Flash Challenge #72 is open.

You must be registered at Liberty Hall Writers in order to flash and/or read and comment. Go here to find out more and to register:

http://www.libertyhallwriters.org/

You are welcome to join us. If you don't already know one of us personally, then please email me and ask for admission.

Membership is by invitation only, in order to protect our writers and their rights.

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The writing period will be from now until midnight Sunday.

I recognize that no story is ready to publish after 90 minutes, but how "good" do Flash stories need to be?

My main reason for never jumping in to the Flash Challenges is that, even if the underlying idea is great, my actual writing will be total crud. My usual process is to write a scene one night, rewrite it then next night without all the melodrama/exposition/telling-not-showing/etc. The first night takes several hours, the second night much less time because the text has been stewing for a day. This process usually cuts the word count in half, and doubles the quality.

I can't write anything anywhere near quality in 90 minutes. It would be all exposition and excess wordiness and rambling. I'm amazed (and humbled) that there are those of you who can actually write a story in 90 minutes.

Some of them are very good, and just need a little fine-tuning before they're publishable.

Many have huge flaws, but also some good parts. Some good ideas, or a good portrayal of a mood or a character, or some nicely-written passages. These can be rewritten into something really strong, if I ever have the time and energy to devote to it.

Some are just kind of weak and forgettable.

Some are utterly disastrous, cringingly spectacularly awful.

It's nice when you bang out something really good, but even the flawed ones and the disastrous ones are both fun and good exercise. The stakes are low, so you're free to play around and try things and work on different techniques. If the story sucks, so what? you've blown an hour and a half, plus another hour or so for commenting (and I'll bet you a quarter you learned something from writing and commenting; I always do). part of the trick, I think, is to relax and not take it too seriously.

Just showing up regularly and practicing really improves your skills at the form, and improves your chances of getting out a good one.

and, it's fun.

just my experience. your mileage may vary. but like anything, it's what you make of it.

(and: it's fun.)

Firstly, the way we do things, your story is anonymous; nobody knows you wrote it unless you decide to reveal that you wrote it. Secondly, different people have different goals in doing the challenges. Some write to write an entire good story in 90 minutes. Others write to practice some aspect of the craft, for example, characterization. There are those who join in for the adrenaline rush, and others just to be writing SOMETHING.

Yes, we do 'grade' the stories by voting, but you can sidestep that, also, by simply requesting that your story not be included in the vote or by deliberately turning your story in late (it will still be critiqued) or by remaining anonymous.

You ego is safeguarded.

Finally, no one EXPECTS you, or anyone else, to just step in and start writing awe-inspiring stories in 90 minutes. We don't and we've been doing it for a while.

Liberty Hall was designed with the simple goal to get people writing and to keep them writing. The challenges, the voting, the jokes, the themes, the cameraderie and the really almost instantaneous, smart critiques you get serve that goal and no other. It will remain that way as long as I control it.

Is there a webpage on the forum you must use to write the story, that times you when you first start writing?

Or does everybody start writing at the same time.

You select a 90 minute period that suits you best, during a window that runs from about 0800AM US Central Time (~GMT-6) on a Friday morning and about 0800AM US Central Time (~GMT-6) on the following Monday morning. We call this the 'Open' writing period.

You log into a web page (the Trigger page) to view the writing prompt (trigger) and a php script on the server starts a clock. After writing your story you log into another web page (the Submittal page) and copy and paste your story into the entry form and click on "Submit" . At that point the server stops the clock and writes the total elapsed seconds into a database.

I or another Flashmod (we had to have a fancy name ) check the database periodically during the weekend. When we see entries we dump the records to a post in a hidden forum. We check for acceptability (ie no porn, no child abuse etc) and we check the elapsed time. The time is recorded as seconds. If you exceeded 5400 seconds, you do not qualify for the voting. You story will stil be posted and still receive critiques, but it will not qualify and thus will be labeled DQ (disqualified).