Slow Writing, Flash, & Hanging in There

We are makers, we humans. Other species too, of course, but I'm trying to limit myself here so that this blog post has a shot at completion. I could easily open so many doors in my thinking that I never hit "publish" on this thing. I might look out my window at the black-capped chickadees and slate colored juncos helicoptering around the feeder and wonder at their nests, if they've strewn any found bright purple yarn into their creations. Then I might think about why they would do this. Some species do it to attract mates. Others, like us, we do it, in part, to experience original response. Something more than our own echo off the cave wall.Oh boy. See? Now what was I saying. That's write. Right. Unfolding ideas in writing, pursuing these lines of thinking into a legible made thing takes time. I don't even know if my opening paragraph has done its work yet, but I'm going to leave it behind because I have bigger fish to fry at the moment: the novel I'm working on. And also, some flash! Crazy? So crazy it just might work. I wrote about how the one can help the process of making the other for Grub Street so I won't go into it too much here. (6 Tips: How to Stay Motivated for Big Creative Projects) I'll briefly say that making short works while working on long form can be incredibly helpful to my morale.And so I have, made shorts. In fact, one just got picked up by the prickly formercactus for their special 10th issue coming out this July. What a boon to this gal while at it on the longer work day after day. Even in and of itself, though, I do absolutely adore micros. Minis. Shorts. Flash. Fiction, creative nonfiction. Prose poems? Sure. In fact my first book is chock full of these bits. Also, I am leading an online flash writing workshop for Writing Workshops Dallas and the amazing Blake Kimzey. This is starting on April 9, so tout de suite get right over there and sign up if you're wanting to makes some ditties in 8 weeks with me. I am LOVING the reading list I'm putting together and especially the prompts for writing. We'll also  talk about where to send your works once revised (yes - we'll workshop).There's more to say on all of this (I almost always say that!), but I've got to get back to the novel. Meantime, for your viewing pleasure, here's this:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiXY7ynw6ek]