I’m convinced that before I started to really look for opportunities to give to others, I had the same number of opportunities I do now but I was blind to them. I never saw them because I never LOOKED for them.

I’m not talking things like giving thousands to someone or even hundreds – I actually think that people do look for these opportunities but they are few and far between for us all. But what about all the small opportunities that present themselves every day. Things like:

• Opening a door for a harried delivery person.
• Writing a note of support, sympathy or congratulations.
• Getting a box of pasta down from the top shelf of a store for someone who can’t reach it.
• Telling your office receptionist how much you appreciate her hard work.
• Taking a grocery store cart back in the rain for someone else.
• Buying a cup of coffee for the policeman in line behind you.
• Shaking the hand of a service member and thanking them for their service.

I can’t tell you how much each of these small acts brighten my own day and I’d like to think that it brightens the day of the recipients as well. Some cost very little, some are free – but all are acts of kindness that require no reciprocation and I try to perform a few larger acts, always anonymously. I never want this to become something I do for recognition or with an expectation of return.

So, again, on this Thanksgiving Weekend, I want to renew my vow to give others small, random acts to be thankful for. I challenge everyone to do the same.

For the next few weeks, I plan on using Fridays to house a series of “How To” posts on Flash Fiction itself. What it is, my tips for writing it, things to remember when posting it and then some of my inspirations and what has happened/is happening to them. At the very end, I’ll talk a little about why I started writing flash fiction, why I started posting it, what it has done for me and what my plans are for my own flash fiction on this site.

If you have any particular questions or requests, leave a comment and let me know what they are so I can be sure and address them.

As an added enticement, at the end of the series, I’ll choose a winner who can then give me a set of 4 prompts and a sexuality choice and I’ll write a flash with it, 500 words minimum, up to 1500 as the muse takes me. I do well with challenges.

Rules to Enter:
I’ll randomly choose with a random number generator from all the commenters to this series.

You can have one drawing entry per post, you are welcome to comment more than once but to avoid spamming, only one will count. If I see posts of multiple “I want to be entered on the same post”, you still only get one entry and, if you happen to win, I may not be nice to you in the flash.

When you comment, make the commentor something I can recognize and refer to easily. More than one Anonymous becomes impossible to prove who is who. Email address (only I can see them) would be even better.

Winner will be announced the friday AFTER the last post in the series. All series posts will remain open until then.

Winner has ten days to respond to the comment that they won with their choices or I’ll choose another winner.

Today I stand at:

Actual Words: 12,785
Goal: 17,250
% of Goal: 77%

It’s too late to quit now, right?

I’m going to participate this year but, as usual, I have to do so using what works for me instead of the official “rules”.

The stated rules are to take the entire month of November and produce a 50,000 novel. The guidance given is to ignore editing, etc and just get words on paper. I can’t bring myself to do that. It goes against the entire way I write and what tends to make my muse happy.

So I’m going to try to write 50,000 words in the month, including edits,but it may be spread over several contracted stories instead of one work. This comes out to 1700 words a day, basically.

I figure that even the energy behind this will be great motivation. :)

Current Word Count: 11,653
Goal Word Count: 12,000
% of Goal: 97%