Today I bring you a guest post and a challenge from fellow #fridayflash aficionado, E. D. Johnson. He has challenged himself to a writing exercise that just might be crazy enough to succeed. And that’s what Mad Utopia is all about, folks, finding new and exciting ways to approach writing in the new era.
Please welcome, E. D. Johnson.
~jon
The #FridayFlash February Challenge
First and foremost, I would like to thank Jon Strother for allowing me this avenue of insanity, via a guest post on Mad Utopia. We’ve become pretty good virtual friends over the past several months, and I appreciate his support. We even had a genuine mystery that needed to be solved. It may one day become a topic for #FridayFlash.
Speaking of #FridayFlash, that is why I am here today. First a little background.
I waffle on and off of #FridayFlash, so some people may know me and some may not. I have been involved since the early days, when we were still picking the name in fact. Over the course of time we have discussed lots of ways to innovate and improve the event so that more people can be involved in a less chaotic fashion.
I took a little break in November and December (work related, not disgruntled or anything) and came back around the middle of January. I thought I was doing good with my little Parrant stories, because I wrote them basically back to back, though still stand alone in the tradition of #FridayFlash. When I mentioned that on Twitter, Deanna Schrayer (@deannaschrayer) told me that David Shrock (@dracotorre) had already posted to the middle of March. I grumbled a little bit, and in the course of that conversation, broached the idea of having a whole year’s worth of #FridayFlash. Deanna and others called me crazy, but I took it as a personal challenge.
The challenge is simple. Create enough #FridayFlash stories between February 1st and February 28th to cover from February 1st to December 31st! That’s right, one year’s worth of #FridayFlash in twenty-eight days.
Thus begins the #FridayFlash February Challenge. It is similar to NaNoWriMo in scope, so finishing should be possible. I am a big fan of alliteration, therefore, for February, I propose fabricating fifty-two #FridayFlash fiction stories for everyone to follow throughout the year. Is that enough alliteration? I invite anyone who wants to play along or give encouragement to do so. Wish me luck!
Editor's note: Luck!
Bio: E.D. Johnson is a new author with a BA in English. He is the creative spark behind Geek Treasure, and an early adopter of #fridayflash. You can follow him as @geektreasure on Twitter.
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Best of luck to you! If I can get one week ahead, I count myself organized!
[...] #FridayFlash: The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown Down Posted on 06:58, February 1st, 2010 by E. D. Johnson Tags: #AmazonFail, #fridayflash, amazon, Brad Stone, challenge, Epic Fail, Fail, John Scalzi, New York Times, news, Paul Boutin, Publishing, publishing news, Scott Westerfeld I did a guest blog over at MadUtopia about what’s going to be going on here on GT over the next few weeks. Let us just say it involves #FridayFlash and a challenge. Check it out here. [...]
I can’t even manage to write _one_ to put on the backburner – good luck!
Hey Geek… honourary Southern Hemispherer…
Far out… totally insane and yea – totally do-able at the same time when you frame it in NaNo terms.
I’m totally busy at the moment with CW and sneaking in Friday Flash when I can, like hidden candy. I take my hat off to all of those who are able to participate.
If there was some way of validating the 52 posts – I will happily give a Red Book Reversed (from Chinese Whisperings) to everyone who completes the challenge – as an extra sweetener – if that’s OK with you Geek, and Jon? (I’m happy to do the validating if someone can think of how???)
As someone who lately has time to even think about #fridayflash around Thursday night, I salute you. Great idea, and I may take you up on it — another month. Full-throttle on a novel and a ‘long’ short story.
There was a small band of merry writers who used April (which poets consider sacrosanct — it’s NaPoWriMo) to write a daily flash piece. I wanted to join them, but did the insane poetry stuff instead.
Peace, Linda
I am not entirely sure what a Red Book Reversed is, but I have no issues with sweetening the challenge up a bit. As for validating, I have no real clue as to how. I am setting up a project in yWriter5 to coordinate all the stories as different scenes. Just emailing 52 stories in a text file seems ill-conceived, though it would be somewhat effective.
It’s a hugely ambitious goal, but I’ll have to bow out of this one. I would like to take it on partially though and get a few weeks ahead in my writing, rather than rushing at 10 pm on Thursday to finish and polish my weekly flash. Best of luck and I wish you the most energetic of muses. ~ Olivia
“Ye gods and little fishes”, as my mother used to say (don’t ask, I haven’t a clue).
Of late, I’ve not been as regular a participant as once – finishing one novel, polishing a second.
This “52 in 28″ is a crazy idea – and so is a perfect approach to #fridayflash. I’ll be cheering from the sidelines.
Go for it!
I find it difficult to write a flash every week. I wrote 10 in December, 2 more in January at my leisure. It’s nice writing a flash story whenever the mood strikes or several at once.
A year (nearly) is a big goal. A good starting goal is staying a month ahead by writing several at once. Quality may suffer trying to get too far ahead, and growing writers might prefer sharing their latest skills. After staying a month ahead, getting 2-3 months ahead becomes easier.
In fairness, part of my motivation was to provide a date when my serial finished. I plan on falling behind while I work on other projects.
I’m interested in seeing the result of Johnson’s quest.
Quite a challenge. Due to family and writing commitments I can’t join you, mate, but all the best for the month long marathon. Keep us informed of your progress on twitter.
Surely someone will rise to the challenge and join EDJ in his crazy mission!?!
Unfortunately I’ve checked the schedules and there’s quite a bit of decent TV on in February, or I’d be right there in the writing bunkers with you, buddy!
I’ve never aspired to be more than a week ahead, though I’ve not tried doing serial flash either. All my stuff is ‘one-off’ writing. I do have a backlog of—let’s call it unmassaged—material.
Still, seems a bit like spanking a chicken for more eggs.
I’ve just met you E.D., but I gotta ask: are you feelin’ OK? Such a scheme is madness I tell you, madness!
I haven’t even given a moment’s thought to this week’s flash yet. Sometimes I wonder how I’ll ever pull another one out – just one!
More power to ya.
I wish I was ambitious. I am still staring at the same #FridayFlash piece I started the end of the year.
When I start feeling “normal” again… I might attempt this insanity…. might.
~2
Guess this proves one must be careful what one says in public.
If I could stay two weeks ahead with fridayflash I’d be satisfied. There’s no way I could do a full year’s worth in just a month, I’m sure of that. Well, I guess technically I could pound them out, but they’d be pitiful for sure. That said, I think it’s fantastic to give ourselves challenges, (mad or not). So, I’ll challenge myself to two months’ worth by the end of Feb, (for March & April). Of course I reserve the right to scrap them all and start from scratch if need be.
Good luck to you ED!
It’s quite an ambitious goal. I want to try to get ahead on stories, but nothing like you propose. I may do 2 or 3 a week (more if inspiration strikes), but that won’t get me anywhere near the end of the year. As Han Solo said, “Good luck. You’re gonna need it.”
WOW – go for it you who can! Don’t think I can at this point – most of my ff’s are written on Thursday afternoon.
All the luck to you, E.D.! I try to stay several weeks ahead but that’s about all.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by J. M. Strother, EmApocalyptic, Laura Eno, Adam Dustus, katirra and others. katirra said: RT @jmstro: Guest post by ED Johnson today on Mad Utopia – The #FridayFlash February Challenge http://bit.ly/cz4cyx [...]
mew
not when I’m doing the WoPoWriMo poetry challenge 
But good luck and maybe I’ll try it next month as a challenge!