Writing Flash Fiction!

by G Dean Manuel

What is Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction goes by many names and encompasses many different styles. There is the ever popular 6-word story that clog up group feeds. The 140 characters story/twitterature that goes on, you guessed it, Twitter. Though, now that Twitter allows 280 characters, those stories have doubled in size. There is the minisage, also known as the dribble, that is contained in 50 words or less. Who could forget the drabble or microfiction? These stories are comprised of 100 words or less. Finally we have the heavyweights of the flash fiction world: sudden fiction/immediate fiction/short-shorts (750 words), flash fiction(1000 words), nano-tale, and micro-story.

But what does that mean?

Well, flash fiction is a story contained within 1500 words or less. That means it has a beginning, middle, and end. It isn't just an excerpt of a bigger piece. It isn't just a scene that you made. Flash fiction is a completely self-contained story.

Why Write Flash Fiction?

There are many reasons to write flash fiction. It helps you become a better writer. In today's market, flash ficiton stories are becoming more and more popular, so there is a good market for your stories. Flash fiction is quick to write, edit, and read.

How does a flash ficiton story help you become a better writer? To begin with, it helps your writing become more concise. Flash fiction doesn't leave room for flabby sentences. Everything sentence must be a Venice Beach weightlifter. With each piece you are flexing fiction muscles you didn't know you had. Suddenly, you are doing things like using stronger nouns and verbs unconciously. Secondly, it is a great confidence boost. Don't underestimate the power of a finsihed story on your confidence. Flash fiction is a great springboard to motivate you to finishing up bigger works of fiction.

Flash fiction isn't just for practice though. There are many magazines and online journals that deal in flash fiction. One of the biggest, Flash Fiction Online, deals exclusively in flash fiction. (As if you couldn't tell be the title!) That means your work can get out there! This is important for any author trying to build a platform.

It is quick to write, edit, and read. This is another important aspect to flash fiction. In this day and age of quick consumption, flash fiction can be your introduction to an audience that will be slavering to consume more of your lengthier word count stories. Because of its shorter format, it is more likely to be read. Also, when connecting to other authors, a flash fiction piece is more likely to be critiqued over a longer work. This can help you forge connections that you otherwise wouldn't have working solely on your novel length work.

How Do I Write Flash Ficiton?

"Brevity is the soul of wit." Nothing shows that truer than a piece of flash fiction. But why does it have to be so hard? Like any writing, there are no tried and true formulas that will grant you success automatically. But I can give you a few tips that may increase your chances!

Start in the middle of the story: Unlike types of fiction with meatier word counts, flash fiction can't have much set up. It is better to start your story inside the action and reserve your word count for pushing the story forward instead of infodumping.

Show rather than tell: I know we say this all the time but we don't often follow this rule. In flash fiction this rule is very important! Everything must economical, so things like descriptions of characters or setting must be done in action. That way you are going to get more bang per word!

Take out all unneccesary words: Once you begin writing, you will find that 1000 words isn't that much. You must treat each paragraph as if it is a tweet. Take out all the filler and leave yourself with a boiled down sentence that is concise and impactful.

Adjectives and adverbs are the enemy: Use stronger nouns and verbs in place of adjectives and adverbs. This is another rule that we ignore in bigger fiction but is absolutely imperative in flash fiction.

Don't use too many scenes: Honestly, you should probably only have one. Two at the most. Otherwise your narrative will be too diluted.

Not too many characters, either: Beyond the MC, there shouldn't be a host of characters to introduce. Otherwise, you will be spending your word count on introducing characters and not have much left for your story.

POV matters: Most flash fiction should be done in first person or third person limited. This will narrow the lens of focus to inside your MC's head, conserving your word count.

End in the middle: Don't put the resolution of your plot at the end. Put it in the middle, giving the reader time to contemplate its impact before the story finishes.

Don't overreach with your idea: You can't have a story that is too BIG. An epic quest to destroy a ring for the survival of your world is too much to write in 1000 words. But a story of a hero facing the fact that he won't survive the battle with the Big Bad can be done.

Don't forget that your character should grow: Just because you are limited in word count doesn't mean that your characters shouldn't grow. Don't forget to put in a character arc to develop your character!

Just say no to subplots: One conflict, focus on it!

Take these tips to heart and you may end up with quite a piece of short fiction!

Where Do You Go From Here?

Well, hopefully writing! I want to stress something to you before you go. Flash fiction isn't just practice writing. It is an art form in and of itself. If you think it is easy, I challenge you to write some. Then send it in to Flash Fiction Online. See how quickly slapping 1000 words on a page without true respect for this literary form will get you rejected!

To all those who are interested in trying this form, have fun! At the beginning, it will seem daunting but with practice it becomes less so.

G Dean Manuel is a multi-genre writer and helper of people. If you would like to know more about G Dean Manuel, click here.

Submitting a Story!

Going to take a slight detour this week and talk about making submissions. For those of you that have been reading my series on crafting a story, I'm not done. This is more of my side piece. One that my main piece is totally aware of and cool with because my main piece knows that I'll always come back to it.

Anyways, making submissions.

You took a much-needed break from your novel and wrote yourself a short story. Awesome! Now you want to submit that story to a magazine? What are some things you should know about before submitting a piece to a magazine? Glad you asked! Let's look at your story first...

Does your story have the 'it' factor?

When you are writing to submit to a magazine (or literary journal, e-zine, website, etc..), keep in mind some basic difference between short story writing and novel writing. These are important if you wish to get a short story published.

Short stories are shorter than novels. I know, you are saying, "Duuuuuuh." A short story is shorter but must still contain the essential parts of a story! Short stories aren't just scenes cut out of larger works, they must stand on their own. A short story must have a narrative arc that reaches some sort of resolution. If you are simply writing scenes, then the chances of your story being published are very slim.

First lines of short stories are much more important! You must grab a reader's (and magazine editor's) attention from the beginning and take them along for a ride. Editors have slush piles of unsolicited manuscripts and you are kidding yourself if you believe that most of them will always read the whole manuscript, every time. Most will give you a page, a paragraph, even maybe a sentence to grab their attention and make them want to keep journeying down the road with you. Make sure that your first line is an attention grabber.

After the first line, you gotta keep it going! No time to waste on boring stuff! Gotta spit hot fire. What does that mean? It means, unlike novel writing where there is an ebb and flow, short stories are more condensed. You don't have time to lose a reader for a paragraph so you can describe the effort she makes when painting her toes. No three chapters describing how your protagonist buried a cat. THIS IS SHORT STORY WRITING! (Sorry, channeled my inner King Leonidas.) You have to make sure there are no wasted words in your submission! Condense, make sure every word counts towards the end goal: Taking your reader for a wild ride.

I'm going to use a quote from Highlander to explain how your story should be: IT IS BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY - Kurgan

Burn us with your brightness!

A Note on Editing and Beta reading...

If you are saying to yourself, just because this is a short story, I don't need to get it edited or have it beta read then you are wrong. Don't think that you are someone so special that an editor will not put down your story in deference to your brilliance. While most magazines will make minor edits, mostly in format, they will not accept a piece that is full of grammatical errors. Just like anything else you write, let someone else read it, several someones if you can swing it, get their opinions, incorporate the ones that you think are needed, then have a final run through with an editor.

Okay, our Story Sparkles... What's Next?

After making sure that our story is submission quality, now we need to find a magazine that will take our piece of writing. Time to do some research! You can Google markets where your submission would be welcome, spending hours slogging through the different websites to figure out which one to submit to... or you could cheat.

I'm going to suggest two websites, one paid and one free, for making finding a place to submit easier. The free website is Submission Grinder. In the website's own words "The Grinder is a submission tracker and market database for writers of fiction and poetry".A search engine specifically geared towards markets to submit your work! Now Duotrope is much the same but a pay to use version. Supposedly, because you are paying for it, it is more up-to-date but I don't see much of a difference in the two in my opinion.

It tells you all sorts of cool stuff, like if a magazine is even active anymore!

As far as choosing one, familiarize yourself with the content of each magazine. Websites usually have one or two sample stories that give you a rough estimate of the stories that they publish. Don't skip this step! It is a waste of time, both for you and the editor, if you submit something that they wouldn't dream of publishing.

We're ready to submit now, right?

At this point, with the magazine in mind, it is time to go over their submission guidelines. What? You're ready to send it off, it has been beta read and edited, it's perfect? Hold on! Submission guidelines give you information about formatting and information the editor wishes included in your submission. This is one of those points you can be auto-rejected before someone has even read your story. Follow their guidelines!

Remember, you are submitting to their publication. You follow their rules. That simple. Now usually, a good rule of thumb, is to include your name and contact info in the upper left of your manuscript and the word count (rounded to the nearest hundred) in the upper right.

Some websites, those ones that wish to support your further work, will want you to send in a bio. This should be done in the third person and give readers a way to follow you. Don't overdo it with your credits. Limit yourself to three relevant publishing credits. An example:

Badass Writer lives in Extraordinaire City with his wife and 1.5 kids. He is a multi-genre writer who enjoys skydiving in is off time. His sci-fi story "I'm a Teenage Ninja Toaster" was published in Cool Story Online. For the ladies, his romance story, "I'm Pretty Hunky, Aren't I?" was published by Random Romance publishing. You can follow him on Twitter @youwishyouwereme or on Facebook @badasswriterspeaks.

Now, after you've read their guidelines and have your story formatted the way they want it, now it is time to submit! Find out how they want you to submit: email, snail mail, Submittable (or some other analogous online submission system). Do your thing!

Notes for after you've submitted

You've submitted, now comes the most dreaded part. Being patient. Unfortunately, there is no getting around this part. The average time that your submission kicks around the system? Probably around two months. Unless otherwise noted on their website, ninety days is the industry accepted length of time one should wait before querying about their story. That is only if their website doesn't state something different. Don't annoy an editor if their website clearly states that they can take up to six months to get back on submissions.

Two terms you should familiarize yourself with are simultaneous submission and multiple submission. The former tells you whether the magazine allows you to submit the same story to other magazines. This is done with the understanding that you will immediately inform the magazine if your story has been accepted somewhere else. When a magazine allows multiple submissions, it means you don't have to wait until you hear back from a submission before you submit again. Many magazines do not allow for this, so make sure before you do this. If you don't see it, don't assume! Query the editor with any questions.

You should use some form of tracking for your submissions. It is very important! That way you aren't sending the same story out to places you've already sent it to and you aren't simultaneously submitting unless that is your intention and the places you're submitting to allow it. Most publications do not allow resubmission of rejected stories. Many don't want simultaneous submissions.

If you are rejected and it is a form letter rejection, don't take it personally! Most publication editors don't have the time to write a personalized rejection to each and every individual that sends a story into their publication. That would be insane. Rejections are part of the game, get rejected with class. Say thank you and move on. There is a right place for your story, it just might take a while to find it.

One final note, be careful where you post your work. Most publications will not accept work that has been in some way available to the public. That means if you post a story to Facebook or your blog, then you are disqualifying it from a majority of publishers out there.