Advice on Writing Flash Fiction?

FoidPoosening

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Hey everyone, I've tried my hand at short stories but cannot seem to focus on them long enough (partly/mostly due to college time constraints) to take them anywhere meaningful.

I've had luck with poetry for sure, but I've been thinking about writing flash fiction for a while now as it could be the perfect middle ground for me.

Any advice before I dive into trying it? I'm going to start with the standard 1000 or less. I guess does anyone have any pointers or sending words for me?

I plan on reading a bunch of flash fiction before attempting it too, that starts in the next week or so :D

Thanks!

Dan aka fp
 

LonnieG

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Hi FP,

Like you said, read lots of FF. It would be good to subscribe to a few daily flash fiction sites. Read several explanations of what flash fiction is and what it is not. Remember a story is a story, no matter how long or short it is. It still needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Too often a FF piece will be passed off as a story, when it reads as a scene from a larger work. Take the "Year in Flash Fiction" challenge. It will give you a prompt each week. I am assuming you are reading the "Polished and Ready" forum. It is full of great stories, along with comments from other readers. It is a great way to learn what works and what may not work as well.

At this time I am also writing FF because of time constraints.

Good luck with you writing.

Lonnie
 

FoidPoosening

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Hi FP,

Like you said, read lots of FF. It would be good to subscribe to a few daily flash fiction sites. Read several explanations of what flash fiction is and what it is not. Remember a story is a story, no matter how long or short it is. It still needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Too often a FF piece will be passed off as a story, when it reads as a scene from a larger work. Take the "Year in Flash Fiction" challenge. It will give you a prompt each week. I am assuming you are reading the "Polished and Ready" forum. It is full of great stories, along with comments from other readers. It is a great way to learn what works and what may not work as well.

At this time I am also writing FF because of time constraints.

Good luck with you writing.

Lonnie

Hey Lonnie! I'm glad to hear at least someone is in the same boat as me :D.

The polished and ready section is where i've started my reading so far, as the comments thereafter help a lot!

That being said, what daily flash fiction sites would you recommend? And what is the "Year in Flash Fiction" challenge?

Thanks!

Dan aka FP.
 

LonnieG

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Dan,

If you like Scy-Fi & Fantasy, Daily Science Fiction is a good site. I also read a monthly, Flash Fiction Online. There are many others. Go to the Sub-Forum, "Submitting and Selling Flash Fiction" at the top of this page and check out "Suggestions for Flash Fiction Markets" it has an index of online flash fiction sites. BTW, both of the above sites pay for accepted submissions.

Lonnie
 

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Hi FP,

Like you said, read lots of FF. It would be good to subscribe to a few daily flash fiction sites. Read several explanations of what flash fiction is and what it is not. Remember a story is a story, no matter how long or short it is. It still needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Too often a FF piece will be passed off as a story, when it reads as a scene from a larger work. Take the "Year in Flash Fiction" challenge. It will give you a prompt each week. I am assuming you are reading the "Polished and Ready" forum. It is full of great stories, along with comments from other readers. It is a great way to learn what works and what may not work as well.

At this time I am also writing FF because of time constraints.

Good luck with you writing.

Lonnie

+1
 

Fruitbat

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For anyone who wants great advice on writing flash fiction, I recommend the Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction. It is divided into a couple dozen sections. Each section starts with a well known flash fiction author discussing an aspect of writing flash fiction. That author then gives a flash story of their own as an example, then an assignment for writing one of your own. I went through most of the book, learned lots of new approaches, and most of my assignment stories were published by litmags.
 
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M.Luminos

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Inspiration for flash fiction for me is like a bolt of lightning, or a lightbulb.

Sometimes I come up with scenes when I'm daydreaming. Write them down immediately and turn them into small stories.

With my flash fiction I like to pose a mystery or evoke emotion.

Writing flash fiction is like painting. Everything needs to be there for it to be complete, nothing is there by chance so I hope those who read what I write stop and ask the question. "What is he hiding? Why is it in past tense? What an odd opening line.." Though critique is important, because sometimes I miss the target and the symbolism is not as clear as I had thought.

Anyways my advice.. just give it meaning, give us just the climax of the story in a way we dont need any previous history to understand just how far the hero has fallen, that the villian will be victorious, that he missed his chance at love, or that someone has knowingly chosen their own demise.
 

Sophia

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Thank you for that link. The author's description of flash fiction is inspiring, to me, as a challenge of a standard to be met.
 

demiurgic_iris

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I primarily write flash fiction and short stories that just barely don't qualify as such by the <1000 words definition. My advice would be to mostly ignore the oft-repeated idea that flash is just like the "traditional story format", with all the elements of longer forms (setting, buildup, climax, denouement, etc.), but shorter. Besides the limiting and problematic nature of this descriptive framework as used in literary analysis being applied prescriptively, I've noticed that it intimidates a lot of new flash writers who get hung up on trying to replicate all of that in less than 1000 words. In my experience, at least, I've found flash to be a whole different animal. (Plus, when followed successfully to the letter, that format tends to result in bland realist fiction.) Despite what flash publishers and writers often tell you, flash fiction can be more like prose poetry, vignettes, or really anything, as long as what you're writing resonates with the reader very, very powerfully.

In other words, flash (IMHO) is best described as being concentrated, not compressed, which I think is a rather important, if subtle, distinction. Insinuate a great deal, and don't try to make that brief prose do things it simply can't and be things it simply isn't--instead, focus on making the strongest impression through whatever means feel natural to you and your style/voice.

To use another analogy, when you're writing flash, don't worry about your flash piece being a whole meal with a full spectrum of flavors and nutrients. Just concern yourself with making that one flavor that it has as piquant and potent as possible, with a stubbornly lingering aftertaste that will permeate anything else eaten afterwards.
 
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CathleenT

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I'd like to piggyback on Beasley's comment about Holly's course. It was extremely helpful to me as well. Before I took it, I had never written a short story I liked.

Another nice thing is that Holly has you shoot for 500 words, so even if you overshoot and end up in the 700-800 word range, you've got some room to add, because it seems like the bulk of the suggestions in other forums involve adding words. Or at least that's been my experience.

And I'm going to check out that Rose Metal Field Guide. It sounds like it might be productive.