A twist of romance – or not: February/March Writing Challenge

All About Writing’s latest writing challenge offers the winner a literary assessment on 5000 words of writing worth R 2750 / £ 150 or a voucher to the same value to use on one of our courses or programmes.

Write a piece of flash fiction in which your main character runs into the person they almost married five years ago but dumped because they got cold feet. They have regretted their caution ever since. What happens?

Write no more than 250 words. Paste your entry into the body of an email and send to pam@allaboutwritingcourses.comby midnight on 31 March.

Tips:

• Don’t explain what happened when they knew each other before. Concentrate on what happens in this scene, in the present.
• Don’t be too obvious or “on the nose”. Show your reader what they do, say, notice and feel, and allow us to do the interpreting.
• Don’t start your scene by explaining where they are and when this scene is taking place. Immerse us immediately in the moment.
• Don’t allow your scene to dribble away at the end. End early, preferably at a point at which we still have questions.
• Write from the perspective of one of the characters (either in first person “I”, or in third person “he”, “she” or “they”). Don’t jump between them. Allow us to see the world through the thoughts and observations of only one of them. The other character and their reactions we’ll see only from the outside.