Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

Flash fiction is a fairly new thing.

Once upon a time, when I was young, and dinosaurs roamed the earth, flash fiction really didn’t exist. Stories were expected to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that sort of thing takes time.

I have to admit, the first time I saw Flash Fiction, I wasn’t all that impressed. It really is hard to tell a decent story in 500 words or less.

Then, I got to thinking about Haiku.

Yes, the often very Zen short poems that pretty much all of us had to write in middle school. Five syllables for the first line, seven for the second, and five again for the final line. Writing a Haiku is really easy, it doesn’t take long at all. Heck, I could probably write a dozen of them in an hour.

Writing a good one, though, that’s something else entirely.

So yes, the majority of the flash fiction written is as crappy as the Haikus that I could churn out at a dozen per hour. That doesn’t make them worthless, though.

For one thing, writing a flash piece is an excellent way to break through a bit of writer’s block, or to simply warm up for the work to come. Sometimes, even if writer’s block isn’t an issue, you just feel stale, as if none of your thoughts or words are fresh. Grab a random topic, and write a 500 word (or less) story featuring it somehow. It doesn’t even have to be good, the simple act of forcing your imagination into a new track will help the rest of your writing feel fresher.

More importantly, though, writing a piece of flash fiction makes you pay attention to the words you’re using. Unlike Nathaniel Hawthorne in his famous Scarlet Letter, you can’t take two pages to describe a dress. Neither can you afford to leave off the description entirely, though.

Haiku is all about painting an impressionist picture of a moment in time, all with a limited number of words. Flash fiction is the prose equivalent, and although it lacks the scope of a novel, or even a short story, they can still pack quite the punch in their few words.

If you wish to improve your writing, then I certainly would recommend trying your hand at flash fiction. I’ve found it makes my own writing more succinct, though I still prefer the novel. I’ve also found that ideas generated, even in the flash pieces I’ve written that I sincerely hope are never read by another living soul, can be a good springboard into a new piece.

There are any number of contests going on at any one time that feature flash fiction, as well as several magazines that like stories in that length. As they change frequently, simply Google “flash fiction contest” or “flash fiction publisher” and you will usually find quite a few outlets for your work.

Cheers,

Michelle