How do you write flash fiction?

What is the structure of a flash fiction story?

 

Beginning.
Middle.
End.

Like any other story, just shorter.

Fewer characters.

Fewer plot points.

Main character, who has some sort of problem/conflict.
Other characters as required.

 

I'd suggest checking out some of the entries for the flash fiction contests on here, as somewhere to start.

To be fair, my advice on learning how to write something is always just to read it.

 

I find flash more lyrically intensive. The limited words means that each one has to be chosen to convey as much information as possible. Sort of like a song.

Use words to invoke feelings about characters and keep exposition tight.

I think that any flash fiction's impact will be much more vague than a short story, so embrace that.

 

Okay, this thread is on me for suggesting it.

My first flash fiction piece sucked, but it was about a serial killer encountering a real monster. I wrote it, submitted it, and it got rejected, but that's good because, like I said, it sucked.

With a flash fiction piece, you're almost writing a single scene with just a little bit of backstory to make it worth it. Flash is almost like a joke, it tends to have a punchline. I'll be meandering through my day to day life, and suddenly a punchline comes up.

Spoiler

In one story, I'd encountered the vagina dentata myth, and got to thinking about it from the woman's point of view. In another, I imagined a regular guy, not a killer, going to work...at Auschwitz. Another one had a little girl (unfortunately, I'd met her) dead at her own hand.

Why? Why are these people in these situations? We don't need their whole life stories, just just what's relevant to how they ended up at the punchline?

What provoked him to say that? His age (probably) doesn't matter. His education outside of his specialty (probably) doesn't matter. His appearance (probably) doesn't matter. Why did he say that, and why is it funny (or scary, or poignant, or whatever).

Write to the punchline with a word count target in mind but don't be scared at all to overshoot your target.

Look at how many Flash Fiction Contest Entries hit at exactly 500 words. Those are people who wrote 563, or 685, or even 888, and then had to embark on the laborious process of cutting and slicing and deciding exactly what needed to be in the story, and what could be left out.

8 words

8 words. Fuck, hyphens count as one.

7 words. WTF, over?

What's more important, tight or red?

6 words.

5 words.

3 words.

That may be cutting too far, or it may not, depends on the story, but once you've got your basic story down, then and only then do you start on the precision surgery. From what I've seen in your other posts, you enjoy that sort of thing, and I do too! There's nothing wrong with it, but you need to have the story down first before you can start the hardcore comma editing. As I said in the other thread, I spent five days getting this story to exactly where I wanted it, down from the high six-hundreds. I agonized over every. single. punctuation. mark.

Every word.

Every misspelling.

I spent forever getting this to where I wanted it, but I started out with a couple hours of



*O'Rourke's Circumcision Principle, from Parliament of Whores, by P.J. O'Rourke

 

You sure have a lot of questions, but don't seem to want to put any work into writing or figuring out storytelling. If you are unsure of story structure, that means you need to read more stories. But, wait, didn't you quit writing a few posts ago? If you really want to be a writer, I feel like you need to take this more seriously and be willing to really work at it.

 

I recently read a piece of advice that said:

Source:
Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction

It tends to, but should it?

And two more sources for the OP:

3 Things You Need to Know to Write Great Flash Fiction

Thirteen Tips for Writing Flash Fiction

Edit: if someone can verify that these are actually good advices, I'll add them to the resources. I've looked at them for quite a while.

 

Worthwhile question. I like stories with the punchline feeling, they remind me of The Twilight Zone. It's definitely possible to write outside of that format in a small number of words, but it's really a matter of taste.

 

That's fair. I never watched much twilight zone, so I don't have that perspective. And when I did watch, I preferred the in-color ones. I always felt like that was an unpopular choice.