a 15-minute ficlet

There's a comm on Dreamwidth called 15-minute-fic, where they give you a prompt and you have exactly 15 minutes to write a ficlet around it.

My first thought was, "This could be a really great writing exercise."

My second thought was, "No way in hell can I write a ficlet in 15 minutes. I sometimes can't write a sentence in 15 minutes."

But, you know, I'm curious, so I decide to give it a shot. I open a blank file, look at the clock, then click on the prompt to reveal it. Fifteen minutes, go! And to my tremendous surprise, I actually have a 297-word ficlet now, which I did indeed finish writing in 15 minutes.

It's not deathless writing or anything, but that's part of the point: it can't be. There's only 15 minutes, and I was very aware of the time ticking away as I wrote. I had to let go of all the self-editing, all the ruminating and waffling about plot and narrative and dialogue. There wasn't time. I had to go with the first story idea that popped into my head and just write it, then hope I could finish in 15 minutes.

It was an interesting exercise, and I might well do it again.

For those of you who are interested, here's the resulting ficlet. Part of me is itching to work on it and make it better, but I think I shall resist and let it stand. It's not great, but for something written in 15 minutes, it's actually not that bad.

( G-rated Third Doctor and Sarah ficlet here )