⨠It's Thursday and that means it's time t- no. Wait.
It's Flash Fiction Friday and we are never wrong!
⨠New to FFF? Let us fill you in!
Flash Fiction Friday is a fun writer event thatâs meant to inspire, share and connect writings of all genres and writers of all ages. Itâs designed to make people want to write, especially if theyâre feeling blocked. Everyone and everything is welcome!
We always do our very best to keep the promptâs genre open, entertaining, positive and encouraging.
Write between 100-1000 words. It can be any genre, in any text format and 18+ is fine by us, just please tag accordingly.
Use this Fridayâs theme in your text. Any way you see fit. This means that your text is newly written for the prompt by you. We do not allow any contributions created or aided by AI/LLM.
Post on your tumblr blog and remember to tag us at @flashfictionfridayofficialâ!! So weâll see it, read it and reblog it!!
Deadline is 24 hours after the prompt has been issued (12 pm CET).
And then, next Friday, weâll mention your work in a showcase post on our main blog before our next prompt drops.
Please post your entries as regular posts, not screenshots â or provide the text as a regular post as well. Letâs keep everything as accessible as possible!
We ask you to tag your works with any appropriate content warnings and let the reader know what theyâll find before they get the chance to read your work!
If you have a question, check out our FAQ page! If your question isnât on there, donât hesitate to ask!
You donât need to ask for permission or need to get added to a list to join in. Just write, have fun and donât forget to tag us!
Tag your fandoms correctly and remember we now have an Ao3 collection (âFlashFictionFridayâ) â¨
We do not condone fiction, asks or comments that glorify: direct hostility, unconstructive critique, LGBTQIA+ hate, slurs, racism and/or general no-no behaviors.
If you want to be closer to the epicenter, you can come chat on our open discord: https://discord.gg/rUWCE8a
⨠We also introduced our very own Wishing Well, a place for you to whisper your prompt suggestions into. And weâll listen! Check everything about it out HERE.
â¨All your amazing works from last week can be found HERE.
Go check them out and consider supporting your fellow FFF writers with some likes and reblogs!
⨠And now, the new prompt!
[#FFF 359 The Wrong Sign]
This prompt was sent in by the one and only @cocoamoonmalfoy, thank you so much! You read the sign, but something went wrong! Now you're stuck at the other end of the galaxy, accidentally went into the wrong room or slightly misinterpreted the situation... Oops? Whether it's time to get your eyes checked or the fates were faulty, we want to know! So go and type and tell your story!
Your characters are allowed to be bad people. Your story is allowed to have no moral lesson.yyour ending is allowed to be sad. The villain can win. The good person can do something unforgivable. The lovers can destroy each other. You are allowed to write the thing that no one asked for and everything that everyone told you doesnât work and you are allowed to not explain yourself.
Two things absolutely changed my life as a writer. You ready?
One- as OP said, your characters can be bad people, they can do bad things. There doesn't have to be a reason or a moral. You can make them bad if you want to. No other reason needed.
Two- it doesn't have to be good, it just needs to be written. On my last book i literally wrote the words "dumbest version" on the top of the page because I had seen some advice to do that. It changed everything. I stopped trying to make it perfect, I just tried to make it. Period. Full stop.
And honestly? Defiance is the best writing I've ever done. All because I let my characters be bad and I gave myself the freedom to write it badly.
HOW is it possible that I am seeing this for the first time? Now safely installed in my tumblr short cuts folder. I am SO bad at coding that this is a real life saver.
A HANDY CHART FOR THOSE OF YOU WONDERING WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THESE. NOTE THAT THESE ARE ALL THE INFORMAL AND YOU IS THE FORMAL SO LIKE YOU WOULD ALWAYS ADDRESS YOUR SUPERIOR/ OLDER PERSON/ SOCIAL BETTER WITH YOU BUT WITH YOUR BUDS YOU CAN USE THESE.Â
You remember only the moth, carrying you through the cosmos.
And now you are dead. A newly formed spirit, carrying your grief into the unknown.
But the end has no end, and your story continues.
After a meeting with Death (they're really not used to talking to people, be gentle with them) and the Raven, a sardonic talking bird with secrets older than stars, you sign a contract: manage the bar on the Abyss for one year, in exchange for a single limitless wish from the gods themselves.
The Abyss is a nexus connecting every realm in existence. A haven where gods, devils, angels, and lost souls converge to drink and revel.
And you're not alone. You have your staff, and your patrons: a mortal witch, a sly devil, and Death, who keeps finding reasons to visit. Grief isn't the only thing that survives death. Love and friendship make the crossing too.
But something is hiding in the fine print. A voice in your dreams, a loneliness that has swallowed every proprietor who came before you.
How do you fight loneliness?
Manage your bar, unravel the cosmic mystery of the Abyss, go shopping in Hell, witness the universe's creation in a public bathroom, unlock the forbidden secrets of magic, and learn the truth about your real employers.
The Abyss beckons you.
⏠A narrative-driven interactive fiction experience, where every choice builds the story and the person you're becoming in death.
⏠Play as any gender, any sexuality. The afterlife doesn't card you at the door.
⏠Customize your death: did you go by fire, or illness? Did someone else make the choice, or did you? The circumstances of your death are yours to define.
⏠Pick your grief path: the way you felt in your final moments will shape the story, how certain characters respond to you, and how you see the world. Did you rage against the dying of the light, or welcome the reaper with a handshake? Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance: choose the lens of your afterlife.
⏠Customize your spirit-self: choose your appearance, pick from 36+ career backgrounds that unlock choices throughout the game, and your death scars â because you died, and you probably have the marks to prove it.
⏠Choose your pension: a single, limitless wish from the gods themselves. What do you want more than anything?
⏠Build your psyche: a 30-trait personality system quietly maps every decision into a portrait of the spirit you're becoming.
⏠Pick your Spirit Gift: a mythical artifact left by the bar as a welcome gift. Stop time, read the secret thoughts of gods, analyze any entity, hear the opinions of inanimate objects, wear anyone's face, or carry a sword forged to kill gods. Each gift opens unique scenes, solutions, and ways to experience the story.
⏠Be the proprietor of your own afterlife bar: name it, choose its theme, and run it your way.
⏠Romance and befriend a cast of mortals and immortals: the awkward Grim Reaper, a mortal witch and their familiar, a sly devil, a warlord who became your security guard, a spectral diva, and a formless shadow. Be poly, monogamous, asexual, purely physical â they'll respond in kind.
⏠Random patron encounters on your night shifts: who walks through the door changes every playthrough.Â
⏠Explore the afterlife, travel to distant realms, and uncover the dark secrets hiding beneath your bar⌠and your contract.
M\F\NB (Poly or Monogamous paths)
Death reveals a surprising warmth beneath their eternal duty.
Is there room for love within their everlasting embrace?
Read more >>>
M\F (Poly or Monogamous paths)
This devilish being, a powerful magnet of desire, seeks more than power in the barâs shadows.
Who dares to pursue the heart behind the flame?
Read more >>>
M\F (Poly or Monogamous paths)
The Witch, with their feline companion, seeks a lost soul, their magic stirring trouble and passion alike.
Can a mortal love thrive in the spirit realm?
Read more >>>
M (Monogamous path)
A mercenary turned security guard, Hastur carries an immortal burden, guilt born of past battles and sacrifices.
Will your love heal his wounds?
Read more >>>
NB (Monogamous path)
The spectral diva enchants with their voice, their performance a dance of beauty tinged with the sorrow of eternal life.
Can your love find a new song for them?
Read more >>>
M\F\NB (Monogamous path)
A shade keeps the barâs order, and his silence holds the weight of cosmic secrets.
Will your heart fall for the being behind the shadow?
Read more >>>
With feathers dark and wit sharp, The Ravenâs history is as rich as the bar itself. He offers piercing insight beneath a layer of humor.
Read more >>>
The stern soothsayer-turned-accountant Yaga guards the barâs fortune while wrestling with her own spectral regrets and wisdom.
Read more >>>
Shelly, the barâs assistant, brings life-affirming warmth but seeks a new family to fill the void of her lost one.
Read more >>>
Welcome to the cosmos: a weave of ever-changing realms. Each domain is a thread in the grand design.
Read more >>>
Iâd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Big or small, everything matters: your input is invaluable. I'll be answering and taking each into consideration. You are very welcome to post your reviews here!
Hereâs what Iâm especially looking for:
Thoughts on the plot, characters, and overall narrative experience. Whatâs working, and what could use more polish?
Notes on any typos, grammar issues, or awkward phrasing that might distract from the story.
Any continuity errors you spot: It's a big project, so making sure the narrative makes sense in the long run is really important.
The game explores themes of Death in various forms, including suicide.
Alcohol indulgence and its various side effects (hangovers, vomiting, etc.)
most fantasy books or fics iâve read that contained a desert biome fell back on real world prejudice and misconceptions in place of authentic worldbuilding for a place and people, and it is so telling that the trope seems to repeat itself
things like
the desert as a lifeless wasteland where âlife is crushed underneath the shifting sands and blazing sunâ blah blah blah. deserts are full of life and they are beautiful and people have lived and prospered in them for eons. please read a book
the desert as an ugly or barren terrain where everything is harsh and threatening
the desert as something scary
the inhabitants as backwards religious zealots
the men as overly violent and oppressive
the inhabitants in need of outside instruction/intervention, i.e. âcivilizing the savageâ
the âharemâ and women as exotic, sensual, mysterious
writing tribalism with no knowledge of how tribes actually function
djinn (or for the westerners, genies)
Islam Lite (the aesthetics or spiritual practices appropriated and stripped of meaning)
sprinkling random arabic words for â¨flavorâ¨instead of expanding your worldbuilding to include language as well
clothing as oppressive or mysterious, instead of serving its actual purpose (protecting you from the elements, which should be obvious but i guess it isnât. covering your skin keeps you cooler and safer in most deserts)
people who live in deserts as ignorant, superstitious, uneducated
this isnât worldbuilding, itâs just ignorance and bigotry
we gotta get back to torrent distribution, i just watched someone eat eight grand in bandwidth charges because they ran a direct-download piracy site with local file hosting through cloudflare. torrents were invented literally for this exact reason
i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3
unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it
i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map
i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs
this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.
crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.
To hurry up and join us this Flash Fiction Friday!!
⨠New to FFF? Let us fill you in!
Flash Fiction Friday is a fun writer event thatâs meant to inspire, share and connect writings of all genres and writers of all ages. Itâs designed to make people want to write, especially if theyâre feeling blocked. Everyone and everything is welcome!
We always do our very best to keep the promptâs genre open, entertaining, positive and encouraging.
Write between 100-1000 words. It can be any genre, in any text format and 18+ is fine by us, just please tag accordingly.
Use this Fridayâs theme in your text. Any way you see fit. This means that your text is newly written for the prompt by you. We do not allow any contributions created or aided by AI/LLM.
Post on your tumblr blog and remember to tag us at @flashfictionfridayofficialâ!! So weâll see it, read it and reblog it!!
Deadline is 24 hours after the prompt has been issued (12 pm CET).
And then, next Friday, weâll mention your work in a showcase post on our main blog before our next prompt drops.
Please post your entries as regular posts, not screenshots â or provide the text as a regular post as well. Letâs keep everything as accessible as possible!
We ask you to tag your works with any appropriate content warnings and let the reader know what theyâll find before they get the chance to read your work!
If you have a question, check out our FAQ page! If your question isnât on there, donât hesitate to ask!
You donât need to ask for permission or need to get added to a list to join in. Just write, have fun and donât forget to tag us!
Tag your fandoms correctly and remember we now have an Ao3 collection (âFlashFictionFridayâ) â¨
We do not condone fiction, asks or comments that glorify: direct hostility, unconstructive critique, LGBTQIA+ hate, slurs, racism and/or general no-no behaviors.
If you want to be closer to the epicenter, you can come chat on our open discord: https://discord.gg/rUWCE8a
⨠We also introduced our very own Wishing Well, a place for you to whisper your prompt suggestions into. And weâll listen! Check everything about it out HERE.
â¨All your amazing works from last week can be found HERE.
Go check them out and consider supporting your fellow FFF writers with some likes and reblogs!
⨠And now, the new prompt!
[#FFF 358 One More Chance]
This prompt was sent in by the one and only @of-potions-and-blades-official , thank you so much! One more chance, but who's getting it and why? Do they deserve it or is it something they're expecting to get at someone else's expense? The breaking point of a relationship or someone trying something new; or even perhaps an interrogation where someone is holding back telling the truth for whatever the reason! We want to know your stories! Go, hurry, and write!!!
random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google
I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.
also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo
also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)
i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:
Search Engines
Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy
DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)
WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to âcompute expert-level answers using Wolframâs breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.â A data search engine.
Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.
Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that wonât record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses â&â as a bang search.
Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that usersâ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines.Â
Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted.Â
Gibiruâs tagline is âUnfiltered private searchâ and thatâs exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy.Â
Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.
Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden.Â
MetaGer offers âPrivacy Protected Search & Findâ through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.
Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching.Â
Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar.Â
https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results.Â
https://www.mojeek.com/Â
https://wiby.me/ - Itâs goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites.Â
https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesnât have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think itâs the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.
https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.
https://yep.com/ is a crawler
https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx
https://www.dogpile.com/Â
https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)
https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?
https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?
https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.
Other Searchers
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine
I've recently learned that escaping enshitification is actually really easy. When I was younger I would use FOSS (free and open source software) because I usually couldn't afford anything else. Back then the paid options were usually significantly better than the unpaid options so when I finally got money I started using the paid stuff and completely forgot that Foss existed.
If you don't know why Foss is awesome its not just that its free. Open source software has a huge set of advantages. Most software is proprietary meaning that its code cannot be viewed by other people. Open source softwares code can be viewed by everyone and people can contribute their own code to make it better. Open source is often more secure than proprietary because more people have more eyes on it and more people have contributed to it's security. Its also easy to know how much privacy you have with every software because you can read the code. No more "trust me bro I'm not harvesting and selling your data" you know if they are collecting and selling because the code is publicly available.
In the last two months I have been switching almost completely to Foss. I was worried at first because when I stopped using Foss over 10 years ago the average Foss software was genuinely worse than the paid proprietary alternative. Thankfully things have really come full circle. 90â of the software I have tried in the last 2 months works better than the proprietary alternative and is 100â less obnoxious.
So here is a list of every Foss software I have tried and recommend. There is way more than this available. This list is just what I have used and like personally. Anyone can feel free to add and we can turn it into a master list. Please just take these as a place to start and do your own research to see if these softwares will work for your use case before you fully ditch your proprietary software.
Operating systems
Graphene os: android alt. Security and privacy focused. The most secure and private smartphone currently available.
Linux mint: easy to use linux, 100â better than windows.
Pop!: The Linux distro you should use if you have nividia hardware and want to play games using said hardware. Very intuitive and easy to use.
Kubuntu: Ubuntu Linux with KDE desktop. This is the linux distro one I am currently using and I don't have any plans to jump ship again. Better than windows and better than Mac. The companion app for your phone makes life soooo easy. Its pretty and easy to customize to a ridiculously granular level. No fucking notes.
Kindle jailbreak- ko reader: use jailbreak to free your kindle from the tyranny of the bezos. It will download ko reader which is a Foss OS that has every fucking feature you always wished kindle had and let's you read whatever the fuck you want, and have whatever the screensaver you want (no more ads!). Soooo fuck amazon and use this. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough.
Linux FOSS: (some available on windows and android as well)
Calibre: Foss desktop eBook library. Packed with features. You will want to use this with koreader to make managing your kindle easy.
Manuscript: skrivner alt. Does absolutely everything I need.
Bitwarden: password manager (use a keepass fork if you want self hosted)
Next cloud: private google drive and cloud alternative that you can self host if you want but it's not required. App available
Proton VPN: to the best of my knowledge it is the only Foss no log VPN you can get. You can pay for higher speeds. App available
Quad9dns: free encrypted DNS provider. App available.
News software:
Use any Foss RSS reader and for the love of god stop getting news from social media. Take control of your feed!
Apps (I only know for android)
Fdroid: great app store to find Foss android apps and download them.
Antennapod: you can get all of your podcasts fetched to one feature rich app via RSS feed. No need to rely on spotify or music steaming services.
Openreads: it's good reads but private and 100â stored locally. No amazon, no social media aspect, it just tracks your reading, you can import your good reads but if you want to import from storygraph you have to make a good reads burner account, import to good reads, then import to openreads. The menus Navigation on this one is a bit cumbersome but honestly good reads app is worse.
Newpipe: YouTube frontend that let's you have YouTube subscriptions, watch YouTube in the background, and blocks all ads, without logging in to YouTube. You will want to use this one with a VPN set to Canada (or any other country) so YouTube doesn't keep blocking it in order to force you to sign in. But even with that extra step its worth it for the privacy and the lack of ads.
Proton mail: one of 2 more private gmail alts. But you should note that email cannot be 100â anonymous or private.
I think that's it. There are still a lot software varieties I am slowly finding.
I know people get mad at the name, and I understand why, but straight-up I've been using GIMP for 15 years and it's a good solid art program made under the GNU program. It's worth a look.
Blender is an amazing FOSS suite for 3D modeling and animation, as well as digital sculpting and motion tracking. Pros use it. Itâs a staple in game development. Itâs what the Academy Award winning film âFlowâ was made on. Itâs not the bland name alternative to an industry standard; it is an industry standard.
Krita is a fantastic FOSS application for digital painting. Everyone Iâve ever talked to who uses it has loved it to death.
OBS is the absolute go-to choice for screen recording and live streaming. You can use it to record your entire desktop or a specific window, capture audio from multiple sources, and even add overlays, webcam feeds, or transitions to your videos.
VLC Media Player is the best media player, hands down. Itâs lightweight, itâs reliable, it supports virtually every audio and video format known to man, and it has built in media conversion and even basic editing. I truly canât imagine why anyone would use a media player that isnât this one. Itâs just the best there is, easily, no contest.
Audacity is a fantastic multi-track audio editor and recorder. Itâs free and itâs good, and podcasters love it for a reason.
And believe it or not, Thunderbird is a really good email client now. Iâm not even joking. If you used it back in the day and hated it, please give it another chance, because the glow up is unreal.
Just tacking on that while FOSS is usually free as in costless the term "free" in open-source spaces typically means "non-proprietary". It isn't a bad idea to look into which of these projects accept donations and to donate if you can. Blender is an amazing program. Genuinely I like it better than Maya or 3DSMax and it is struggling to maintain its project because it has gotten so large in its pursuit of giving artists things that are actually needed but very few of those artists are donating on download.
Other projects (LibreWolf browser comes to mind) reject donations specifically because they don't want to be in Blender's position (often these have an ideological pursuit, like LibreWolf and privacy).
If you see a Donate option when you go to download an open-source project please consider giving them something. Anything you can afford. The non-proprietary (i.e. "free") nature of these projects is so important but I'd hate to see the best of them tank because "free" isn't actually "free".
to all my researchers, students and people in general who love learning: if you don't know this already, i'm about to give you a game changer
connectedpapers
the basic rundown is: you use the search bar to enter a topic, scientific paper name or DOI. the website then offers you a list of papers on the topic, and you choose the one you're looking for/most relevant one. from here, it makes a tree diagram of related papers that are clustered based on topic relatability and colour-coded by time they were produced!
for example: here i search "human B12"
i go ahead and choose the first paper, meaning my graph will be based around it and start from the topics of "b12 levels" and "fraility syndrome"
here is the graph output! you can scroll through all the papers included on the left, and clicking on each one shows you it's position on the chart + will pull up details on the paper on the right hand column (title, authors, citations, abstract/summary and links where the paper can be found)
you get a few free graphs a month before you have to sign up, and i think the free version gives you up to 5 a month. there are paid versions but it really depends how often you need to use this kinda thing.
researchrabbit works similarly. you do need to create an account to use it, but it is completely free (as far as I know), meaning no limits to your collections/graphs.
So obviously, you need to write! Flash Fiction Friday is calling!
⨠New to FFF? Let us fill you in!
Flash Fiction Friday is a fun writer event thatâs meant to inspire, share and connect writings of all genres and writers of all ages. Itâs designed to make people want to write, especially if theyâre feeling blocked. Everyone and everything is welcome!
We always do our very best to keep the promptâs genre open, entertaining, positive and encouraging.
Write between 100-1000 words. It can be any genre, in any text format and 18+ is fine by us, just please tag accordingly.
Use this Fridayâs theme in your text. Any way you see fit. This means that your text is newly written for the prompt by you. We do not allow any contributions created or aided by AI/LLM.
Post on your tumblr blog and remember to tag us at @flashfictionfridayofficialâ!! So weâll see it, read it and reblog it!!
Deadline is 24 hours after the prompt has been issued (12 pm CET).
And then, next Friday, weâll mention your work in a showcase post on our main blog before our next prompt drops.
Please post your entries as regular posts, not screenshots â or provide the text as a regular post as well. Letâs keep everything as accessible as possible!
We ask you to tag your works with any appropriate content warnings and let the reader know what theyâll find before they get the chance to read your work!
If you have a question, check out our FAQ page! If your question isnât on there, donât hesitate to ask!
You donât need to ask for permission or need to get added to a list to join in. Just write, have fun and donât forget to tag us!
Tag your fandoms correctly and remember we now have an Ao3 collection (âFlashFictionFridayâ) â¨
We do not condone fiction, asks or comments that glorify: direct hostility, unconstructive critique, LGBTQIA+ hate, slurs, racism and/or general no-no behaviors.
If you want to be closer to the epicenter, you can come chat on our open discord: https://discord.gg/rUWCE8a
⨠We also introduced our very own Wishing Well, a place for you to whisper your prompt suggestions into. And weâll listen! Check everything about it out HERE.
â¨All your amazing works from last week can be found HERE.
Go check them out and consider supporting your fellow FFF writers with some likes and reblogs!
⨠And now, the new prompt!
[#357 It's So Obvious]
It's so obvious, duh! But what is? And to whom? What is obvious to us now can be harder to see for others. Tell us about the puzzle pieces needed to grasp the obvious, full picture! Tell us what is plain as day, that everyone already knows about! Whether said in frustration, eagerness or a secret third thing, we want to know all about it! So go and write, write, write!!
It's so weird talking to people who's view of "here's the way life is for everyone" is shattered as soon as they talk to someone with disabilities (physical, mental illness, any). Like you'll say you'll have a problem and instead of helping you they'll argue with you about how you're not actually facing that problem. Like,
Me: Hey, I'm really struggling to find a job and a part of it is my resume. I was depressed & psychotic during highschool so I didn't do anything to gain skills or achievements to put on my resume. I also don't have anyone to put as a reference. What can I do?
Them: You can add your skills, hobbies, clubs you're in, and different volunteer work you've done! You can also get your teacher as a reference.
Me: I already know what to put on a resume, my issue is that I don't have things that I can use. Also, I'm in my mid 20s so I don't know if I can put my highschool teacher as a reference.
Them: Well if you're a part of a church or an activity group, you could add that. Also, think of any projects you've worked on in the past.
Me: I already know you can put these things on a resume. I'm not looking for suggests of things I've already done, I'm looking for what I can do now if I haven't done anything.
Them: There's no way you didn't do anything during highschool?? What about some odd jobs you definitely did for extra money, like babysitting or mowing the lawn?
Me: I spent all of highschool either in modified classes or in bed doing nothing - not even hobbies, what about that do you not understand?
And then you talk to someone who's also disabled and they're like "Here's a bunch of jobs you can do from home that don't pay much but look good on a resume, here's some free online courses that also look good on a resume, here's how you can be making small amounts of money in the meantime, here's some things you can put besides a professional reference, and here are your rights if your future employer tries to take advantage of your disability - which you probably shouldn't tell them about unless you need accommodations."
Two other people asked as well so okay! Though this post will be rather long.
Freelance Jobs You Do From Home That Look Cool On A Future Resume
Please research any company before sign up with then. So many companies are scams and pay you way less than you deserve for your work. Go to r/freelancers and search to make sure nobody has had some horrid experiences. There's also usually reviews of a company on YouTube as well.
Transcribing - adding subtitles to videos for deaf and other hard of hearing people. You usually read a big instruction manual, do two or three tests to see how well you can follow the instruction manual, and then get an e-mail if you can work with them or not. Depending on where you sign up, you can also fill out which topics you're knowledable on and less likely to make mistakes on when transcribing.
Translating - same as transcribing, but now you're translating one language into another. I have not done this before, so I'd suggest talking to people who have.
Article Writing - there are different websites you can sign up to work for where someone sends in a request for an article about a certain topic, you can write that article, and if they like it they can purchase it from you. Some websites have a ranking system where the more good reviews your article gets, the more money you'll get paid.
Article Editing - you can also get payed to fix typos and reorganize an article (or list) if writing isn't your thing.
Top 10 Lists - There are different sites that will pay you to write 10 ten lists. They usually require a specific amount of words and have an author's guide on their site.
Graphic Designer - if you go to different generic freelance websites, you can often find people who are searching for someone to design logos for their company or banners for their websites. It helps if you have a portfolio as well.
Virtual Assistent - scheduling appointments, answering calls, and managing email accounts from your own home. I haven't done this one so again, do more research.
Small Amounts Of Money
Qmee - I've been using this app for awhile called qmee where you do surveys for money. Surveys usually pay anywhere in between 30 cents and 2 dollars, and they have a feature where if the survey asks you anything sketchy then you can report them. You can also cash out whenever, like you don't have to build up a certain amount. (If you aren't American, you may only get a couple surveys per day.) An extra 20 dollars a month isn't much but it's nice.
Fiverr - A website where you state your talents and you can take on other people's smaller projects for small amounts of money. A funny example is this YouTube skit where someone paid some people on fiverr to come up with a break-up letter. I believe you can also keep a portfolio for any projects you make during your freelance jobs on fiverr too.
Redbubble - this is where you can put different designs onto different types of clothing, notebooks, mugs, hats, etc. It helps if you have a design that's from a fandom, references a meme, or fufills a niche. You can also go to TeeSpring if you want to put multiple designs on one item, but you'd have to promote your items yourself as TeeSpring has this issue where you can't search for new stores who aren't already popular.
Test Products - once again, please research any company you're going to do this for. There are companies that will send you products for a week or two and ask for a report on how well it works, what you like/dislike, etc.
If You Don't Have Anyone To Put On Your Resume As References
Volunteer Somewhere - animal shelters, tutoring, soup kitchens, summer programs, public libraries, etc. If you're able to volunteer somewhere, you can ask the people there if you can use them as a reference.
Volunteer Online - you can also do online volunteer work if you're unable to do physical volunteer work. Here's a list of examples of online volunteer work which includes things like creating a large amount of thank-you cards, transcribing books into digital form, or answer texts or calls on a crisis line. This may be a better option due to covid.
Add Personal References - friends and family members do work (just don't list them as professional references). It's especially helpful if you've done a project for/with them as well.
Or don't add references at all - references look good on a resume, but unless you're writing a federal resume you kind of don't need them? If someone is interested in hiring you, they may ask if you have any references. You can just say "no, this is my first job" (if it is). They might ask why you haven't worked before, but you can just say that it's personal or private information. Or you can give a vague answer like dealing with family matters.
Once you have some, this is how you would format your references.
None of these are long term solutions and not everything will work out for everybody. These are just helpful suggestions I've received over the years!
May I add Zooniverse for participating in citizen science projects? It gives you a Research Background, plus you can talk about admin/data entry etc
There's also a whole bunch of YouTube tutorials for learning Excel. And, if you've a mind to learn it, there's a mapping software called QGIS that's free to download, and the internet is full of tutorials. If you can learn it, it is an EXTREMELY sought-after skill in a lot of fields.
Flash Fiction Friday is a fun writer event thatâs meant to inspire, share and connect writings of all genres and writers of all ages. Itâs designed to make people want to write, especially if theyâre feeling blocked. Everyone and everything is welcome!
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⨠And now, the new prompt!
[#356 Into The Mirror]
This prompt has been brought to you by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, thank you very much! Take a step forward, and look into the mirror. What do you see? What surrounds you? Perhaps it depends on who is looking, perhaps it changes with the mirror. Is it even a mirror? What is telling you? What is hiding from the rest? Donât be afraid to put your characters through a challenge today, should they face something none of us expect. Write and tell us all!
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The Collective
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