Now, with out further ado,
Tip #1: Start your story in Action
With Flash Fiction being such a short medium, you don't have much time to establish setting or characters; it needs to be fast-paced for maximum impact. So, the best way to engage your reader is to drop them straight into the middle of action.
You do want to keep context though, so use to your discretion.
You do want to keep context though, so use to your discretion.
Some Pieces from the contest that demonstrate this:
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Tip #2: Limit Characters, Themes, and Settings
Related to the tip above. The whole point is that Flash Fiction is short. Unlike a novel, or short story, you simply don’t have the time to introduce multiple characters, Themes, or settings. The more characters/themes/settings you have, the more cramped the piece becomes. You really only have room in flash fiction for two characters, maybe three, along with a single setting and theme.
Some Pieces from the contest that demonstrate this:
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GloryI didn’t really accept it until the day I decided to cut my hair. My sister braided it for me one last time – French braid, decorated with little white hydrangeas from the garden and the most perfect pink hibiscus behind my ear.
My pageant tiaras didn’t sit quite right on my head after the chemo took what was left of my hair. It’s okay – I’d rather be bald than grey any day of the week; no one will ever guess my age from now on, not without looking like a huge jerk. I’m still the prettiest girl in town, muthafuckas.
Tip #3: Utilise Vignettes/Poetic Description
What is a vignette, I hear you ask. Well, a literary vignette is a short passage that focusses on describing a single character, object, setting, or emotion. Vignettes utilise poetic description, almost to an unnecessary degree. This use of words in an ideal way to draw specific attention to a singular entity within your work, especially if it's key to the plot.
While vignettes are technically a form of flash fiction on their own, don't be afraid to incorporate them into your work.
Some Pieces from the contest that demonstrate this:
And then I realised, I was a pawn of greater menI'm flying on three tabs of Andraxian Blue. I don't remember taking them, but the Blue has an unmistakable way of splitting your head in two with a four iron. The question is why. It's been years since I've hit anything this hard, and I can already feel it coming on too fast.
People surround me like a swarm. Their noise reverberates through my skull, and the stench of their salts fills my lungs and threatens to drag bile out onto the street. They gawk at me. They sense something is different, and they're just waiting for their chance to tear me apart. They keep coming closer, sidling up to me as if nothing is amiss, pretending to look away.
It's too fast. I need something to cool me down.
I start to pat myself down for smokes - something to smother the Blue - and find a sheet of crumpled paper in my pocket. The letters slide around like pond-skaters over water, but after pleading with them they agree to stay still for long enough for me to read:
You've done something incredibly
Sketch - Little EliseShe flies through silent air. Stolen wings attend her shoulders. Her fragrance, morning dew. Chrysanthemums become her golden home. Her sustenance, honey nectar. Gossamer tresses and daisy stem ribbons crown the flower queen. Her airy dress, lily petals.
With a toy boat and spider silk sail she skimmed down tumbling rivers and across stormy seas. She hid from winter within the burrow of a beast and in fading light met her dearest friend. A butterfly net of silver loops strung to a diamond ring sought in vain to steal her from the sky.
Fly onward kindred souls, Swallow and Elise.
Tip #4: Surprise your Reader
You want to entertain the reader with your flash fiction, otherwise they'll simply move on. The best way to do this is by adding a twist to your story; one that leads to an ending the reader wasn't expecting. Be clever about it though; cliches like "it was all a dream" are overdone, and can harm your story more than help it.
Some Pieces from the contest that demonstrate this:
IntegrityI’ve never turned down a job. Professional integrity, and all that. But even so, when I saw the name in the file, I cringed. At some point in every man’s career, he gets that job he knows is going to make or break his name.
I’d been using this name for a while now, and it had started to get a decent rep behind it. People knew me. Not my face, obviously. I was smart enough to use wigs and contacts; prosthetics, if I had to. A face was too damn valuable, and not so easy to change. Especially if you didn’t go in for all that cosmetic surgery stuff.
But names? Names were easy. Names were shoes that you could slip on and off as needed.
This name was one I’d had long enough that it had moulded to fit, like a pair of hard wearing boots that weren’t so much pretty, as reliable. So I took the job, because integrity is all we’ve got, in the end.
I packed up my gear and went to the address. The client had already said where they wanted it to go down, and
Flash Fiction #212-6-15
Ralf looked at his watch for the fourth time in five minutes. Xavier was late again. Yesterday they had spent the time sanding the walls to give them a smooth surface from which to work. Today they were painting. Furious at his brother, Ralf opened up the paint tin and started stirring the contents with a stick. Soon he had worked up a bit of a sweat and the paint was frothy.
“Probably stirred it too much,” he muttered, checking his watch again. Xavier still hadn’t showed up. He out the extender and mixed it into the paint as per the packet instructions. This would slow down the paint’s drying. Because the colour of paint can differ from can to can, even with the same colour, he poured his freshly stirred paint into a five-litre bucket. Furious with Xavier for standing him up, Ralf vigorously stirred the paint in this bucket so that it was all mixed properly. He then used painters tape, the blue kind, and placed it on the wood of the skirting boar
I hope these tips helped! Good luck with your Flash Fictions!
