This year's prompts:

Open genre

A private club

A mosquito net

How are you feeling? What does your day ahead look like? Celebration, commiseration? Anyone else from the Cold Places like me running to google for specifics and research?

I just got a BIG boost of dopamine because I misremembered this final being 24 hours and now I don't have to wonder how I'll fit it into a busy Saturday while sick :)

This weekend is like an unexpected bonus to me. I really didn’t plan to get through - i wasn’t expecting a HM/ to place at all and so I didn’t even bother to share my story in the forums. To get through with a third place was the biggest shock, so now - just being in the final is a huge privilege! 

Please don't copy my idea! 

I think I've narrowed to two possible ideas. Not sure if they're just bad or too big. But gotta start somewhere.

Good luck, all!

And although I was scared to write it last round, I actually think I'm going to land on a horror story again. So excited to see what everyone comes up with and good luck!!! 

catnamedeaster wrote: I've been in finals before (100 and screenwriting/short screenplay), but I think in the past I was just so happy to have made it I didn't worry about it and just had fun. I'm thrilled to have made it to this final - Flash, holy crap! - but I feel like I want to take it more seriously, and thus I'm handcuffing myself. Maybe I shouldn't think about it so much and just go the "have fun" route.

If you want unsolicited advice, the only times I've regretted what I submitted for a final were when I tried to write for an imaginary judge and not for my own self/writing sensibility. Fingers crossed for you and good words :)

Very good advice. I have noticed that the ones who write to win are the ones who end up losing. Write for you. 

Nearing the end of the first draft. It's too long, but not disastrously so. I'm sure I'll hate it in half an hour, then like it in an hour, then loathe it tomorrow morning, then go back and forth on it all day Sunday until I finally submit it out of sheer embarrassment.

Agreed! I somehow made it through to the final by going completely off script (one round was a CYOA, another featured some x-rated tentacle action) so it seems like bravery is rewarded.

Best of luck for the finals! Can't wait to read everyone's amazing stories on the forums!

I hate this part. The submitting. And then the second guessing. And then the doubt. And then the waiting and the impatience….

Arghhhhhh

I'm starting to feel okay with how mine is progressing. Definitely extra caught-up in the "this has to be final round material" mindset and psyching myself out a bit, which is no good for the creative process. So I'm ignoring it and doing my best to pretend this is a round one story. 

Good luck, everyone! I'm already so excited for Wednesday, that's always my favorite part.

I'll always take your beta, Mister Write! If you need one too, shoot me an email address on the private messages here. 

Mister_Write wrote: I was unfortunately unable to enter as I was gallavanting around Italy (big time first-world problems). I'm cheering from the side lines for all you talented wonderful folk duking it out this weekend. And I'm there with you in spirit because I'm trying to hit a flash fiction deadline for a publication I had an idea for (due tomorrow, hehe. Can I pretend I'm part of the club?

I'm sorry with the prompts, I just had to. Enjoy your trip! :) That's a more than worthy reason to miss out <3 Welcome to the weekend deadline club!

@Taylor OMG I walked into that one! . I might swing by the forum when it opens and enjoy your latest creation! 

Reeaaaaallllly struggled with this one. Got about 500 words into six completely different stories before settling on one that may or may not be DQed, as I took some pretty creative license with the private club. We'll see. 

Off to bed now, I'm sure I'll be freaking out with some last minute edits in the morning. Best of luck, all of you! 

I wrote a whole story. I wasn't vibing with it, so I scrapped it and started over.

I currently have a title I love, a tagline, and truly only the vaguest idea of what happens next. Wish me luck.

Best of luck!!! That was me this morning, so you're not alone. Glad you now have a title you love, I hope that the story you type out is one you vibe with so much more!

Aw thank you so much, best of luck to you too! We totally got this.

The ideas came early. I may have overly tinkered with it. 

It's done.

Good night!

I wrote and polished two stories. Both of which I liked for different reasons.

Then I agonized for hours over which one was "the one."

I hope I made the right choice.

I'm going to go collapse now. Good luck to all still writing.

Oooh, that sounds like a recipe for buyer's remorse! Still, huge props to you for having the creative energy to get two stories over the line.

I hope you end up posting both of them to the forums!

Submitted and closing my writing tabs so I won't be tempted to keep tweaking small things.

What a roller-coaster this round was! Basically cut my time down by tossing my first idea, but gosh do I love the story I ended with. And that's a win to me in regard to my relationship to writing!

Best of luck to everyone!!

Nope.

Changed tense and formatting. Made so many near-invisible-to-the-naked-eye word changes I thought my head might pop off. Panic. Near-meltdown. Exhaustion. In the end I feel good about what I submitted, not that I expect it to do well, but that I really gave it my all. And I do love my story (though I'll probably love it more at 1500 or 2000 words).

I feel this in every inch of my being.