Last October I had the pleasure of attending the Viable Paradise Writer’s Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard. All of us students were tasked with writing a short story in two days, based on an assigned genre and a random object out of a paper bag (mine was fake coins). What we managed to write in two days wasn’t pretty, but it proved you can lay the bones of a good story in a short time when you’re forced to. Afterward, we had to swear to revise our stories until they were good, then send it out on submission for publication.
A few months later, my short story from that workshop, “Universal Print” was picked up by Crossed Genres magazine for their February 2015 issue, themed “Betrayal.” You can read it here.