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Flash Fiction Highlights
Before we get too deep into this post, I want to get the highlights up front, here’s all the stories we got last week!
Stephanie Loomis - Meeley
Michael S. Atkinson - A Wolf Tale, Part Two
Scott MacLeod - Sneak Peak
Joseph Young - A Little Wild
Rebecca Watson (ReBe) - The Poet’s Crystal Heart
Mike Boon - The Landing
Jeannine Lawall - The Flight of the Icarus
Gerard DiLeo - Being
THANK YOU everyone for jumping in this week, and thank you to everyone who participated in Flash Fiction Friday at all in 2025. This started as kind of a lark, a fun side thing that a few friends told me was a creative twist on the genre of prompt-writing, and you’ve turned it into a benchmark community event. I’m so grateful to all of you, you are all so talented, and you write so fast—but this is all exactly what I hoped to accomplish. You all have stories, and maybe you are already a well practiced writer but also maybe you needed a little nudge to draw them out. I’m proud that FFF could play some role, however small, in drawing out these stories.
We’re about to begin the offseason, but that doesn’t mean we’re going without prompts. A new challenge awaits you below:
Enjoy!
The Offseason
The offseason1 is the time I slow down my substack commitments, I plan and retool and prepare for the year ahead. Flash Fiction Friday will return 6 February 2026. Until then, I have an offseason challenge for you.
You may or may not realize this, but all the prompts from the year are organized on one post, here:
Here’s The Game:
I will start a new chat thread for the offseason
You have an entire years’ worth of prompts to mix and match and see what resonates.
Every story shared in the chat thread (and only the chat thread) will be a ticket in a raffle.
Before the new season resumes, I will do a random drawing based on all the raffle tickets and choose one person to get a 6 month comped subscription, which should take you all the way through Sandbox Earth Season.
Just have fun! This is all just intended to get the gears turning, so let’s see what turning you guys loose on a bunch of prompts will do. I’m so excited to see what you come up with!
What Did You Think?
Thanks for reading all the way through! Many of you stuck with FFF through the entire you, some of you came and went as it suited you—it’s all good, it’s what FFF is here for.
This was the first ever year of FFF! What did you think? What would you have liked more of? What could you have done without? What did you wish I did differently? I’d like to hear so we can make FFF 2026 better than ever. Tell me in the comments, send me a DM, let me know any way you’d like.
Thank you again for being the best part of Flash Fiction Friday! See you in February!
Interested in seeing my own writing? Check out Sandbox Earth for my sci-fi universe, The Blackpage for my fantasy universe, or The Exo-Canon for everything else!
Thank you and God bless!
More coming about this in my monthly update, December 1st.
Just to clarify! When i say “posted to chat and only the chat”—post your stories to your substack as normal, but i use the chat thread to collect the links. If its posted anywhere else im going to miss it. Post the links to your stories in the chat thread only! Thank you!
Thank you so much for FFF this year, Scoot! I know I didn't participate often, but I always enjoyed the weekly prompts and ended up saving several because they sparked ideas I want to visit when I have time, and reading all the stories. Looking forward to next year!