I participate in a few twitter prompts, not always consistently and often not following the rules. Some of my post titles might be confusing if you’re not familiar with microfiction hashtags, so here’s the guide! Twitter allows 280 characters per tweet, and VSS (Very Short Story) prompts challenge you to create a whole story within 280 characters. This works for me better at some times than at others, and I often end up with something that’s not quite self-contained but is more of a writing prompt.

#vss365: a daily prompt word for producing a very short story in tweet-length

#flexvss: a newer daily prompt of a more common word (since #vss365 can be obscure).

#whistpr is another daily one-word prompt (for any art, not necessarily for a very short story)

#366FF, which has a monthly optional theme and a daily prompt (the FF stands for Fanciful Fables).

#bravewrite is another daily one-word prompt.

I’ve also done the weekly #brieflywrite and semi-daily #mentalhealthprompt as the whim strikes me.

These are mostly a fun exercise for my brain, and the reason I repost them on the blog instead of leaving them in the Twitterverse to die is that some may be writing prompts for future stories. I end up writing in genres or voices I don’t usually use because the time investment is so small and sometimes I’m surprised by what I come up with. I usually knock these off in the morning, but sometimes I let them marinate all day. Sometimes I combine prompts and sometimes I do separate tweets for each prompt. Some days I just don’t feel it and skip. Some days I come back to a previous word.

So for the weirdly short posts with hashtaggy titles, that’s what’s going on!