this is the only "the fight to make men read again" content that shouldn't be deleted

Ohhhh you know an email’s gonna contain a big old “but” and a rejection when it starts: “Thank you for your interest in [thing you submitted to]…”

Flashy workshoppy shenanigans happening in October... A whole weekend of generating story ideas and exploring techniques to turn everyday observations into compelling flash. (PLUS: finally fix those old drafts that still have *something* missing...) flashfictionmagazine.com/the-snapshot...

A story I've been trying to write for 20+ years found its home in Issue 3 of @frazzledlit.bsky.social: www.frazzledlit.com/p/young-enough

"Love and nature are indeed both pretty goshdarn large — often to the point where it feels impossible and overwhelming to try to describe them" Always a joy when a new @jmgatford.bsky.social newsletter lands in my inbox. Some great thoughts here on senses, specificity, and uniqueness of perspective

Just remembered that in the earliest hours of this morning I dreamt I had a pet wasp called Knuckle. You’re telling me THIS subconscious has to spend twelve hours a day writing emails and we’re calling that capitalism? Knuckle has never once written an email in his perfect little life.

Get the fuck out.

Six ‘Story in a Song’ writing exercises for your Monday morning, courtesy of John Denver sitting on a mountain. fixioning.substack.com/p/fill-up-yo...

There is a dangerous message being sold across the UK media that right wing extremism is inevitable and all we can do is offer up its desired victims - migrants, all people of colour, disabled people, trans people - in advance. But people's actions tell a different story.

Just spent two hours talking evangelistically about flash fiction to a local writing group and my brain/heart/flashy soul is very full.

If you're a writer that's currently thinking "What am I doing with my life? How did I get here?" just know that Peter Benchley partly wrote the novel JAWS in a converted chicken coop at his in-laws' house.

Here in #London at the counter demo it's taken 20 minutes to move 50 metres, there are so many of us

Oh! This is the best surprise! Absolutely adore @gonelawn.bsky.social and this piece is one of my favourite weird little ink-children.

Hey flashy folk! I'm excited to be running a 2-part workshop with Flash Fiction Magazine on 11-12th Oct on the 'snapshot' story! Learn how to transform ordinary observations and vignettes into compelling flash with depth, shape and nuance: flashfictionmagazine.com/the-snapshot...

It really is SO goodddddd

After raising £4k for fuel poverty charities from the print anthology, the FUEL flash ebook—with 12 bonus flash stories—is on its way! That’s 87 brilliant, surprising prizewinning flash stories by writers worldwide, exploding the myth that there's a formula for a “winning” story. www.fuelflash.net

I'm not quite sure how it's allowed to be September yet but the rest of my year is already filling up fast and I only have a handful of creative development/feedback one-to-ones still available so.... if you want one, get one! fixioning.substack.com/p/lets-talk-...

“This house will stand for aeons with its moral strength. This house will collapse any minute with secret, rotting shame…”

Always whip-smart and dangerously witty, that @sagreene1.bsky.social

A non-exhaustive (but occasionally exhausting) list of things that have fucked — and unfucked — my creativity the past month. Featuring: a faulty meatsuit, a vendetta against time, and the book-shaped hole in my heart... fixioning.substack.com/p/fixion-les...

September really said: “Summer? I hardly know her.”

So pleased to have a highly commended story in this issue!

Tomorrow is the big day! Issue 3 drops in the morning. We've got a tight packed issue waiting for you all, and we can't wait to release it. Fire up the last of the summer BBQs cause it's a smokin' hot one!

My dog has talking buttons and she’s started saying “all done” and “no” when I’m in a zoom meeting. (Also: “good girl” as a guilt trip because why would I dare disrespect such a perfect queen in this way?)

So excited to get my copy of ‘First Kicking…’ Loved ‘Ladies...’ (And I wrote ‘The Woman’s Part’ 💚) Books books books ahoy at @stanchion.bsky.social

NEW: “It is a famine. Everyone owns this.” UN emergency coordinator Tom Fletcher confirms a famine in Gaza. The whole world should be made to watch these two and half minutes. (🎥 BBC News)

Backwards in heels < in a chicken suit on ice skates

24 hours off work fun time thing #1: silent disco on a big hill with an ocean view.

I have been working like a doggg the past month and thought I was gonna have to work all through the weekend (again) but I just finished up a major project and now I have to fit every hobby I’ve ever dreamed of into the next 24 hours before it’s Monday again.

"Now you are an old man on a dismal patio in the same stucco neighborhood as before." This gut punch of a piece feels like a flash fiction sister to @megpillow.bsky.social's similarly powerful article: bsky.app/profile/megp...

Not Fate but Patience by @jmgatford.bsky.social —story link in comments

It's my job (and a privilege) to help you find the right words for your story. Book a mentoring & feedback session here: www.jogatford.com/creative-coa...

So many exciting-sounding things coming up from the likes of @alinaetc.bsky.social @kathyfish.bsky.social @stillsquirrel.bsky.social @sagetyrtle.bsky.social @tommydeanwriter.bsky.social @summermoth.bsky.social @taniahershman.bsky.social @ekphrasticreview.bsky.social @laurabesley.bsky.social

Hey, I'm doing drugs and reading subs. If you have something Literary and your process is last minute and chaotic and you missed the window, email it to me or shoot it through our secret TBQ8 Straggler submittable opening. We pay $150.

Been writing and submitting some truly weird shit lately. Much of it rejected, as it probably should be — but part of the process of figuring out what the actual fuck I'm trying to write about... Anybody else get oddly fonder of a piece the more it gets declined? Like a stinky old rescue dog.

Heads up for writers in need of some extra support: the brilliant @thelitconsultancy.bsky.social has bursaries available for their Amplify 12-week coaching programme — deadline is 9am on 1 Sept. ▶ bit.ly/TLC-Amplify-25 (Info on how to apply under ‘Accessibility’ on the course info page.)

I have a new 6-sentence flash in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social today! Not Fate but Patience: gooseberry-pie.com/not-fate-but... (In fact, read the whole of Issue 34, while you're at it: gooseberry-pie.com/issue-34/) Originally drafted in the brilliant @smokelong.bsky.social March Micro Marathon ❤️

Pretty sure we received an AI “reworked” version of a piece we’d *already* published - line for line the same syntax and rhythm and meaning, just a switch in the imagery & metaphor. “Rewrite this with X instead of Y.” Like, did they think we wouldn’t notice? Did they think we’d think it was clever?!

Delighted to have my story, Lucille Ascends, take 3rd place in the latest @flash500.bsky.social competition! flash500.com/flash-fictio... It came from a writing exercise set by the wonderful @noranadj.bsky.social at the @flashficfestuk.bsky.social last year (where so many good things begin) ❤️

Does the Sesame Street pinball counting song also live rent-free inside your head? If so, then you may enjoy this little glimmer-chasing activity: fixioning.substack.com/p/urban-coun... (one two three FOUR five, six seven eight NINE ten, eleven twelve...)

We have a rule in our house: “Don’t listen to anything your brain says after 9pm because it’s an arsehole.” Also: have a snack, have a shower, read a book.

Bath Novella In flash 2026 Award open for entries till Oct 31st. All 2025 Nifs up for sale on Amazon as well as ad hoc fiction www.bathflashfictionaward.com/2025/08/nove...

Rare poetry window. We will publish four of these poetry EPs/zines/microchaps next year. More if we can swing it but we have the means, for now, to say four. Knock us out! oleada.io/publication/...

also a reminder that buying harry potter shite goes directly into harming trans folk and, well, everyone else

Sometimes you spend 16 hours writing a 22 page complaint letter to the local authority, cataloguing all the ways they've breached their own legislation. Sometimes you just want to fist fight a SENCo in the park.

If I'm stuck while outlining, I'll start a list called "Stupid things that could happen next" and write a bunch of nonsense ideas down. Pterodactyl attack. Everyone starts singing. Someone transforms into a werewolf. Eventually the ideas become less stupid, and usually I find a solution.

The main thing I learned is that in order to write a book, you have to write a book and there's nothing that's going to prepare you for writing a book until you write a book so you should write a book