challenges appear each Saturday.
Details Can Be Changed
What is provided for you with the Flash Fiction Challenge is a framework. It’s a place to start your writing. Don’t feel like you have to follow the exact specifications. Change it around. Make it your own unique flavor of the story.
Alter the outline, add a character that doesn’t appear. Change the focus from the current main character to another character. I build the world. You get to play in it, so you make it how you like it.
About 40 Day Writers
40 Day Writers is a free Facebook group. It offers help, support, and advice to writers of all stages. I look forward to seeing you there!