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Writing Flash Fiction
To promote a more active approach to our
meetings, we set ‘flash fiction’ tasks in between
other events. Flash Fiction is not an easy genre
and some tips are given below - it’s an extract
from a Guardian article written by David Gaffney.
Start In the middle
You don't have time in this very short form to set scenes and
build character.
Don’t use too many characters
You won't have time to describe your characters when you're
writing ultra-short. Even a
name may not be useful in a
micro-story unless it conveys
a lot of additional story
information or saves you
words elsewhere.
Make sure the ending isn’t at the end
In micro-fiction there's a danger that much of the engagement
with the story takes place when the reader has stopped reading.
To avoid this, place the denouement in the middle of the story,
allowing us time, as the rest of the text spins out, to consider the
situation along with the narrator, and ruminate on the decisions
his characters have taken.
If you're not careful, micro-stories can lean towards punchline-
based or "pull back to reveal" endings which have a one-note,
gag-a-minute feel – the drum roll and cymbal crash. Avoid this
by giving us almost all the information we need in the first few
lines, using the next few paragraphs to take us on a journey
below the surface.
Sweat your title
Make it work for a living.
Make your last line ring like a bell
The last line is not the ending – we had that in the
middle, remember – but it should leave the reader
with something which will continue to sound after
the story has finished. It should not complete the
story but rather take us into a new place; a place
where we can continue to think about the ideas in the story and
wonder what it all meant. A story that gives itself up in the last
line is no story at all, and after reading a piece of good micro-
fiction we should be struggling to understand it, and, in this
way, will grow to love it as a beautiful enigma.
And this is also another of the dangers of micro-fiction; micro-
stories can be too rich and offer too much emotion in a
powerful one-off injection, overwhelming the reader, flooding
the mind. A few micro-shorts now and again will amaze and
delight – one after another and you feel like you've been run
over by a lorry full of fridges.
Write long, then go
short
Create a lump of stone from which
you chip out your story sculpture.
Stories can live much more cheaply
than you realise, with little
deterioration in lifestyle. But do beware: writing micro-fiction is
for some like holidaying in a caravan – the grill may well fold
out to become an extra bed, but you wouldn't sleep in a fold-
out grill for the rest of your life.