Twelve Furious Months

The Australian Writers’ Centre runs a Furious Fiction writing competition on the first weekend of every month. Writers have 55 hours to write a 500-word short story based on a brief. The first prize is AUD$500, with the winner and shortlisted entries showcased on the Writers’ Centre website.

I entered my first Furious Fiction in April 2020. And to help me focus on my writing, the competition fell on the first weekend of COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney.

April’s story had to begin at the side of the road and include the words: Apron, Pigment, Ribbon, Icon and Lemon (APRIL). And there had to be a splash.
I typed up the brief and stared at it on my otherwise blank computer screen. It felt like a Rorschach test, with words instead of inkblots. But gradually, my writer’s eye discerned shapes and a story in the random pattern.

And before I knew it, I had written and submitted my first Furious Fiction. Twelve months later, on the first weekend of March 2021, I started writing my twelfth straight short story.

I hope readers will enjoy reading my Twelve Furious Months eBook collection. The stories are presented chronologically, from A Song on the Radio (April 2020) to Memories and Marshmallows (March 2021). And following each, I provide an insight into the brief for that month and how I wrote the story.

Robert Fairhead, Sydney 2021