A few months ago I entered my first flash fiction contest with my short story entitled “The Clockmaker.” The contest sponsors—ACFW’s North Denver Chapter and Harpstring Magazine—contacted me in October with the wonderful news that my story was selected as one of the ten finalists and would be published in a special edition of Harpstring.

This last Saturday the special edition was released, and I received the surprising news that my story was selected as the “Reader’s Choice Story.” I am so honored to have been chosen for this award!

As a lover of fiction, I’m enjoying reading the great stories in the magazine. Chris Richards and Written World Communication did an amazing job in designing the special edition. And ACFW North Denver coordinated a professional and well-organized contest. 

The idea for “The Clockmaker” first came to me three years ago. In a file where I keep story ideas, I jotted down the idea of a clockmaker who is always late for everything. At that time, I didn’t have a specific plot in mind or a cast of characters, just a writing prompt that I might one day develop into a story.

A week before the submission deadline for this contest, I still hadn’t settled on a story idea to write about and was on the verge of giving up when I  found the clockmaker idea in my story database. The idea sparked my imagination and from there the characters and story came to life for me.

Through this experience, I’ve learned about the value of writing down story ideas and prompts and revisiting those ideas regularly.

BEEing A Writer Questions: What methods do you use to capture story ideas? Share an example of how you have used your story idea database to create a short story or novel.