Flash Fiction Intro
Hi Everybody,
Today I’d like to introduce you to the idea of Flash Fiction – today’s way of referring to a very short story. Opinions vary on just how short but it seems to be from 500 to 2000 words.
I got the idea from a coach on one of the writing courses that I’m doing. Her name is B. Lynn Johnston and, in her own words, here’s what she said:
“I wanted to write Flash Fiction but I didn’t know how. So I chose seven of the best stories I’d found and analyzed the heck out of them. (I hated one of them so I deleted it! – Dave.) By the time I was done, I had a simple process that I could use to write one.”
I thought it might be fun to use this Blog to get a “Flash Fiction Readers and Writers Forum” going.
So here’s the plan.
Over the next few days I will share the links to the six example stories that Lynn analyzed and I retained. Then I will share the link to Lynn’s first attempt at Flash Fiction.
After that I will regularly – say once or twice a week – post attempts of my own.
It would be great if you got into the habit of looking for these stories. It would be even greater if you got into discussions about them via the Blog. You can subscribe, comment, ask questions, share ideas, and so on.
It would be greatest of all if you used the forum to start writing and sharing your own stories.
Who knows, it might be the start of your own lifetime passion and/or career in writing.
Each one of Lynn’s example stories has a different structure, for telling a different kind of story. Once you’re ready to write, here’s the worksheet Lynn created for brainstorming a short story:
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flashfic/Flash+Fiction-Brainstorming+Worksheet-Lynn+Johnston.pdf
And to start the ball rolling, here is the link to the first of the stories Lynn selected to analyze:
“So this” by Chloe N. Clark: http://flashfictiononline.com/main/article/so-this/
I found this story cute and sad and a bit quirky. Let me know what you thought of it.
ENJOY! And have a great day
Dave
PS The links give you some other sources of Flash Fiction if you get hooked on it.