If you haven’t tried writing flash fiction, this is your sign to get to it.
When I started writing fiction, I didn’t know a damn thing about literary forms.
I just wanted to write like my favorite authors. I thought novels were the way to go. A long, ongoing series that told a connecting story over years. I never thought to start small to maintain momentum and expand my skills as a writer.
That lack of knowledge would be detrimental to my future success as a fiction writer.
It wasn’t until fairly recently I understood the power of flash fiction. How flash fiction is perfect to get you to write, develop your ideas, and publish your work when you find yourself struggling.
Regardless of whether you are a newbie or an experienced writer, writing flash fiction is essential to honing your craft.
Length
Flash fiction stories are no more than 1,500 words.
A novel is between 70,000 and 120,000 words. That’s a lot of fucking words.
Tell me, what are you most likely to complete? A story that, at most, is 1,500 words or a novel that ranges from 70,000 to 120,000 words?
One of flash fiction’s strengths as a literary form is its length.
1,500 words is much easier to write than 120,000. The brevity demands you get to the point.
That is precisely what fiction writers need.
Since I embraced writing flash fiction, I’ve been writing more often than I ever have. No longer am I climbing the proverbial mountain that is the novel but slowly ascending a hill with the end in sight. And it’s done wonders keeping the momentum of writing.
Because that’s the hardest part about writing.
Writing!
Experimentation
The brevity of flash fiction facilitates experimentation.
You don’t have many words to play around with. And that’s perfect for developing ideas and scenarios you have been thinking about writing. In one sitting, you can complete writing a scene you have been dreaming about for days.
Or, you can figure out the characters of a story when you are stuck. Play around with plot points. What matters is that flash fiction gets you to write and experiment.
And experimentation is vital to keep your writing and ideas fresh.
With flash fiction, I can explore concepts I really liked but had on the back burner as I worked on my other stories. When I feel stuck, I can quickly turn to the story ideas I have captured over the years and experiment with a 1,500-word story.
Flash fiction is built for experimentation because of its length. And that’s what makes it an underrated literary form.
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