A ficlet is a story that is made up of 1,024 characters. The idea behind this was to encourage writers to be succinct and precise: to see if, including spaces and punctuation, a writer could create a complete tale with a plot, in such a short span of words ... usually around 160. They are very tiny and very challenging ... especially if you want to introduce a character, a plot point, and a resolution all within such a short span of text.

I decided to try this a few weeks ago and fond that I could. Moreover, I found that I enjoyed it.

As a challenge for myself, I decided to try creating a ficlet novel on the Web site, Ficly. My theme would be the colors of the visible spectrum, in order, with a Prologue story and an Epilogue story to bring them all together. I wanted to finish them before the end of CONvergence. This morning, I was finally able to complete my masterwork.

Each "Book" in this Ficly project is very, VERY short and even when you put all nine together they can be read in less than 5 minutes. This being the case, I hope you will read them and tell me what you think. Each stands on their own but there is an over-arching reason for the narrative, too.

So, without further ado, here is my Ficly Novel, Books One through Nine.

Colors: a Ficly Novel of Interlaced Stories

©2009 by David J Rust

Book One - Prologue: Lenses
Book Two - Red
Book Three - Orange
Book Four - Yellow
Book Five - Green
Book Six - Blue
Book Seven - Indigo
Book Eight - Violet
Book Nine - Epilogue: Black & White

You guys.

You guys.

I have had a complete breakthrough in my last years NaNo! I have been editing it with the help of my mom, and there is one character who has been completely impossible to edit. We both hated her being in the story at all, but her role was necessary for someone to fill. And then all of a sudden my mom said, "What if she was a he?"

This has completely changed the story, but it has also given it new life that I didn't think it was going to get at this late stage. I feel excited about it for the first time since last November.

Share your editing triumphs! This is the first one I've had for awhile, and all through something as small as switching a character's gender.

Hey guys, I thought some of you might be interested in this. I'm participating in Summerwrite this year and have really been enjoying it.

This Friday night, I'm hosting a writing sleepover in the AIM chat room seasondash. We'll be sprinting and writing all night. I'm opening it up to people outside of summerwrite as well and I thought some of you may enjoy the opportunity.

If you'd like to read more about it, you can do so at write_over 

Also, good luck to everyone who's doing JulNoWriMo and other writing projects this summer!

So, this upcoming November I've decided I want to do 100,000 words rather than 50,000. This is something I've never done before and I was wondering if anyone could share their experiences with me or give me some good tips on how to reach my goal.

If I think about it being twice what I wrote for the last few years, that freaks me out, but if I think about it just being double per day what I normally wrote, that doesn't seem so bad. That's about 3400 words a day, right?

Still, as a college student who remembers how crazy last November was, I wonder if I'm completely insane. Any words of wisdom?

Hey everyone, I'm going to do a Sort Of NaNo in July and I'm looking for writing buddies! I figured I'd give a shout out to this community, rather than just my F'list - after all, there might be lonely JuNoWriMos out there...


My name's Claire, I'm French and I've been living in London since last September. I've only done NaNo once, and I've won it with most of the novel in English, which I really didn't think I could do! I love reading, writing, drawing, chatting, my awesome writing gang, kitties, the internet and chocolate. I'm a bit crazy and a bit lazy, but mostly I'm quite nice, so if you'd like to add me as a friend and follow the writing at my journal, please do so :)

For my Sort Of NaNo I'm going to re-write my Actual NaNo novel from last November. It's a sci-fi novel called Stars Shine Brighter and it centers around a bunch of unruly space pirates! I'm re-writing it entirely because last november was my first attempt at actual writing in years and it was very shoddy and had bits of it that weren't even in English! There are plot points which have changed tremendously since November and some new characters and ideas have been introduced. I now have a much better defined idea or what I want to do and where I want to go with this, so I figured I should give it a second go! Also, I'd like to get the novel more fleshed out so it'll be more of a Work In Progress than a Bunch of Awesome Ideas in a little notebook, so that, comme November, I can actually start on a shiny new project :)


Apart from that, pretty much everything is welcome: comments, ideas, opinions, tips, prompts, insults, etc... 


So, anyone up for NaNoing with me in July?


ETA: I just joined julnowrimo, an awesome community where some July Novelists are already organising their month and posting goodies - Come along, guys!

Check It Out.

(and yes, you are obliged to pimp this out of you fill it in. c'mon, no shirking)

My first book, "Stumbling and Mumbling", has been published and is up for sale.  It is a book with my poetry and prose.  The writing in this book covers issues like domestic violence, love, death, mourning, suicide, revenge, growing up, and finding oneself.

I am selling it for only $7.99!

If you are interested in ordering a copy, click below:

I've checked on the-site-which-shall-not-be-named, but I do not see a yay or nay on this there, so I figured I'd ask here... 

Some of you may be familiar with minnowrimo  - the LJ community dedicated to a NaNoWriMo-style experience in March.  I participated in MinNoWriMo this year and the result was a lengthy story which has now been posted to Literotica. 

The question concerns my idea for NaNoWriMo.  The MinNoWriMo story featured two main characters, but was told in first-person from Character A's perspective.  I'm thinking that the same story from Character B's perspective could be both an interesting writing challenge and also an interesting viewpoint for the person who might read both "versions." 

So the question:  Is versioning permissible for NaNoWriMo?  It may be "easy" because the story is already laid out in its entirety, but it would still be challenging getting into Character B's head and writing everything - including thoughts, concerns, fears, delights, etc. - from Character B's perspective. 

Writers, writers, looking for an intellectual home, sweep up your metaphors and allusions, your dancing wordplay and thundering foreshadows and BLOOM like a lotus flower.

The Lotus Reader is a cutting edge non-profit online literary magazine producing original works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from around the world. Famous professor, tired teenager, journalist, dropout, it doesn’t matter who you are—quality writing is the only qualification.

To read/ submit, go to:
http://www.lotusreader.com