Thursday By The Numbers

At 700 words, “Thursday Affair” is the shortest story I've sold -- shorter even than my debut, "Teddy's Favorite Thing," which clocked in at a mere 1000 words.

There seem as many definitions of proper flash fiction lengths as you'd care to count -- 500 to 1500 words, with 1000 as a sweet spot. Shotgun Honey's upper limit is 700, so that was my limit as well for this tale of nihilistic lovers throwing away their perfect marriages on a murder-fueled race to the bottom.

Unlike my other stories, which I plan out like the Normandy invasion, “Thursday Affair” kind of came out of nowhere.

All I had to begin with was an opening line and a chip on my shoulder.

The opening line came from my idea file: "They were married, but not to each other." I had this line attached to an idea that never quite sparked up, but I liked the line and used it as a prompt.

The chip on my shoulder came from another story's rejection that day and the hangover from an editor's revision request on my unfinished novel, which was likely on-target but still soured my mood. I wrote "Thursday Affair" angry, and felt better when it was done.

My log has one entry for this story:

10/6 I wrote something the way I never do, starting with a first line from my idea file, but not knowing where it was going or how it would end. 700 words and submitted to Shotgun Honey. I didn’t know it would exist when I woke up this morning and now it is out there. Nasty story, maybe they should reject it. I don’t think I’ll acknowledge this one to anybody unless and until it is published.

Six hours from start to completion. Quite a departure from that aforementioned Normandy invasion planning! It was liberating to bring an entire creation to life in a single day's work.

There are many lessons to draw here but none so important as this: the cure for the blues, as a writer, is to write.

Show up. Do the work. Submit. Repeat.