So I belong to a writing group which meets once a week at a local library. We show up, share some small talk, then the leader provides several writing prompts. We choose from among the prompts and then write for 20 minutes. Each of us then reads aloud what we’ve written. The group members give a bit of positive feedback. Then we repeat the process, but only write for 10 minutes the second time around. The prompts could be single words, a single sentence, or physical objects or images.
Many writing groups and writing classes follow a similar format. What we end up with usually is 200 to 500 words of a short story. This is the average length of a ‘Flash Fiction’ short story. Though some people say a flash fiction story can extend up to 1,000 words. (Whereas normal short stories might run all the way up to 25,000 words in length).
I have been attending basic writing groups and creative writing classes off and on for some time now. What I do, as well as many other writers, is to let the prompt stir up a memory from our own lives. Then we either write out our experience as an autobiographical piece, or we use the memory to create a new fictional story. Usually about a single experience, place, or person.
My stories end up being a mixed bag of half baked ideas, along with some well written and insightful pieces. I usually get a memory, and can see the story in my head. So I start writing what I see, what I think was said, or might be said by the characters in my story. Usually, they are meaningful or humorous. Sometimes they are neither, and end up as just a collection of memories or fabricated events. I seldom consider how my story will end, until I reach the last few minutes of writing time left. So the endings are often made up of a quick unexpected twist, or a clichéd closure. ‘… and they lived happily ever after’.
What do I need to write more consistent, more focussed flash fiction stories? I could use an outline to follow, a step by step method for writing my stories. So what follows is a framework which can be referenced when we are writing flash fiction.
1. Begin in the middle or your story. Flash fiction is too brief to start your story with ‘Once upon a time…’ Your story will already have begun long before you put your first words on the page. The reader arrives late, but not too late. Your story, a scene, may end. But most likely the bigger story will go on in the readers imagination.
2. Let your story only be a glimpse, a moment in something much bigger.
3. Let the story be about an important event for the character(s). Show their personality and unique situation as the story unfolds.
4. Your story should only have one central conflict or one main idea.
5. End the story in the last paragraph, and let the last line stick in the readers mind. If you choose to end the stories with a punchline, a reveal, or a twist – do so sparingly.
Do:
• Consider writing a vignette from a person’s life.
• Consider writing an alternative perspective on an everyday experience.
• Consider writing about a character making a significant decision. But don’t always reveal what they decide.
• All writing is about emotion. Your writing should exemplify some single emotion.
Don’t:
• No long explanations, scene descriptions, backstory, or character development.
• Don’t have too many characters. One or two characters is ideal.