Are You Writing Flash Fiction?
Flash fiction is the darling of the online creative writing community. Flash fiction ideas are everywhere. Are you writing flash fiction and didn’t even know it?
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As a TA (teaching assistant), I taught creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh from 2004 to 2006. I was a graduate student in the writing program and part of the agreement I signed for my fellowship that paid for my education and gave me a generous stipend to live on was to teach one class of writing to undergraduates each semester of my second and third year. I had no teaching responsibilities my first year.
My second year I taught composition; but my third year, which was my final year, I taught short story writing. I knew nothing about “teaching” short story writing; but I knew a great deal about writing flash fiction.
A 50-page manuscript of flash fiction stories had gotten me accepted to the graduate program in the first place. The 50 pages were part of a 150-page manuscript I’d been working on for over 15 years. So, what lessons had I learnt working on all those flash fiction stories for all those years? What advice and tips about writing short fiction could I pass on to my students?
First, what is flash fiction? There are many definitions of the very short story. Most of the definitions have to do with word length. Most editors, publishers and writers would agree that a flash fiction story is between 250 to 1,000 words long. Some people would go a little lower and some would go a little higher. The one thing everyone does agree on is that no matter how long a flash fiction story is, it is a complete short story. It has all the elements in it that the regular length short story contains. It has a distinct beginning, middle and ending. It has development and tension. It has characterization, description and resolution. The average regular length story is between 2,000 to 5,000 words long.
So, the advice and tips that I gave to my students about writing flash fiction and short fiction in general included several things. First, the content of a flash fiction story could be about anything that a regular length story could be about. The flash fiction story was just shorter. There must be no unnecessary words and adjectives and adverbs were usually unnecessary words. The flash fiction story captured a “significant” moment in time. I had my students write a lot of flash fiction.
And guess what? If you’ve been writing short stories that are only a few hundred words long, you’ve been writing flash fiction, too. Tainted Love is a perfect example of the flash fiction story.
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Tags: advice, content, creative writing, education, Example, Flash fiction, ideas, online, publishers, short story, tips, Writers, Writing
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August 27th, 2009 at 3:05 am
I started writing articles, but also putting flash fiction. Flash Fiction tend to gain more comments for me. Nice advice.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:28 am
I have written a lot of flash fictions and they are one of my favourite things to write purely because given the amount of words, each and every one has to sound beautiful, a bit like poems. This is a really good article in terms of telling people about flash fictions and encouraging them because flash fictions are the kind of stories where you can trial it out.
Good job, Guy.
August 27th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Hi, Buma: I have about 140 published pieces on Triond right now and the flash fiction story “Girls Gone Wild” http://www.authspot.com/Short-Stories/Girls-Gone-Wild.699307 has gotten the most hits by far.
August 27th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Hi, Atikin: I have a deep passion for flash fiction as an art form. I studied flash fiction for years and my first publications were flash fiction stories for the print media. As a matter of fact, I’m looking forward to my next flash fiction publication on Triond. I don’t know when that will be. For me, flash fiction is much more difficult to write than articles and it pays less.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:47 am
nice article good points!
August 27th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Hi, alc: Flash fiction is such a great art form. Some people might think that because flash fiction is so short it’s easy to write. Actually, the opposite is true because it still has to contain all the basic elements of much longer stories and that’s difficult to do.
August 27th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
That’s wonderful, even I can do that. I think.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Regretfully, my natural story length is about 30 pages. I grew up in the era of print, and real short stories you see. Even at that, I may not have the thing wrapped up till it turns into a novella.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I’m an addict of flash fiction stories..though I haven’t post one yet…^_^
August 27th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I mean 30 pages of a story..
August 28th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Hi, Ruby: The length of the flash fiction story makes it very attractive to writers. I know the short length was very attractive to me. Then I discovered the complexity of the well-written very short story and I knew I had an art form I could study for a life time.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Daisy, flash fiction is not for everyone. And that’s a good thing. Variety is the spice of life especially when it comes to fiction.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:36 am
giftarist, flash fiction is more like one to four pages. 30 pages is a novella.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:03 am
What an interesting concept! Sounds like SMSing. (You type a short message to get an idea across.) Lol. Great article. I might consider trying this out. =)
August 31st, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Apart from the novel I am working on, most of my work could come under the banner of flash fiction. I enjoy the challenge of paring things down while still telling the whole story. Flash Fiction deserves more recognition in the publishing world. Thanks for the article!
August 31st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
nightcharmer, I am totally into flash fiction. I want to be the best flash fiction writer in the world. It may not happen but that’s not the point. I’ll just keep trying.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Amanda, I couldn’t agree with you more. Flash fiction deserves more recognition. Some colleges do teach it. It’s probably closer to the poem than it is to the short story. It dose teach conciseness.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:19 am
Now I come to know I have written flash fiction without knowing it. I suppose I need to practise more. Thanks for the tips.