10 Great Flash Fiction Tips

Flash fiction is popular with readers and editors for two main reasons.  It’s popular with readers because it doesn’t take long to read.  It’s popular with editors because it doesn’t take up much space on the page which means there’s more room for advertisements.  More room for advertisements means more money for the publisher.

Flash fiction is also popular with writers because it doesn’t take long to write and it’s easy to place.  The problem flash fiction presents to writers is flash fiction is not easy to write.  Here are 10 suggestions that will make writing flash fiction easier to write.

• Keep the introduction short
• Keep most of the action in one locality
• Keep the number of characters to two or three
• Keep the story within a very narrow time frame
• Make sure the story has conflict or tension and a resolution
• Use as few adjectives and adverbs as possible
• Get into the action right away
• Use concrete sense details
• Start the story as close to the resolution as possible
• Make use of dialogue to bring the characters to life

My blog is the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette