May Miniflash Theme Announcement & Rules

Try to keep this @ 500 words, but if you go to 1000 we'll deal. You are to be on your honor and write this one in no more than two hours. Less is better. You may edit for grammar and spelling, but otherwise, leave it as it comes.The due date for posting @ the FFC group page or for sending me a message w/your text to be posted in the FFC blog is ONE WEEK FROM TODAY @ NOON !!! I am making it a week because next Monday is Memorial Day here in the USA and many folks may have a long weekend because of it.

I will do better about getting them posted and will have them up by Tuesday @ noon. Really.

If you haven't commented on everyone's main flash, please do so. I've had some complaints that the comments are not as useful as they might be. We are here to improve our writing, folks. Patting each other on the haidbone is pointless. Giving honest, thoughtful critiques is. It helps YOU as well as the writer you're critting. Here are new rules about comments.:

1. Read each flash once and then walk away for at least a day. If something jumps out at you in the first reading, write it in a note to yourself and keep it in a special FFC CRITS file.

2. Come back and read the flash again. READ IT ALOUD if at all possible. This will help you catch things you might otherwise miss. Eudora Welty said in one of her essays about writing, I believe in her autobiography, One Writer's Beginnings, that she wrote for her ear. If something didn't sound natural when read aloud, she fixed it so it would. I try to follow that rule myself, albeit not always successfully.

3. If you feel that you can't sign your name to a comment because you don't want anyone to think you're being too critical, send it to me and I'll post it in the comments for that flash under the FFC blogger ID and a pseudonym to the effect of Critter 1, Critter 2, and so forth.

Okay, now that we've gotten that straightened out, here's the theme for the May Miniflash:

STRIP

There are many interpretations to this word, so ponder it a while. Don't necessarily go for the cheap and easy.

Go forth and WRITE!