Flash Fiction Friday

Writing Routines In the Summer Scene

If you’ve been following me for a while you may be aware that I like staying busy. I do indeed take time off here and there when I feel like I need to recharge and I have indeed been sleeping in (until 6:30am from my normal 4:50) these last two weeks to catch up on some much needed sleep.

As a high school/secondary teacher, I am “off” work over the summer time, but I find myself just as busy these days as I have multiple projects in the works.

I’m regularly asked how I do “it all” and I regularly report, “With intention.” I create loose time blocks in my bullet journal and my days flow a little something like this:

In the mornings, I’ve been working on emails and research for my PhD’s qualifying exams, a process of which I am deeply enjoying. I find it fascinating to see the puzzle pieces I’ve been gathering coming together in this next step of my journey as an emerging philosopher.

In the middays, I’m working on the forthcoming collection of a mini-course walking high school students through the reading > annotation > analysis > writing steps to help them navigate AP Literature and entry-level higher education literature classes. This seven-part course will soon be available on Substack, so please keep an eye out for that and let me know if you have any questions!

In the afternoons, I’m wrapping up the last read-through/revision run of my collection of short stories in Tiny Dreadfuls, which will be released on August 1st. I’m in the phase of collecting blurbs and reviews, so if you are interested in being a pre-reader (advanced reader) of my twenty-two tiny tales through the dark, please let me know! I would be honored to receive your honest reviews.

In the evenings, my husband and I have been nerding-out rewatching the Star Wars films. We’ve made it all the way through to the midway point of episode 9 and have made many notes of commentary along the way, as one must. What do you think we should watch next?

And in the hour before I fall asleep, I’ve been revisiting an old friend: Spellbound. Now that Hoard is out of my hands and is within the querying trenches, I’ve turned my creative attentions back to my romantasy. The draft is now 53,000 words strong, so it’s moving right along toward my goal of 90,000 words. I know it needs some work, but I’m still enjoying the wild story-telling phase where anything goes… so long as it’s coming from my carefully articulated outline.

And then I pass out hard.

I have rewards along the way, like playing an hour of Zelda here, planning D&D sessions there, crafting D&D items, and spending times with loved ones. I have found a balance that works for me in the force and I feel like I can hang my hat on each day.

Flash Fiction Friday

In last week’s edition of Flash Fiction Friday, the following writers took us through their summer stories:

• Gabriel Peña

• Conor MacCormack

• James Jensen

As always, if I missed you, please let me know and I will add you! If you’re new, please click on the authors listed to explore and see their incredible writing skills. And if you’re new, every week, I drop two posts on Fridays for authors to find inspiration and to maintain a weekly writing habit. You don’t have to publish them anywhere. These are no-stakes posts as offerings to help develop your routines and craft.

Here they are:

Prompt 1: Your Character Has a Secret

OR

Prompt 2: A new high score was made at the arcade.

Here is my drabble: “Secret Sun” by Sarah Faxon

A thousand faces pass by, but no ear turns near. She struts with her shoulders back through the steam-filled streets. The leather purse dangling at her side could not possibly contain what she holds in her heart. It belongs to her and her alone. At work, at home, it sits within her spirit as if perched upon a throne. If anyone knew, she would be ruined as would the world they know. This knowledge would shake their planes like a volcano's quake. What she had done earned her a place among the mortals and out from the rays of Olympus' sun.

© Sarah Faxon 2026

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And now it’s your turn to pick up the prompts and run with them. Pick one, pick both, pick one from three weeks ago. The choice is yours! Leave your links to your Substacks in the prompts below so we may be your cheerleaders!

To the over FOUR-HUNDRED people who follow my journey, thank you ALL for being here. I am so grateful to each and every one of you and I hope you find these posts inspiring, entertaining, or something in between. Thank you for your time and for showing up week after week.

Hope all is well and cheers, dears.

-Sarah