Week Five: Wrap-Up The Writer-In-Motion exercise has come to an end, but throughout this process I've learned so such about my own writing process, what works for me, and what doesn't. As someone who enjoys writing flash fiction, I wasn't sure what to expect going into this exercise, but I decided I had nothing to lose in taking the time during November while my most recent ms rested. I was even more excited for the exercise when I won a spot with the fabulous editor Jeni Cha

Week Four: This week I edited my flash piece, HOMECOMING, based on EDITOR feedback. These editor edits showed how awful I am at my commas, and where I needed to fill out a little more information for the reader to connect with my MC. Below, I've shared Jeni's comments on my 3rd draft and beneath that you can read my 4th and final draft of my flash piece which came in at just over 1100 words after edits. Next week I'll do up a brief wrap-up on my thoughts and the overall expe

Week Three: This week I edited my flash piece, HOMECOMING, based on CP (critique partner) feedback. While I didn't agree with everything from the handful of critiques I received, I did stop and look at what each comment could signify. While some of the suggested fixes wouldn't work for any number of reasons (largely word count restrictions), I made sure to pause and really look at each instance to see if I could figure out what made them stop reading and how I could fix it.

Week Two: This week I self-edited my flash piece, HOMECOMING, and wow, I struggled with getting the opening just how I wanted it. And I'm still not entirely sure I am fully on board. Usually, this type of editing is already done through my drafting process (which is explained in the Challenges of Week 1), so it was difficult to get my thoughts back into the moment I was trying to capture in my first draft. I was fortunate to receive some encouragement from the community in th

Week One: This week I drafted my flash piece, HOMECOMING. This story took shape in my mind after sitting on the prompt (you can find out more about my first impressions in the Week Zero post) but getting the words on the page proved more challenging than I'd anticipated. Not because of the short word count, I enjoy writing flash pieces, but because The Rules state that you need to keep your first draft in all it's messy glory. Which is not how I draft. I write and delete prob

Writer-In-Motion Week Zero #WriterInMotion is a month-long event where writers draft a short story based on a prompt (more on that below) and each week revise, first on their own, then with peer feedback for the second and third drafts. Lucky raffle winners have the opportunity to revise the third draft based on a professional editor's feedback, and I was fortunate enough to win one of these coveted spots. Each week I'm going to post a revised version of my 1k flash fiction p

This is my first year trying out for Pitch Wars and I'm excited to be entering my latest ms. I’ve spent so long working on my epic fantasy that this new science fantasy project has energized me in a way I hadn’t expected. You can usually find me on Twitter @CM_Fick and on Instagram @cmfick. The Pitch Wars community has been amazing and I'm thankful for all the new connections I've made. Looking forward to reading all the other #BoostMyBios! About my WIP Working Title: Green D

#Write4Life is a fundraising event for writers that will give away everything from full manuscript critiques to personal query responses to books in exchange for donations starting at $5 (see 2019 prize list here). Donations in 2018 totaled over $2500 to benefit Puerto Rico relief efforts, while in 2017 we raised over $1700 to help a fellow author overcome an illness. This is our third year and our goal is to break $3300 for The World Literacy Foundation! How It Works TO ENTE