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This is Writer-ish with Darien Gee, where I help you write your most powerful stories in 300 words or less. If you’re new to micro prose and writing with me, check out this post here.
I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.
Angela Davis
Write about a betrayal.
Set the timer for 10 minutes and start writing. When the timer goes off, give the piece a title, count up the words, add it to your TOC, and share it the comments below.
This section features micro prose (300 words or less) by me and other writers, including members of our community. Submit your work for consideration here.
Inheritance
My own Irish forefather was a newspaperman, owned a nightclub, ran for mayor, and smuggled rum in a speedboat during Prohibition. He smoked, drank, ate nothing but red meat, and died of a heart attack in 1938.
His one son, my father, was a teenager when my grandfather died. I never learned more than the barest details about my grandfather from my father, despite my persistent questions. Other relatives tell me that the relationship had been strained.
My father was a skinny, asthmatic, and eager-to-please little boy, not the tough guy his father had wanted. My dad lost his mother at age three, and later developed a severe stuttering problem, perhaps as a result of his father's disapproval. My father's adult vocabulary was outstanding, due to his need for alternate words when faltering over hard consonants like B or D.
The stuttering grew worse over the years, with one exception: after downing a few whiskeys, my father could sing like an angel. His Irish tenor became legend in local taverns, and by the time I entered the scene my father was spending every evening visiting the bars. Most nights he would stumble back drunk around midnight; some nights he was so drunk he would stumble through a neighbor's back door, thinking he was home.
As a boy, I coped with the family's embarrassment by staying glued to the television shows like Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver were my favorites. I desperately wanted someone like Hugh Beaumont to be my father, or maybe Robert Young.
Hugh Brannum, though, would have been my first choice. Brannum played Mr. Green Jeans on Captain Kangaroo, and I remember him as being kind, funny, and extremely reliable.
283 words. From “Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay on Fatherhood, Alphabetically Arranged.” Originally published in Issue 63 of Crazyhorse in 2003, and then reprinted in Harper’s Magazine in January 2004. Shared with permission from the author.
Dinty W. Moore is author of the memoirs Between Panic & Desire and To Hell With It, and the writing guides Crafting the Personal Essay and The Mindful Writer, among numerous other books. He’s founding editor of Brevity, the journal of flash nonfiction, and has taught nonfiction writing for more than 30 years. Join us live for our 3 Things conversation this week, free for all subscribers.
August 5, 2026 (Wednesday) at 12:00 pm PT: Dinty W Moore on short prose, curiosity, and the power of brevity.
August 7, 2026 (Friday) at 12:00 pm PT: 10-Minute Live Writing Sessions (LWS): if you miss a week, you can access past sessions in the library.
Emerge Literary Journal is accepting flash up to 750 words
Your Impossible Voice is accepting flash submissions
Paid subscribers can follow these suggestions for revising their micro or preparing their work for submission. 🌿
Hello writers,
I’m writing this via my phone’s hotspot since the internet has been down for many parts of our island since early Sunday am. Timing, as they say, is everything—I sent Object Lessons manuscript to my editor Saturday afternoon, and then worked until 8:00 pm (bedtime!) to complete all the supplemental production documents (including abstracts for each chapter, permissions tables, all the signed releases, a list of potential endorsements plus their contact information, hi-res images (organized, tabled, zipped), and I can’t even remember what else). I got to bed but was too amped up to fall asleep so I read a few chapters of The Last Letters of Sally and Walter by Cammie McGovern, having just finished Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker, two books that could not be more different, and both great reads.
That’s what I love most about my bookshelf—it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone other than me. It’s a reflection of what I’m curious about, what I want to understand, what gets me thinking and what moves me. Reading out of our wheelhouse opens us up. Diving deep into what we love gives us all the feels and, I believe, inspires us.
My Object Lessons books was written in fragments, separated by actual fortunes from my collection and/or shared by others (including some of you!). I wasn’t trying to write micro, but I knew it might work for this book. We’ll see.
I’m returning to the short story next week—I’ve been invited to submit a story for an upcoming issue of a literary magazine—and the novel after that. I’ll be writing about that over at Drafts, Deals and Detours if you’re interested in following along.
And, as soon as I catch my breath, we have a new writing workshop coming up, and once my internet is back, I’ll be putting that together for paid subscribers. Stay tuned! In the meantime, tell me what you’re reading for pleasure. Any genre, any format! And tell me what you’re enjoying about it.
Thank you for being here, and for the kindness, curiosity, and creativity you bring to our community. I’m grateful to have connected with you in our little corner of Substack, and I look forward to what comes next.
warmly,
Darien
P.S. To see what’s happening on Writer-ish this month, including all upcoming Substack Lives and what you might have missed (catch the replays!), here’s the full calendar.
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