Category: Writing Report Card

Writing Report Card XI

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After a slow couple of months of submissions, I stepped it up a little in August and sent out 5 little stories into the world. One found a home at 50-Word Stories, two were gently turned away, and two still linger at the threshold, awaiting their fate.

Not all of the stories I submitted in August fell in the microfiction category. I challenged myself to expand an older piece into something fuller – nearly 700 words! – titled The Glow That Shouldn’t Be. This more fleshed-out version went to the Malaysian Writers Society’s call for submissions for their upcoming anthology “The Lushness of the Sea: A Marine Conservation Anthology“. The closing date for submissions is at the end of the month, so it’ll be a while before I learn if this little story survives the rejection pile.

My 50-Word Story that was published was also selected as Story of the Week, so that made me chuffed for a little while:

Writing Report Card X

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I’ve skipped a few months of writing updates, not because I forgot, but because I was barely crafting new stories during that time. I suspect I was still feeling the afterburn of posting daily throughout April; my creative well had run dry and needed time to refill.

July brought a shift, though. I felt more at ease with writing again, and so this latest edition of my writing report card covers my writing journey through May, June, and July.

Throughout those 3 months, I submitted my writing a mere four times and was published twice. The first was for Paragraph Planet, a microfiction inspired by a prompt from #vss365.

The other story found its home on the Friday Flash Fiction site –

Even during those quieter months, I made an effort to post microfiction in response to the #vss365 prompts on X. It wasn’t daily, but it was consistent enough to feel like I was flexing my writing muscle again, stirring it from dormancy.

Writing Report Card VIIII

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April was all about posting nearly daily for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I didn’t have posts ready to go so most days, I’d write them on that day itself. On some good days, I’d write a post for that day and also prep for the following day’s alphabet. However, there was a week when writing daily was too arduous and I had to catch up on posts. It was easy to give up those days but I was determined to complete this year’s challenge.

Since I was focused on the challenge, I didn’t submit any flash fiction to any of the regular sites. However, I was pleasantly surprised that a flash fiction I submitted in January to 101 Words was accepted and posted online in April.

I’m hoping to get back into submitting my flash fiction to the regular sites this month, but right now I’m still recovering from a mini-writing fatigue from writing so much in April.

Writing Report Card VIII

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March wasn’t as productive a writing month for me as previous ones. I fell behind on several deadlines and wasn’t consistent with posting daily tweet-length stories on the X platform. Even so, I’m proud to have had two stories published online by Paragraph Planet and one by Friday Flash Fiction.

This year, I’m taking part in the April A to Z Blogging Challenge once again, and I’m determined to see it through to the end, despite previous years where my motivation tapered off halfway. I’m especially excited about my theme this time, as the photos I’ve gathered will jog my memory and, hopefully, keep my enthusiasm alive throughout the challenge.

Writing Report Card VII

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So, we’re now in the 3rd month of 2025 (YIKES!) and I’ve been plodding along with continuing to write both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve had a few wins when it comes to fiction, but non-fiction, well that’s a harder nut to crack apparently.

  1. I’ve continued with the weekly prompts from the Writer’s Workshop hosted by John from The Sound of One Hand Typing. So far so good as so far in February, I connected with at least one of the weekly prompts.
  2. I’ve also continued submitting flash fiction/ microfiction to the usual suspects. However, I’ve also submitted to two additional sites – Friday Flash Fiction and the Citron Review. Both Paragraph Planet and Friday Flash Fiction have published my little stories online, so that made my month. I’ve included the screenshots below.
  3. A while back, I used to diligently post tweet length stories on Twitter, but stopped for a bit. In February, I re-started under the banner of #vss365 prompts. It’s been quite interesting as some of the 280-character stories inspired me to expand to longer fiction so they’ll likely show up in 50-word stories or other sites that accepts flash fiction/ microfiction.

Writing Report Card VI

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To keep myself accountable for my writing aspirations this year, I thought it’d be a good idea to revive my Writing Report Card series. I’m hoping to do this every month.

  1. In January, I submitted flash fiction to 3 sites – 50-Word Stories, Paragraph Planet and 101 Words Short Stories. I didn’t hear back from 50-Word Stories and 101 Words Short Stories, except for Paragraph Planet which published my little fiction on the 8th of January, titled “My Favourite Postman“.
  2. I’ve also made a concerted effort to participate in the weekly writing prompts from Writer’s Workshop hosted by John from The Sound of One Hand Typing. I’m not stressing myself out about participating every week though because there are some weeks when the prompts aren’t up my alley and my brain just comes up blank. However, when there’s a prompt that resonates with me, I try to come up with an engaging piece of writing, if possible.
  3. On a surprising writing-related note, I received an email out of the blue from someone who works at Oxford University Press asking permission to include one of my published 50-word story titled Evolution in a future edition of one of their textbooks. Naturally, my first instinct was that this was surely a hoax. So, I googled the heck out of the person who emailed me and also responded by asking pointed questions. After several email exchanges, I grudgingly admitted to myself that this was likely not a hoax and she hadn’t asked me for money haha. So, I gave permission to use the story in the textbook and am slightly excited that I’ll be credited for it.
  4. On the non-fiction front, I pushed myself to set up a writing portfolio on clippings.me and uploaded some of my previously published writings including one that is still unpublished. I also sent out possible article/ post pitches to some websites which I hope to hear from in a few days/ weeks (?). So, please cross your fingers for me!

Writing in the New Year (2025 Edition)

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Yes, I wrote a similar aspiring post in 2021 about wanting to write more (which is why I’m recycling the same image I used in that post too). Little did I know then, when I wrote it, that I’d be starting a new job that would literally suck the life out of me. All that I could manage at the time, to engage the part of my brain that dreamed and wondered, was to write tweet-length fiction, every once in a while. It helped, but even that effort was short-lived. Since I left that job, emotionally and mentally exhausted, it’s been difficult to just sit still and craft sentences.

I’m determined hoping that this year the creativity muses will inspire me to write so that I can submit to various sites for possible publication. Though I’ve enjoyed writing tweet-length fiction, I do want to expand beyond that, and as I aspired in previous years, to finally complete a writing project.

So, please cross your fingers and toes, and hope for the best for me, with regard to my writing this year.

Writing Report Card V

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It’s been more than 6 months since my last post about my writing aspirations for the year.

Unfortunately, I’ve not written a word since then until recently when I went back to tweeting Very Short Stories responding to the #vss365 hashtag.

It was slow-going at first because with each prompt, I truly could not come up with anything to write about. And that was just for a tweet-long story! After a couple of days though, I think I finally got back into the groove and now make a point to tweet a #vss365 story daily, if I can, so at least I’m writing everyday. Writing as in NOT emails or reports for work.

Also, I submitted a story for 50 Word Stories, cross your fingers and toes for me.

Writing in the New Year

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2020 was not a good year for me in terms of writing. I fell off the habit of submitting monthly to the 50-Word Stories site and didn’t finish the annual blogging A to Z challenge. I had other writing plans as well but barely made a move on any of them.

This year, I’d like to get back to submitting monthly to the 50-word Stories site, and perhaps other flash fiction sites.

This year, I’d like to finish one writing project that I’ve left on the backburner for far too long.

Simply, this year, I’d like to get back to writing.

Writing Report Card IV

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“Read lots. Write lots.” – Ian Rankin

It’s 2020! More specifically, it’s FEBRUARY 2020! 11 more months left to this year, a scary thought indeed, where did the time go??? Since my last Writing Report Card, there’s not been much to report regarding my writing activities, I’ve been reading lots, but unfortunately, not writing lots. I’m blaming the hectic holiday season in December that bled into a semi-busy January. It’s time for me to get off my butt though and set some writing goals. But first…

  1. 50-word-stories – To my surprise, I had two (2) back-to-back acceptances in October and November. The first line of the story was from a romance novel I was reading at the time which I thought was a compelling line, so I knew I had to use it somehow in a story. The final iteration of the microfiction turned out to be a little funny. Full disclosure, I didn’t submit any stories in December and January. I felt a little guilty initially, but I’m over the guilt now and am working on my February submission.
Upcoming writing plans:
  1. Continue submitting to 50-word-stories monthly. In 2019, I submitted 11 out of 12 months, and got published 5 times which translates to a 45.5% success rate. As submission statistics go, that’s pretty good!
  2. Look for another site to submit stories to monthly, perhaps one that will accept stories less than 1000 words.
  3. Revive blogging on my other non-writing blog – Stories from Sonobe – which has been dormant since 2016, sad to say. New posts will be linked to this blog.