2023 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 13
Write a piece of flash fiction each day of February with the February Flash Fiction Challenge, led by Managing Editor Moriah Richard. Each day, receive a prompt, example story, and write your own. Today’s prompt is write about a workaholic.
For today’s prompt, let's write about a workaholic.
Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you.
(Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.)
Here’s my attempt at writing about a workaholic:
The Shucker
His hands are calloused and scarred from shucking oysters. Oysters paid for his wife’s dream house, her cancer treatments, her funeral. Oysters funded his daughter’s college three states away, and he thinks they’re what keeps her distant. He’s pried apart millions of shells. He thinks that if he were to die doing it, his body would keep going through the motions without him.
Some nights, he dreams of mountains of oysters waiting to be shucked, closing in on him, their brine-and-salt smell clogging his throat. But shucking oysters is all he knows. He fears who he would be without them.
Since obtaining her MFA in fiction, Moriah Richard has worked with over 100 authors to help them achieve their publication dreams. As the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, she spearheads the world-building column Building Better Worlds, a 2023 Eddie & Ozzie Award winner. She also runs the Flash Fiction February Challenge on the WD blog, encouraging writers to pen one microstory a day over the course of the month and share their work with other participants. As a reader, Moriah is most interested in horror, fantasy, and romance, although she will read just about anything with a great hook.
Learn more about Moriah on her personal website.
