Recently, I signed up for a fiction workshop on writing flash fiction. So far, it’s been interesting and getting me thinking about writing as well as writing often. Over the past few years this has been missing from my life as I pursued another masters degree (something that I can be gainfully employed with) and have been a little transient and caught up in life. In some ways, that all feels like an excuse.
You can always find an excuse not to write. The dishes need washing, you haven’t seen a friend in a while, you’re tired. Writing shouldn’t feel like a chore. Writing shouldn’t be something you worry about and feel guilt over. If writing is a part of your life, it needs to be embraced and followed. Do you feel guilty for breathing, for getting up each day, for eating meals?
While I wasn’t writing and living and breathing it, it did feel like something was missing. Something that defined me. So, here I am, back in a workshop and enjoying it. Perhaps I’ll share some of what comes out of that here.
Our first assignment was to write fondly about someone who is ugly in five-hundred words or less.