My favorite writing genre us flash fiction. Psychologically speaking, it probably stems from the first grown-up story I wrote and showed to people. It was less then 1,000 words, and when I posted it, I didn't know what flash fiction was, and had to look it up when someone mentioned. Ever since then, I feel more comfortable in flash fiction.
It's funny to me that I like the constraints of telling a story in 500-1,000 words. In my everyday life, I am anything but brief. My favorite saying about my family is that none of them tells a short story, and this includes me. Ask me a simple question and you will get a long-winded answer, and a few extra answers if you didn't like the first one. Even my father, who I believe is the reining king of the too-long story, has asked me to be brief when telling him about something or answering a question, and I'm often told, after finishing a long answer, that I didn't actually answer the question.
So why do I like writing flash fiction? For one thing, it's easy to go over something after the fact and pare it down to its essentials. I love going over something I've written and stripping it of everything unnecessary but the bare story. I recently submitted a short story to a writing contest where the word limit was 4,000 words, not flash fiction, but I found myself 1/3 of the way through and fast approaching the word limit. I had five characters, and I knew one of them had to go. So I looked at what each one brought to my story (or didn't bring), and removed the least useful one. I would up placing third in the contest.
I also like the challenge of keeping to a word limit. It makes me a little bit more creative, and I like being challenged. I enjoy writing longer stories, too, and every year I write a 50,000 word novel for National Novel Writing Month, but it's more fun to do the flash fiction pieces every day.
Great self awareness.
Since you are not opposed to contests, I hope you'll consider entering Writer Advice's Fifth Annual Flash Prose Contest. We seeks flash fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction that mesmerizes the reader in 750 words or less. DEADLINE: April 15, 2010. Entry fee: $10 per submission. First prize: $150. Former prizewinners are the judges. Complete guidelines, mailing address, and prizes at www.writeradvice.com
Posted by: B. Lynn Goodwin | 02/14/2010 at 10:59 PM