# July Flash Challenge

I like writing. It's one of the parts of my job that I don't feel like I have to work that hard at. But that's all design documents and best practices documents and things like that.

I also like to write fiction. A couple of self-imposed blog challenges I've tried out have been fiction-writing-based.

Sadly, when work gets as intense as it's been the last couple of years, one of the first things to go is fiction writing. It's a hobby, not something I ever expect to be able to make money at -- not even something I want to make money at -- and so when I can't get work out of my head because of urgency or complexity or just the anxiety in my brain that comes from not being able to see all the way through a problem, fiction writing goes away. It uses a lot of the same problem-solving bits in my brain that go to application design and release scheduling.

But I like to do it, and I miss it. So, in the search for inspiration on what to write, what content to generate for my blog, I decided that what I want to do is write flash fiction. One a day, for the month of July.

This isn't one of those things where you make a goal knowing you can't do it and try to find nobility in the attempt. I've completed this challenge before -- in the month of July, no less. That said, I think I mentioned that work is very intense right now, and so I might need to abandon this challenge ... and, y'know, try to find some nobility in the attempt.

I find with Flash Fiction, it works better if I start with a prompt. Very often, the story that comes out of the prompt has nothing to do with the initial prompt itself, or if there is something there, it's very faint. The prompt is there to provide inspiration, not as something that I need to hit thematically or from a plot or character point of view.

There aren't really any rules, except that once I agree to a set of prompts, they're it.

And it just so happens that I've found a set of writing prompts for the month of July. Just not July 2023.

I found, through the magic of Google, a set of writing prompts from July 2020, here (opens new window). I'll write them out here so I have them at hand, and also so you don't have to go to a random website if you don't feel like it.

For the record, I don't know the person who runs puttingmyfeetinthedirt. It was a blind Google search and I took the first hit on the page.

# The Prompts

1. The page where the heart speaks words
2. City in the sky
3. Misty moon magic
4. Perfectly puffy
5. The sting of rejection
6. There's a dragon in the bathtub
7. The cupboard of abundance
8. If only we could
9. Lit by the dawn
10. Regretful happenings
11. Killer of plasma TVs
12. An inchworm made me do it
13. Call the plumber; I'm stuck
14. Don't tell me it's fate
15. Sorry, but I needed my coffee
16. A piece of the pull
17. Sorrows of the soul
18. What she doesn't know won't hurt her
19. Niceties don't bring rainbows
20. Two hands are all I've got
21. Someday I'll get there
22. The kiss that said it all
23. Mind in the making
24. Bread and butter never tasted so good
25. A bottle of bamboozled
26. He was hungry for her
27. The Chardonnay of truth
28. The way things used to be
29. Chickens and chocolate
30. Sounds of the alphabet
31. Triggered by time

I was worried, when I started looking, that I'd get some not-so-great prompts. I've done a bunch of these, and sometimes the prompts are like "Favourite vacation spot" or "One thing you remember from the 80s" or something. Those do work, but they're not the most evocative. This could be really fun, or maybe I won't get anything out of the prompts. If that's the case, then I'll sit there and start writing without inspiration. I've done that before, but it isn't as easy to start.

I know, it's July 3, and so I'm already behind schedule. But I don't care. I'm going to try this, and we'll see if I have 31 stories by the end of July. Even if I don't, I might have some. We'll see.

On with the stories!