I’ve been a member of Writers’ HQ (the best – and sweariest – no nonsense writing community around) for over four years and one of the ways they help their writers fit writing time into their schedule is by offering flash fiction prompts. Every Saturday on the free section of their forum (so everyone can join in) they post a prompt for the week ahead, to be used to create:
a) a 500 word flash fiction story to share on the forum (where camaraderie and excellent feedback abounds)
b) a micro-flash fiction – a story that fits into one tweet (so 247 characters) to be shared on Twitter the following Monday, or
c) both.
Back in June 2022 I decided that I would try to write and share a micro-flash each week and, by and large, I have succeeded so far. However just leaving them on twitter made them feel a bit disparate and unloved so I decided they should all live here, too, so that I, and anyone else who’d like to see the sort of fiction I create, could find them easily.
“Where’d you get the courage from?” he whispered. “You know. The courage to, uh, tell your truth.”
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) March 20, 2023
She looked into his earnest little face and smiled.
“Oh this ain’t courage, honey-pie. I’m just too damn cowardly to find out what happens if I lie.”#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/IueRQBHonb
Emma hated the birth day rhyme. She didn’t want to work hard for her living. “It’s not so bad,” her little sister Amy said sweetly, “you could’ve been born on a Wednesday.” Emma glared. Amy was a Sunday child in every way and it just wasn’t fair.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/sUigB6fvw2
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) March 13, 2023
Endings did not troubled her. Neither did beginnings, come to that. But working out how to get from one to the other? The endless possibilities unspooled until no mind map could capture them; a level of choice that paralysed rather than empowered.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/kuIQPvIlEZ
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) March 6, 2023
[Insert Prompt Here]
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) February 27, 2023
*Apples vs Oranges*
[Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clement’s]
She took a screen shot before closing the AI.
“Not out of a job yet!” was her caption when she posted it to the forum.
[Give me time] came the ominous reply#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/3NU16TDwwS
‘Is that clear?’ her boss was already in the corridor.
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) February 20, 2023
‘I… as mud.’ Ann said, to the closing door.
Her lottery win filled her mind. She looked from the piles of paper to the roaring fire. If he wouldn’t listen she’d “resign” in a more obvious way.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/xTiWjK2kOa
Yet another attempt to connect with them fails and I’m left without any understanding of what they expected, what I should have said or done. In the evaluation words are flung at me: emotionless, detached, robotic. My humanity dismissed. Again.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/BwyFHzWgcV
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) February 13, 2023
A coin toss decided his route home. If it’d come down heads he’d still be alone. But it hadn’t. He’d found the box by the canal, brought them home. Yes his furniture got clawed but so what? He loved his tiny, shouty, tail-chasing kitten companions.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/0sqrWljEPW
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) February 6, 2023
Each one required a different type of talk to reel them in. Sweet talk, tough talk, straight talk, dirty talk… you name it, I did it. Once I got them in the same room, though, it was easy. Just one text, sent from across town, & BOOM. Case closed.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/pCtDlAg95Q
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) January 30, 2023
A brown paper & string package arrives the day after the funeral. The printed address label gives no clue to the sender but the hat & gloves inside are unmistakably Gran’s crochet work. One last act of love to hold her through her winter of grief.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/FZVgUhawXl
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) January 23, 2023
She shuffled the pack & fanned them over the table.
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) January 9, 2023
“These aren’t tarot cards,” he said, drawing the Queen of Hearts & the Queen of Diamonds.
“But they do what I need them to.”
Behind him, unseen, her sister stole away with his pack & coin pouch.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/I3UT8tjg54
He thought he’d deal with those thieving hussies the traditional way; a club to the head then a spade to hide the bodies. But he’d underestimated the sisters & their talents. They’d seen him coming in the cards & now he was the one six feet under.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/iCnwqoyJjW
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) January 16, 2023
Gran always made using the leftovers fun. The gas ring became a real fire, the pan a cauldron, & we two witches cooked up magical variations of bubble & squeak. Except the day Blacky added a real mouse to the mix. That day we had bread & cheese.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/gWLxUr7qgp
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) January 2, 2023
He’d insisted on a “traditional Christmas” but when she asked him to fetch some mistletoe all he did was whine. Still she found a good use for the bruised berries she removed from the bunch he begrudgingly bought. He’d not be complaining next year.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) December 26, 2022
She had no idea how he'd enraged the elk but seeing it chase his precious Tesla up the track to the cabin & splinter the drivers side window before he could get out was eye opening. She waited patiently for the elk to finish before calling for help#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/yrvUOAgc6G
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) December 19, 2022
Didn't you ever read Anne of Green Gables? I asked once he’d stopped crushing me. You know; look before you leap, especially into spare room beds.
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) December 12, 2022
Lord no! That book was for girls.
Pity, I said pushing him out. If you had I might’ve let you stay.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/mZd31gli5U
Does she know? Should I move it? Put it on and flee?
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) December 5, 2022
Too late. Yet she is gentle as she strokes the russet fur of my pelt.
‘Beautiful’, she says, hanging it by the door. ‘You should wear it more often’.
And just like that my wild fears are tamed.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/6oeiVUcj1L
Could she have saved him? She’d never know. No one had blamed her, at any rate.
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) November 28, 2022
“Nothing you could have done, love,” the officer had said kindly at the scene & repeated formally at the inquest.
So now she was free. Which was all she’d ever wanted.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/piNGcLKukQ
The front door gleamed, doorstep too. Even the nets at the windows shone bright white. No dirt welcome here, they seemed to say. But round the back, where washing hung in a scruffy yard, door open, kettle always on, that’s where the stories lived.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/MMZVsiJq5s
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) November 21, 2022
Fairy bread, her Nan called it; the end of the loaf spread with butter & sprinkled with sugar. Best eaten very slowly, sat on the back doorstep, crumbs shared with the local robin. Now she’s the one being called Nan which just adds to the sweetness#MicroFlashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/mjWiZl1zXy
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) November 14, 2022
She brings one hair from his head. I put it in a vial with equal measures of salt (so every wound he inflicts sears his own flesh) & pepper (so his threats turn to fire in his throat). We season his world with pain of his own making. And we laugh.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) November 7, 2022
I lay paper in front of the flickering candle, hold out the pen that still bears the tooth marks of her thoughts.
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) October 31, 2022
“Talk to me,” I whisper, “please.”
Whisked from my fingers it dances alone across the page, spilling the words she never spoke in life#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/l9GGCpXmil
“Were I him, I’d be afraid.”
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) October 24, 2022
Squinting through swollen eyes she bit back a hiss as the woman’s gnarled hands gently cleaned her broken skin.
“Why would *he* be afraid?”
“Blood & bone, deary, blood & bone. So much power there… if you’ll choose it.”#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/L1BHYsRdmy
“What’s the difference between a cat & a comma?”
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) October 17, 2022
“I don’t know, Dad,” she said softly, biting down on the urge to yell “claws on paws, pause after clause, just like the last 14 bloody times”. Instead she laughed when he did & made them both tea #MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/Sb7g2BLMcD
“Be the lioness to my lion, babe”
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) October 10, 2022
He was drunk, handsy, & her friends were on the other side of the bar. She thought fast.
“Sorry but I’ve watched enough nature programmes to know that’s not an attractive prospect”
His confusion covered her escape.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/93X2Q2VXLX
The magpie had been telling me for days, alighting alone each morning on the ancient yew. I closed my eyes to him until the letter came & I could no longer pretend my heartache had no cause. He followed on silent wings as I went to tell the bees.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/WdqSiGdBXr
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) October 3, 2022
“Must be nice,” she says bitterly, “to have so much free time.” I shrug. She chooses not to see the endless chores, appointments, prescriptions. Hours spent answering the same questions, giving reassurance. Visibly invisible in our mother’s world. #MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/9OhUFk5n13
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) September 26, 2022
“Accountant by day, Author by night”. The bio may have been true but it made her sound like the worst superhero in existence. Still, between the job and the insomnia there were words on the page & money in the bank, which wasn’t to be sneezed at.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/O0SElM1srZ
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) September 19, 2022
He’d not recognised her in uniform. Probably hadn’t really looked at her; just another woman as easily dismissed as his wife. All to the good. He’d never know how he tested positive for gunshot residue, never know who solved the problem he’d become#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/kVrt8in4S9
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) September 12, 2022
It was easy when all humans did was state rules: don’t give your name, don’t stray from the path, don’t eat the food. No-one listened to a list of negatives. But then they began weaving the rules into stories and it became real work to enchant them#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/kVrt8imx2B
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) September 12, 2022
The face peering through the leaves was unnaturally beautiful. “Friend or foe?” he asked, voice all silk, honey & promise.
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) September 5, 2022
“How can I say?” She spoke carefully. “I don’t know who I’m addressing.”
“Clever girl.” His smile was vicious. “You’ll do.”#WHQCommunity #MicroflashMonday https://t.co/Z4OI3ZiwTA
The calendar on the wall used to tell the when and where of life, charting adventures alongside mundane tasks in vivid pink ink. Now it merely marks the passage of time, the where having shrunk to the house in which it hangs, the ink long run dry.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/VJOMka7Rw1
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) August 29, 2022
The tin he’d emptied of their savings lay on the table. She set her coffee before it and – slowly, deliberately – began to stir. On the ninth turn a bolt of lightening struck from the calm, clear sky. Out west, by his shed, smoke rose. She smiled.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/APNDOLkCTg
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) August 22, 2022
‘The Shining Ones.’ She spat, tightened her grip on the horseshoe. ‘Took my village. Silence & saucers of milk were all I found.’
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) August 15, 2022
‘Milk?’
‘An old wives tale.’ The newcomers face was too beautiful to be real, his eyes danced with mischief.
She ran.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/ifFGV6Ia1g
I love the top; sage green delicately striped with creamy yellow, like a sunlit meadow. I hesitate, though. Horizontal stripes. He always said they made me look fatter than I already was. But he, thankfully, is long gone. So I take it to the till.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/pEuB4CxGMH
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) August 8, 2022
Hindrance, my colleagues call her, when yet another zoom call disconnects as her whiskers fill their screens. I make sure the treats I use to lure her are hidden off camera and, once those idiots are gone, tell her she’s my precious little helper.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) July 25, 2022
ONE. I dash up the servants stair before Ben says two. I can barely hear him counting, here the attic, but that’s okay. I jump into the trunk & click, I’m hidden. It’s stuffy in here, waiting, & I’m so tired. I’ll just close my eyes for a moment …#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) July 18, 2022
Oh dear. How unfortunate. I can’t imagine how it could have happened. Would you like me to try and recall … oh, there are read receipts already so I can’t. Perhaps you should call your wife, Minister, she’d probably appreciate a warning this time.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/LKqaVkRYu5
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) July 11, 2022
As he holds court in the front room I retreat, trusting the splash of water and clatter of crockery to keep them away. May they see you with clean eyes, I mutter into the sink, may your lies drain away like the suds. The laughter suddenly falters.#MicroflashMonday #WHQCommunity https://t.co/8UziAn2Mqf
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) July 4, 2022
She doesn’t take the empty spot on the sofa, worn as it is into your shape. Instead she crouches, takes my hands in hers and holds them ’til my tears run dry. Then she stands, pulling me up into a hug that promises she’ll do it all again tomorrow.#MicroflashMonday #WHQcommunity
— Kizzia Mildmay🦻 (@Kizzia30) June 27, 2022
Kizzia Mildmay 