How Flash Fiction Experiments Sparked a Novel Breakthrough

What began as a spontaneous dive into flash fiction unexpectedly gave me fresh insights into my second novel — and turned into something much more exciting than I ever planned.

In this video, I walk through how it all unfolded:
• My initial curiosity about flash fiction and what it could teach me
• Using AI to generate stories from my rough novel notes (just to see what would happen)
• Why the first attempts felt off and what that revealed about my own ideas
• The unexpected creative breakthrough that happened while trying to improve the AI prompts
• How clarifying my thoughts for the AI actually clarified them for myself
• The moment I realized I had something much bigger than I'd imagined

What started as casual creative play ended up giving me the most exciting story project I've worked on yet. Sometimes the best discoveries happen when you're not even looking for them.

If you're a writer who likes experimenting with your creative process, this might give you some ideas for your own unexpected breakthroughs.

Links:
My website: https://www.fractalchris.com/
X: https://x.com/fractalchris
• Previous writing videos: Getting started with fiction writing - Josh and I are both writing our first books! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vchz31js_10

Have you ever stumbled into a creative breakthrough while doing something completely different? Let me know in the comments!

#writing #flashfiction #creativity #novelwriting #writingprocess