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Tried a 100-word flash fiction challenge and it completely broke my writing process

I did a 100-word sci-fi prompt last Tuesday and spent 4 hours agonizing over every single word, way longer than my usual 1500-word stories. Has anyone else found that strict limits actually make you more stuck, not more creative?
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3 Comments
tessawebb
tessawebb21d ago
Used to think constraints were supposed to help, but yeah, that 100-word thing had me second-guessing every comma. It made me realize I'd rather write bad words fast and fix them later than try to be perfect from the start.
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grant_torres
Read somewhere that Anne Lamott calls them "sty first drafts" and that really stuck with me. The idea that getting something down, even if it's clunky and awkward, is better than staring at a blank page trying to be perfect. Your "bad words fast" approach sounds a lot like that. I've been trying to do the same thing lately, just getting the messy version out and then going back to shape it. It's way less pressure than trying to nail it on the first try.
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gonzalez.phoenix
Maybe the real challenge is unlearning how to edit yourself.
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