 Short Stories: January 03, 2007 Issue [#1465] |
  Short Stories
This week: Edited by: kelly1202
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Have you ever sat down at your computer, only to face a blank screen?
Next time that happens, try writing a piece of "Flash Fiction". |
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~Writing Flash Fiction~
It never fails. At least two or three times a year, I sit down at the computer only to face a white, bare screen. It seems my ‘muse’ has decided to take a holiday without me. There is nothing worse for a writer than to sit down, coffee off to the side, fingers on keyboard lightly tapping the keys, and – nothing. Nothing comes. Your mind is empty.
I’ve found that writing flash fiction is a great way to kick my muse back into high gear. It's also an excellent way to hone your writing skills and tighten up your writing.
Now, “What is flash fiction, you may ask?" Flash fiction is considered a tale anywhere between 300-1000 words long. Flash fiction is different from the short story because you essentially take a small idea from a larger one and build on that in as few words as possible.
A good place to start for a flash fiction piece is in the middle of the action.
Remember, allow the reader to fill in some of the blanks on their own. You don’t need to go into great detail on description and imagery. Paint a picture on a single object: A man is shot; An intruder in the house. Don’t describe anymore than absolutely necessary.
You'll still want to include all the elements that make up a short story into your flash fiction piece as well:
 Setting
Characters – At most, you should have three characters
Conflict
Resolution
I cannot emphasize this enough: make sure you use strong, active verbs. You don’t want to bog your story down with a lot of adjectives and adverbs. You want it to jump off the page and engage the reader. Since it is a short piece of fiction you'll want to make every word count.
If you can, it's good to keep the reader guessing until the end and then surprise them with a twist.
Next time you sit down at your computer and you find your muse is nowhere to be found, try writing a Flash Fiction piece. See if that doesn’t help get you back into the swing of things.
We have a couple of contests that run here on WDC specifically related to Flash Fiction. I would love to see some entries from you all!
Here are a couple of prompts to help get you started.
1)”Look somebody has got to make a decision.”
2) You return home from work to find your house totally empty.
3) A man and his wife stop to investigate a disabled car on the side of the road.
4) After falling asleep on his shift, a prison guard awakens to find that all of the cells
are empty.
5) “Daddy, don’t let go.”
Prompts taken from "The Writer's Book of Matches" Writer's Digest Books
Thank you for reading and I hope you found this newsletter helpful!
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