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My latest flash fiction story, “The Prophet’s Burden,” is now available to read on Havok’s website. And, since I’m a volunteer editor, there’s no 24-hour time frame—it’ll always be available, whether or not you’re a Havok member. To celebrate its publication, here’s a short look at how I wrote it.

If you’ve already read the story, you may have guessed that it follows the same exploits of the adventurer from “Sword of the Stones” or “The Tomb of the Ophidian Scepter.” I’d been thinking of writing about another of his expeditions, and the “sixth sense” theme for October 2020 seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

So in a way, the “sixth sense” theme wasn’t exactly the seed for this story, but it did help focus it. I thought it would be cool to feature an artifact that would allow the adventurer to sense the future—an extremely valuable skill for someone in his line of work! The idea was that the artifact would allow its wearer to discern the future as long as they were wearing it in that possible future. I wanted removing the artifact to feel particularly weighty, because that is the only course of action that can’t be predicted.

The madness element of the talisman (since that was the type of artifact I settled on), evolved naturally as I wrote the story. It made sense that trying to comprehend a multitude of experiences all at once would be overwhelming. I didn’t quite have the word count to delve into this aspect, but I envisioned the talisman grants/forces its wearer to experience the future in all five senses. So you don’t just see what happens; you feel, hear, smell, and (sure) taste it, too. So the adventurer’s brain was telling him that he was being stabbed, crushed, eaten, hearing his partner scream and animals roar, smelling burning flesh, tasting noxious gases, etc. all at once. Not a very pleasant experience!

I don’t really go into that in the story though. What was interesting was composing scenes from the main character’s future-perspective while considering what was actually going on in real-time. I wanted to give readers the option to re-read the story and understand what Alma was seeing/hearing. For example, the first “real” dialogue after the adventurer puts on the talisman is him answering Alma’s as-yet unasked question, which is why she just stares at him for a moment. It was a unique challenge, but I think I pulled it off.

In terms of the actual writing, the first draft started right with the adventurer putting on the talisman. Herein lies a tip for writing flash fiction. The story really picks up when the main character puts the talisman, but that moment doesn’t offer any backstory to help ground readers. Nevertheless, I wrote that scene first because I knew I would need to get to it quickly.

Later, after writing the majority of the story, I went back to write the intro. This offered several benefits: 1) I knew how many words were left to write the opening and keep the story under 1,000 words. 2) I was already in the writing groove, so instead of spending a few paragraphs warming up my “writing voice,” I was able to jump right in. And 3) I knew what moment I was writing toward, so I knew which information had to be relayed, and which stuff could be left out. The resulting “opening” section lasts approximately 120 words, but it moves toward the inciting incident pretty quickly (compared to what I would have likely done without the constraint).

Because the crux of the story always lay in the scene where the characters finally grasp the talisman’s power, I knew the ending would have to be similarly fast-paced. I wanted to include another scene showing the different futures that could result from an encounter with an enormous crocodile, but the word count just wasn’t there.

Since I didn’t have the space to describe this scene going into further detail about the artifact’s effects on the wearer, I opted for a broader overview as the adventurers exit the temple. Even though I think it could have been interesting to dive into this aspect, I think the end result fits well with the main character’s inability to focus.

The ending was a little tricky. As I mentioned above, taking off the talisman was meant to be a significant gesture and indicate that the adventurer could accept not knowing the future. But since this story felt a little heavier than other installments, I wanted to reintroduce just a little levity at the end. My first draft had the main character commenting about what drew the ancient civilization mad (an idea that didn’t make it into the final story). However, my editor Lisa encouraged me to push this a little more. I’m happy she did, because the end result gives the characters a little more good-natured banter. And adding banter is always a good call.

Of course, you’re invited to add a little banter here in the comments or over on the story itself! I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into how “The Prophet’s Burden” came together. Thank you for reading!

Today’s the launch day for Bingeworthy: Havok Season Three! My newest flash fiction story, “In Search of the Magma Heart” is available exclusively in this collection, so I wanted to share a brief post about how it came together.

As a volunteer for Havok, I had the option to write a story for the anthology as long as it matched one of the season’s themes. The “Bingeworthy” season themes were all based on story tropes like Dynamic Duos and Answering the Call. I thought it would be fun to try to pack as many as possible into one story, but ultimately submitted it under the One Thing theme.

And having fun with the story was really the driving idea. Even though I wasn’t planning on submitting to Havok’s Wacky Wednesday genre, I wanted to write something that would make me and readers laugh. When I wrote the first draft of this story, it had been quite a while since I had finished a fiction project. So my goal was just to enjoy the process, and that meant a heavy dose of humor.

That meant starting with developing a funny premise. As I brainstormed, I thought it would be fun to focus on a reluctant hero—who makes no attempt to hide said reluctance. I also decided to create another character so the two of them could banter on their adventure, but it also worked to make her the one who invited him along in the first place.

Of course, the funniest thing that can happen to a reluctant hero is drawing them even deeper into the quest they want to escape. So from the very beginning of plotting, I wanted something to happen to the main character that would keep him from going back. If you’ve read the story, you know this definitely happens.

With this goal/ending in mind, writing the story was a matter of maintaining forward movement while sprinkling in bits of humor. I may have mentioned this in previous posts, but I think one of the best sources of comedy in fantasy is juxtaposing fantastic elements with more modern/mundane sensibilities. This is why one character is named Maelys (a real, albeit uncommon name) and the other is named Tom (which you may know a few of).

I think the most prominent example of this occurs in the first two paragraphs. The first paragraph is supposed to read like an epic, action-packed opening promising a heroic fantasy story. Then the story “cuts” to her friend panicking on a rock surrounded by lava. I think the gambit pays off, giving readers an idea of what to expect for the rest of the story.

Of course, by design, that juxtaposition gets somewhat inverted at the end. (Spoilers ahead.) I tried to write Tom’s rock collecting as another bit of comedy—kind of a jokey side note explaining why he agreed to this adventure in the first place. But at the very end, that hobby has a very serious ramification. As I wrote the story, I tried to balance the humor with foreshadowing, and I think the final version leans slightly toward the latter. It’ll be interesting to hear how readers react to the story, and whether they paid special attention to the rock collecting at the beginning or if they thought it was just a funny anecdote.

Regarding the ending, when I was writing the first draft of the story, I tried to fit in  a little more action to amp up the climax. In this early version, the cavern was home to a serpent that attacked the duo when Tom grabbed the wrong gem. Maelys battled the guardian while Tom ran around being useless. It was a funny idea, but it also would’ve used up a lot of words.

I knew that if I wanted to show this scene, I’d need to trim the tunnel scene. But that walk through the darkness had so much good humor and banter (even more so in the first draft), that I didn’t have the heart to trim it. In my opinion, those elements matched the heart of the story more than a big fight (even if said fight did include one character running around). I was willing to sacrifice the action, but I like to think that there’s an alternate timeline with a >1000 word story that has both bits.

But since we can’t currently access that timeline, I thought it might be fun to share a deleted scene of sorts. When I realized the fight would take too many words, I tried trimming the serpent’s part down to a very brief appearance. This section was still too long, so I cut the snake entirely, unceremoniously sentencing it to a forgotten draft on my computer. Until now.

–

Tom nodded. “Alright, cool. So we just pick the right one of these orbs and you can be on your merry old quest.”

“I guess so.”

“Great.” Tom strode toward the closest gem, arm outstretched. “Now we just need to figure out which one it is.”

Maelys started saying, “I wouldn—”

Tom grabbed the gem, and a hissing sound reverberated through the cavern.

The teenagers locked eyes then looked up. An enormous, ebony snake slithered between stalactites.

“You are kidding me!” screamed Tom.

The snake launched itself at the boy before finding itself suddenly impaled by Maelys’s spear. It thudded to the ground, then shot the swordmaiden an indignant look before crumbling to dust.

–

With that, I’ll conclude this behind the scenes look at “In Search of the Magma Heart!” You can find it and 45 other great flash fiction stories in Bingeworthy: Havok Season Three, available now. Thank you for reading!

Exciting news! This week, Havok announced their newest anthology: Bingeworthy: Havok Season Three. As you may know from my previous post, this year I began volunteer editing for Havok. This means (in addition to selecting and editing stories for the website), I got to play a small part in selecting stories for this anthology. I can’t wait to see them released into the world (in digital and eventually print form) all collected together!

I’m also excited to share that I’ll have a story published exclusively in this anthology, titled “In Search of the Magma Heart.” I wrote it with the “The One Thing” theme in mind, but it also fits in nicely with “Dynamic Duos,” “Answering the Call,” “Super Duper,” and even “Strange New Worlds.” That’s almost a whole season’s worth of themes packed into 1,000 words! It takes place in a fantasy world, but I’ve sprinkled in healthy doses of humor and banter, similar to “When Magic Died” and “Salty.”

Other than that tease, I want to leave the synopsis vague until after the anthology releases. But when I do, I’ll be sure to post a behind the scenes look at how the story came together, right here on the blog.

But if you’re intrigued by the idea, be sure to keep an eye out for “In Search of the Magma Heart” and 45 other flash fiction stories in Bingeworthy: Havok Season Three, releasing next week! It’s available for preorder on Kindle right now, with paperback copies becoming available soon.

Yay! My newest flash fiction story, “Blood Hunter” is available to read on Havok.* It’s a Western about a werewolf bounty hunter whose lycanthropy gives him the ability to track prey by taste. Here, I wanted to share a little about how it took shape.

Like every story for Havok, this one started with the month’s theme. During this fourth season of Havok, each month’s theme is based on a sense. For August, that sense is taste. So I knew taste needed to play a prominent role in the story.

I didn’t have any particular flavors in mind, but I thought it could be interesting to do something with the taste of blood. Of course, I thought it might be weird to have a normal human making a habit of tasting blood, so I thought it would be cool to introduce a werewolf character—which offered reasons for both heightened senses and an interest in blood.

As for the setting, I recently got it in my head that I wanted to do some sort of Western-mashup story. I have no idea what prompted this, but this story seemed like a good opportunity. Werewolf cowboy, anyone? (Because of the weird-West setting, I can imagine this story taking place in the same world as “The Exomaton of Panner’s Bend,” though there isn’t any crossover.)

In terms of the writing strategy, I knew I wanted to retain a strong connection to the taste theme. I was afraid of mentioning it a couple times but otherwise ignoring it. Because of this, one of the earliest beats I imagined was a moment where the werewolf character describes a series of tastes in quick succession. This developed into the middle scene, which ends with Lemuel describing the different things he can taste to McKinsey.

That scene, in fact, is the main reason McKinsey is in this story. In my head, it didn’t make sense for Lemuel to just think about each of these things—he needed to say them out loud. So I developed the concept of Lemuel being recruited by the deputy and them hunting Coyote Sam together.

At that point, I thought McKinsey would be the main character. I envisioned his arc would begin with him being suspicious of Lemuel (because of his werewolf nature), and end with him respecting the bounty hunter. I wanted to portray Lemuel as a misunderstood, mysterious, yet honorable outcast who was doing his best with the hand life had dealt him.

But I quickly realized this story would not fit into 1,000 words. And since the core idea of my story placed the heaviest emphasis on plot, I ended up letting go of things irrelevant to it. This ended up moving the point of view closer to Lemuel’s perspective and eliminating McKinsey’s character growth. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for flash. Even though McKinsey’s role may be diminished in the final piece, his role still accomplishes what it’s meant to, functioning as a pseudo-foil to Lemuel.

The final scene also involved compromises for the sake of word count. In an earlier draft, I toyed with the idea of Coyote Sam’s gang hiding out in an abandoned coal mine, where the taste of the air would affect Lemuel’s ability to track them. That detail, and a more drawn-out fight scene, had to be trimmed to keep things within 1,000 words, but I’m still happy with how the story turned out.

And I hope you’re happy with how it turned out, too! Taste was an interesting theme, and I appreciate the way it pushed me out of my comfort zone to write “Blood Hunter.” Thank you for reading it, as well as this behind-the-scenes post. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or on the original story over at Havok 🙂

*Since I’m a volunteer editor, this story is published as a Staff Saturday post, which means it’s always available to the public! If you want to read my earlier Havok publications, or hundreds of other flash fiction stories, you can always become a Havok Horde member. As a member, you can also vote on stories and influence which ones are selected in anthologies.

Woohoo! My newest flash fiction story, “Salty,” is available to read for 24 hours on Havok today. It’s a fantasy-comedy about a mermaid whose sunbathing sesh is rudely interrupted by a lovestruck human guy. Curious about how I wrote it? You’ve come to the right place.

This was the first story I wrote for Havok’s new season, “Stories that Sing.” Every month features stories inspired by songs from a different decade — in this case, the 1950s.

I’m not familiar with many 1950s songs. Fortunately, my wife owns a soundtrack from a show that features a ton of songs from that decade. So we listened to it on a roadtrip, and I started imagining which stories would lend themselves to a flash fiction piece. As you may imagine, a lot of them are love songs. And since Havok features genre stories, I knew there needed to be some sort of sci-fi/fantasy element.

Which made “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” so intriguing. The mental image of washing conjured images of water—which led to the sea—which led to a mermaid—boom. A story of a mermaid spurning a human guy’s advances to avoid an inter-species romance. In terms of genre, it seemed like a great candidate for a Wacky Wednesday story.

The next day, I sat down to write. But just to double-check on the decade, I googled “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” . . . and learned it was recorded in 1949! Travesty!

Fortunately, there were plenty of other songs on the soundtrack. I figured I’d already committed myself to this story idea (and the deadline was literally the following day) so I identified a different song that would lend itself to the same story.

Ah yes, speaking of “the deadline was literally the following day,” I’m rather proud to say that I wrote this story in a day. This was the “sit in a coffee shop all day” day of our roadtrip, and I’d say I put it to good use! Starting with only the premise and genre, I sat down and starting pantsing (read: writing without an outline).

I knew the story would start with the guy encountering the mermaid, but I had no idea where it would go or end up. At first, I thought it would begin with her saving him from a shipwreck, but I found the setup for that wasn’t leading to a very interesting conversation. I started over, this time with him interrupting her sunbathing. The interruption made it feel like a much more humorous start (as opposed to, you know, saving someone from dying).

From there, it was just a matter of imagining what would make for a funny conversation. The list of challenges of an inter-species romance was an early idea, but bringing Cthulhu in as a deterrent was something I came up with in the moment. Every now and then, things would veer into territory that would considerably exceed the word count or just start leading the conversation off-track, so it was just a matter of reigning things in and keeping dialogue focused on what they wanted (a date, and space).

All in all, the actual writing portion took me approximately a full afternoon. (I’m very impressed with flash fiction authors who write stories in an hour!) Both my wife and I did a read-through before I submitted, but that was pretty much the extent of my revisions. So I’m very thankful for Lauren and Gen at Havok for seeing through its imperfections and helping it become what you can read today!

I hope you enjoyed both the story and this look at how I wrote it! If you did, or if you have any questions, feel free to post here or on Havok’s website. And if you didn’t get a chance to read it during the 24 hours it was free, you can always become a Havok Horde member. As a member, you’ll get full access to “Salty” and every other story they’ve published, as well as the ability to vote on which stories are selected for anthologies. Thanks for reading!