I’ve only returned to writing fiction again the past six or seven years. And to say it’s been difficult to carve out time to get words on the page amidst our family’s busy life is an understatement, but I’ve been working to make it a priority. In 2019, with my husband’s encouragement, I finally decided to attend a writing conference I had always wished to attend. It was at that conference I heard the term “flash fiction” for the first time.
What in the world is flash fiction, I wondered. After a new writer friend I met at the conference won an award for her flash fiction submission, I decided to find out. Flash fiction is a short short story, usually 1,000 words or less. Ideally, the piece represents a complete story in that low word count. I laughed when I understood what flash fiction entailed and marveled that people could actually accomplish it.
Flash forward (ha, see what I did there?) to my current editing, err rewriting, of my WIP, where I have been bogged down. Some writer friends suggested flash fiction as a way to stir up my creativity and mix things up a bit. I found a call for submissions to Spark Flash Fiction for the Spring issue and decided to give it a shot. I wrote a piece about a minor character in my current manuscript. She is very much in the background, but I like her and wanted her to have her own story. I loved the RomCom theme of the Spring issue: The Trouble with Love.
I tend to be verbose and thought I’d never be able to tell a story in so few words, but I gave it my best effort. I had a lot of fun working to make it happen – and it was rewarding to know I could actually accomplish it. I submitted the story with a prayer and tried to put it out of my mind – especially after seeing a post that the magazine had received a windfall of submissions. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw an email from Spark informing me they wanted to use my story, Catching the Photographer’s Eye! Read it here: https://sparkflashfiction.com/spring-2022-issue/.
I highly recommend writing flash fiction to any writer. I am happy to add it to my writer’s toolbox and see so many benefits. Flash fiction:
- Can help break up the monotony of your regular writing routine.
- Offers you something to write when you’re in between projects.
- Gives readers a sense of your style.
- Can inspire you with ideas for longer projects.
- Teaches you to be a tighter storyteller, making every word count.
- Forces you to flex those editing muscles.
- Is fun – just try it!
Do you enjoy reading flash fiction? Why or why not? Have you ever written flash fiction? What did you think of the experience?