feb06

Ficlets on the Radio!

Posted by Kevin Lawver 5 months ago | Permalink | Comments (16)

Last week, I got a lovely e-mail from a lady who works for the CBC radio show Spark, wondering if I’d like to do an interview about ficlets. So, sitting in a hotel room in Miami, I talked to Nora Young up in Canada about… well… all of this. The interview is online now and you can go hear Saffron and I read our stories (The End and The End – Continued) and a little bit of the interview with me about how this all started.

I’d love to know what you think, both of the interview, and how you use ficlets. Do you use it at lunchtime for the burst of creativity, or something else? What do you get out of being a part of the ficlets family?

Thanks to the CBC and the crew of folks I talked to – Elizabeth, Nora and Dan. But, most importantly, a huge thanks to you for creating all these stories.

Did you notice that we crossed twenty thousand stories over the weekend? That’s a pretty large number, and represents a great deal of creativity, care, and feedback (because those twenty thousand stories have almost forty thousand comments).

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Comments

  1. SKermitgorf's Buddy IconSKermitgorf

    Posted 5 months ago

    the authors on ficlets, from every generation, they are all so talented, and helpful and supportive. The genres they write, the challenges, the humor.. I love being a part of this the greatest site on the internet of all time!!!!
    keeps me sane, its addictive, should have a warning label attached to the Home page.
    LoA

  2. Saint Chuck's Buddy IconSaint Chuck

    Posted 5 months ago

    Kermitgorf about says it all. It’s an escape from real life, where you can turn your mundane day to day happenings into amazing stories and let them unravel into a whole new being. Top notch stuff ^^

  3. White Hat's Buddy IconWhite Hat

    Posted 5 months ago

    Wait… how/where would we have noticed that we passed 20,000 ficlets?

  4. Kevin Lawver's Buddy IconKevin Lawver

    Posted 5 months ago

    Oh, ummm, yeah. That number at the end of the URL on stories? If you go to the most recent story and look at that number, that’s pretty much how many ficlets there are.

  5. Ana Cristina's Buddy IconAna Cristina

    Posted 5 months ago

    That’s wonderful that we’ve passed the 20,000 mark and a testament that how truly great this website is. In fact, it’s more than a website, it’s a community.
    I currently use this website a way to sweet-talk my muse into helping me write. Before being introduced to this website by one of my 11th grade English students, I hadn’t seriously written anything in over a year. I’ve been a member for about 4 months now and written more in that short time than I ever thought possible.
    In the future, I would like to use this website with my students to inspire them to write creatively. Ficlets has definitely been an inspiration for me.

  6. White Hat's Buddy IconWhite Hat

    Posted 5 months ago

    ... Now I know to never ascribe pseudorandomness to something that might just be sequential. XD

  7. Melia's Buddy IconMelia

    Posted 5 months ago

    Great interview! Some well-deserved recognition for this awesome place. About how I use Ficlets… I like to use it to try writing in genres outside my own “comfort zone.” I have been in a bad case of writer’s block for well over a year and no matter what writing exercise I tried (starting idea blogs, freewriting, prompts) I couldn’t get past it. Wheaton mentioned this place in his blog and I checked it out. A few months later and I’m past that damn block and loving the freedom this place gives me to try anything (which is weird, considering that we’re restricted to 1,024 characters. Who knew restriction could be so freeing :) )
    I love the community feel, I love the feedback and I especially love the friendliness and supportiveness of the ficleteers. It’s been a thrill to find this place. So thanks Kevin!

  8. THX 0477's Buddy IconTHX 0477

    Posted 5 months ago

    I like to think of ficlets as a gigantic, online, free, creative writing class with no teacher…or maybe with lots of teachers. I haven’t decided yet. But I like it. I check in the morning before work to see if I got comments over night. Then I spend my lunch hour reading, maybe write a ficlet. And then I wind down in the evening with more ficlet fun. Does that seem unhealthy to anyone else? But I love it!

  9. Jenunique's Buddy IconJenunique

    Posted 5 months ago

    I am so proud to be a part of the greatest community on the internet. Okay I admit to being a little predjudice over this website. However, when I get to lay claim to contributing to the “generations” portion of the fame, my mother: Judee4u; me; my son: Jenson, are spanning three. ;)

    We’ve been a little wrapped up in school life lately and have been lax in our contributions lately. (Spring break where are you when we need you.) As for usage, I love it as an escape or even as a creative outlet.

    I have contact with many creative minds through my job as a library assistant in the high school and recommend Ficlets at least once a day to the students.

    I think this is the best site ever created! i try my best not to check my ficlets while at work, I know if I do I will never get up from my computer and get anything done. ;)

  10. Stovohobo's Buddy IconStovohobo

    Posted 5 months ago

    Great interview; it’s kinda weird having something that feels so personal and…mine (haha) being talked about on the radio, in real life. Not to mention Kevin’s (dang, Mr. Lawver to me) actual voice.

    Hm…reasons why I love ficlets. Is 1,000,000 too much? I might have to put it in a nutshell…

    I remember the first days of ficlets when I wrote something (jeez, what, couple months after 6th grade?) and huddled at the screen, eyes searching for hours for just one comment. I really don’t know how I’ve gotten this far. I mean, I’m just a kid at a keyboard.

    I was also kind of expecting ficlets to be sort of like those really big sites like youTube or DeviantART and you never get a comment and no one ever knows you’re there…but I was shocked by this. The community here is small enough that everyone can see everyone else’s stuff – unlike DevART and YouTube – and love it, comment it, rate it. I know the site’s getting bigger (again, the mine, all mine! thing).

    Anyway, this comment is long enough to make into a ficlet by now anyways.

    Thanks,
    Stovo

  11. Alexa ♥'s Buddy IconAlexa ♥

    Posted 5 months ago

    I think I largely view this as a writing group, with a heavy addiction quality. I’m trying to schedule a little time every week where I can focus on just this page, so I can overcome the urge to look at work.
    .
    There are some in the community who I think of as friends, and some who I am reading here until I can buy their works in a store.

  12. Blusparrow's Buddy IconBlusparrow

    Posted 5 months ago

    This is amazing! No I think this is pretty cool! I feel like this little family we have became famous! What I do is when I am done with my hw I come on here to wind down and get away from what happened that day. I get a lot out of this family, they definitly change how I wright sometimes. The encouragement and sometimes the downing really does help!

  13. Fyora Cartagan's Buddy IconFyora Cartagan

    Posted 5 months ago

    I love Ficlets because I can put down ideas that would distract me all day, and have other people tell me what they think of them, of their own free will. (Previously, I had to force people to read my work.)

    Also, it helps me keep track of those ideas so I can go back and work on them. A lot of my ficlets (that I had intended to sequel) have gone weeks, even months before I add to them, and most of the series aren’t even close to finished. And, it also lets me see how other people want the story to go, if they sequel me.

  14. One Time, One Chance's Buddy IconOne Time, One Chance

    Posted 5 months ago

    Ficlets. There are so, so many reasons I love coming on here, much to the glaring and eye-rolling of my dear buddies who believe I’m addicted to this site. But, I guess they don’t get it – you can log on, and escape from the frightening concept that is reality.

    My work has improved immensly, my vocabulary has evolved incredulously [I think I used that right], and I’ve made a lot of new friends! The people I’ve introduced to this site have also commented about it being a small community, which we agree benefits us in numerous ways.

    Writing used to be a burden for me, something I’m forced to do for a section of the day while I’m in school, but now it’s become a favorite pasttime of mine! With the constructive critisism [spelling?] and support of everyone, my literature has begun/began/begunned [ahah] to exceed at a higher stature than previously. Now, I’m actually proud of my work and have taped some of it on my notebook.

    As for the interview – I’ll have to check it out later, my speakers are blown =p. Pshh.. which totally is not my fault.

  15. Freedom's Buddy IconFreedom

    Posted 5 months ago

    That is extremely amazing about the amount of ficlet stories! I’m so glad you dot to get on the radio and everything. That’s just awesome. For one thing, my main reason for coming to ficlets is because I love to write and this is a great escape from life. This is like the story world.

    :)

  16. Kevin Lawver's Buddy IconKevin Lawver

    Posted 5 months ago

    You guys are awesome. Freedom, I love the thought of ficlets being the story world. What a great image!