A to Z CHALLENGE 2016 THEME REVEAL

A to Z 2016

Theme

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Reflections

He stepped forth from the shadows, the knife in his hand glinting in the moonlight.
The only semblance of light bore by his presence.
A soul long dead and barren.
But his instrument of choice, his savior, could bring a moment of solace.
A moment of freedom.
He offered an escape from the workings of a broken world.
To end the insufferable sorrow.
And in exchange he was gifted with life.
Knowing he was alive.
Knowing he was doing good.
Knowing there would always be work to be done.

Deep, I know. But really...

Am I seeing this right? It's been almost two years since I've dabbled into my fiction blog? That's just criminal. Especially when I have all of these characters and story arcs and random ideas crammed in my head.

Mind you, I have many unfinished WIP projects that are littered in various documents and scribbled on note cards, so the creative outlet isn't completely 100% dead on arrival. That's a silver lining, I suppose. It pains me, however, to see this blog, one meant to be flourished with the inner workings of my artistic expression, whether embraced by others or not, barren for so long.

When opening this blog's settings, I noticed a draft bearing only a title and "Coming Soon" followed by "TBD" from last October. I'm so glad I left myself some notes as to WTF the project what about! I was honestly shocked to happen across it. But maybe, just maybe, participating in the 2016 A to Z Challenge will help jar my memory, or get my creative juices flowing to a capacity that will keep me writing fiction. Maybe even more After Armageddon!

I figure it's the least I can do. I miss it.

So, I'll be attempting to tackle this blog challenge! One which involves writing a blog post every day throughout the month of April, with the exception of Sundays. Each entry's subject/title will be dictated by a different letter of the alphabet, starting with "A" until eventually working through "Z". It's very simple in concept, but can prove to be incredibly daunting in execution.

I've found having a theme greatly helps matters and so I've chosen one for Dreams in the Shade of Ink:

A to Z 2016: Flash Fiction

There you have it. Flash Fiction. If unfamiliar, Flash Fiction is a form of storytelling that is brief, generally identified by its word count. I've seen varying qualifications for such pieces of work, so it's debatable, but I'd like to think anywhere under the 1500 word count could be seen as Flash Fiction. In fact, I came across another terminology when writing a piece, Fireflies, for a contest — Micro Fiction. This was categorized by fiction under a 500 word count. I'm not sure where the line of one type ends and another begins, there seems to be a lot of grey area, but it doesn't really apply here. Just some random factoids.

I'm planning on my Flash Fiction pieces to be more along the size of Fireflies, linked above. Some may be closer to the random fiction posted at the beginning of this theme reveal. Some may even be better than that. Some likely worse!

I'm definitely aware that my writing isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm hoping some of you will follow along and encourage the creative process in general! Also, if interested, I'm also doing the A to Z Challenge on my other blogs:

I, Jak Theme Reveal
Generation Jak Theme Reveal
Meta MTG Theme Reveal

Feel free to check out the other themes. Or you can dabble among some Dreams in the Shade of Ink with me here!

Are you participating in the 2016 A to Z Challenge? If so, are you following a specific theme? Do you write fiction or write in general? Have you ever experienced writer's block? If so, what techniques did you use to conquer it?