Day 5: The 5-12 Dialogue Challenge
It's the 5th day of the 12th month, so the perfect day for the 5-12 dialogue challenge!
Have you ever read a story where every character sounds the same and had trouble keeping track of who is speaking? If only those authors had tried this simple challenge for a cheap and cheerful method to help give their characters distinctive voices!
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Write a flash with two characters where one character only speaks (or thinks) in five-word sentences and the other only speaks (or thinks) in twelve-word sentences. No cheating with the numbers in the first draft, but of course, all bets are off in the second!
If you're up for an even bigger challenge, cut out the narration, dialogue tags, and descriptions, and make the story consist only of dialogue....
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Need some inspiration for dialogue-only stories? Have a look at the winners of the Bartleby Snopes Dialogue Only Writing Contest and see what these authors manage to do with only direct speech to work with!
Want to support National Flash Fiction Day? Send some work to FlashFlood when our submissions reopen!
Submissions open on Sunday, 5 May, and are only open for a week, so put the dates in your calendar now.
This year, we'll be nominating FlashFlood pieces for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, the Pushcart Prize, and more.
Stay tuned for the lineup of 2019 editors....
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Find out more about National Flash Fiction Day at our website or get in touch if you'd like to learn more about how you can get involved.
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