Is your school DOTTY about writing? Then join the Flash Fiction Challenge!

By Emma Warner-Reed, author of The DOTTY Series. ​

Children have the best imaginations. Their ideas aren't restricted by social norms or expectations, by realism or what 'is possible'. For children, the possibilities are simply limitless.​ It's really good for children to write. Not only does it help with them with grammar and vocabulary, it can allow them to express themselves, deal with issues that are affecting them 

- both good and bad, and exercise and develop that mental writing muscle.

On my school visits I have heard from so many teachers that have budding writers in their midst, just looking for an outlet. We need to nurture these authors of tomorrow and their fabulous imaginations. So I decided to put together my own little offering: the DOTTY Flash Fiction Challenge (the word ‘Dotty’ alludes to the title of my current children’s book series).

What is Flash Fiction?
​
For those of you not familiar with the term ‘flash fiction’, it simply means a story that is very short. There is no rule as to exactly how short the story must be to constitute flash fiction, but the term alludes to extreme brevity – so my Flash Fiction Challenge is for stories of no longer than 300 words.

​This is by no means the briefest example of flash fiction, though. The most famous, and most extreme, form of flash fiction comes direct from Ernest Hemingway, who is reputed to have written a novel in six words following a bet in a pub that he could write something so powerful it would evoke tears in one sentence. He came up with, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." I think we can safely say he cracked it! Since then, the six word story has been considered the ultimate writing prompt, testing writers' ability to create their own succinct masterpieces, and is widely recognised as the most extreme example of flash or ‘sudden’ fiction.

And what exactly is the Flash Fiction Challenge?

In essence, it is a monthly short story-writing exercise, designed to encourage children to embrace their imaginations and develop their writing skills. ​

At the beginning of each month, a short excerpt from one of my books or the book of another author is posted on my website, here on the Portal and at www.thedottyseries.com/flashfiction. The challenge is to use the excerpt as inspiration for a short story of no more than 300 words, including the excerpt itself somewhere within it (whether at the beginning, at the end, or somewhere in between). 

Stories can be entered into the challenge via a form on the web page and the winning entry each month will be posted on the dotty website, on the Independent Schools Portal and in the Portal Newsletter. Winning entries will receive:

• A signed copy of the book from which the original extract is taken in that particular month; and
• In addition all entrants will have the opportunity to have their story published 

• in the DOTTY Flash Fiction Annual, an anthology of short stories to be published at the end of each year.​

The competition is open to children aged 13 and under.

​How can my school get involved?
It is open to schools as to how they choose to participate. It may be the case that students are encouraged to enter in their own time. Alternatively, the monthly challenge can be used as a one-off class exercise, or on a regular basis in an extra-curricular flash fiction club set up for the purpose.

However you choose to embrace the challenge, I would be delighted to speak with schools about their preferred method of implementation and give support and advice on how this would best work for your school, or indeed to pay the school a visit to introduce the concept personally. So please do get in touch.

And a final word?
You can find this month’s challenge at www.thedottyseries.com/flashfiction. Happy writing!

Emma Warner-Reed is an award-winning children’s author, qualified lawyer and legal academic, and journalist. Her current children’s series of middle grade fantasy fiction adventure books, The DOTTY Series, has won multiple awards to date, including a Literary Classics book award and honourable mentions in the New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Amsterdam book festivals. Both the first series books have also been given a coveted 5 star rating from Reader’s Favorites. You can find out more about the series at www.thedottyseries.com.