As a way to get the fiction lobe of my brain working — and to keep it juiced up for far more exciting projects I will begin very soon — I’m embarking on a new weekly project I’m calling “(fictional) notes from The British Museum.” (The first one just went live.)
Here’s how it works:
Once a week, I’ll visit a single room at The British Museum in London, zero in on one intriguing object therein, and quickly write a piece of flash fiction inspired by that object. This very short story may not have anything to do with what the object actually is — in fact, it almost certainly will not. This is intended as a writing exercise only: I’ll be writing quickly in the hours immediately after my visit, and not worrying too much about polishing or even revisiting the story again after. These will be sketches only… although who can say whether ideas, characters, places, or situations I discover in them will not reappear in later work.
These flash-fiction stories will be available to all Patreon patrons at the $1/month level or above. I’ll post the stories both at my portfolio site, MaryAnnJohanson.com — follow along via the flash fiction tag — and also over at my Patreon.
I hope you enjoy them. Feedback welcome.
Neat!
I really enjoyed reading the story! It was great to have a high quality sci-fi idea in a small-form quick-read. Something to approve of in this otherwise dystopian time stream.
I don’t know if all of these little stories will end up being sf/f, but probably they will, because that’s just where my brain goes.
Glad you liked it.
I’m kinda surprised to see that you went all the way to Rome, the traditional inspiration for many famous British writers — and yet chose to write your first piece of flash fiction — on this site, at least — about the British Museum.
Well, it’s nice to know that you’ll never be as predictable as some writers I could mention…
Good luck with your stories.
Edited to add:
I’m guessing flash fiction is not something you write with a certain Irene Cara song playing in the background…
It’s a weekly series, it’s called …Notes from the British Museum, and she doesn’t live in Rome.
I literally have no idea what you’re complaining about.
I’m not really complaining. I’m just making an observation — which you, Bluejay, and Danielm80 obviously disagree with.
Like most annoying people who read, I’m always going to be curious why certain writers choose to write about certain topics.
I’ve explained why I’m doing my British Museum flash fiction: as an exercise, as a way to jump-start the fiction lobe of my brain.
I live in London. I can’t write a weekly piece of writing about stuff in a city I don’t live in, and have visited briefly only once.
Okay. I get that.