The Fractured Lit Annual Flash Fiction Contest draws authors worldwide; winners are added to an anthology.

This contest was for a 1,000-word piece.

After reading the stories of previous winners, I concluded that they wanted modern, character-driven stories written in first person.

I’m crap in first person, and I hate writing about real life with real emotions and problems, so the contest would always be a stretch.

My submission, The Argument of Severing a Limb, was — for me — a challenging piece. It describes a life choice I made to exclude my bio-family from my life, and it was written with a lot of personal emotion. My story didn’t make it past the editor, so I’ve since taken their feedback, reworked it, and resubmitted it to another contest. Meanwhile, I’ll try again next year!