Flash fiction is where you take a photo or idea and build a short story or scene around it. But your word limit is small so you have to choose just the right words to make the scene come alive. Speech tags aren't encouraged because they can eat up your word count. This activity is more fun when you have multiple people writing stories and sharing different perspectives of the picture or scene.
Take this picture of a guy in the shower. What could you say about who he is and why he's in the shower? Is this a shower for pleasure or is he celebrating after killing his girlfriend? Remember that when you write flash fiction, tantalize the senses of your readers but make each word count.
Here's a sample:
John was sure he was in deep trouble. He didn't mean to do it. It just happened. Hopping into the shower he needed to scrub the memories from his skin. Using his girlfriend's strawberry bodywash brought her sweet scent to mind.
How was he going to explain to Susan that he'd slept with her best friend, Jan?
Most flash fiction is around 300 words. See if you can write a short piece using only 300 words. It really tightens your writing and allows you to create some very exciting pieces. In fact three authors that I know have taken a flash fiction piece and turned it into an award winning novel. Enjoy!
Hi Melissa! That's exactly what my writer's group is doing, but I didn't know it was called Flash Fiction. I agree so much with you that it tightens your writing, and doing it gives you heaps of ideas too. I had lost all enthusiasm for writing until we started. Now I have a couple of great ideas for future stories, and have half finished one of them.
ReplyDeleteI love flash fiction. There are so many different ways to do it!
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