Flash Fiction - Advantages to All Writers by Allison Symes

I adore flash fiction and believe writing it can benefit all writers. Why?  

The limited word count (1000 words maximum) means it can be a great writing exercise. You can polish and submit those pieces later.  

There are many flash fiction websites. You can build up publication credits this way. Could that be something useful to add to a query letter to a publisher/agent when you’re submitting longer works? I think so. 

It shows the publisher/agent someone else thought your work was of a publishable standard (and websites I write for reject stories. I’ve had work turned down. Funnily enough, that matters).

Flash fiction teaches you so much about editing.  All fear of stamping on adverbs will leave you, I promise.  The moment I see a “ly” word in my writing, I stomp on it. I have gone through this piece carefully to ensure I don’t leave any. Oops - almost!

Removing as many adverbs as I can has improved my pacing. I use, as an example in my workshops, the phrase Jean was actually very cold. Poor Jean. I would change that to Jean was freezing. 

Freezing is a specific, more powerful image. Specific images are easier for your readers to picture. They often reduce word count too. Note I’ve dumped the actually as well! 

Learning to write like this has fed into my blogs and online columns. No bad thing that. You develop good habits.

Flash fiction works best when character led so if your favourite part of storytelling is in inventing characters, this is a great form to try. It always has been my favourite aspect to fiction writing.

I love seeing what situations I can put my characters in and then to work out how they would get out or otherwise resolve their problems.

I also like being able to put my characters whenever and wherever I wish so I get to play with genres and settings. I’ve written historical flash, crime flash, fantasy flash and more. My only limitation? That upper word count restriction.

Learning to write to a tight word count will also help when preparing a synopsis. At least you will know you can write to the limited word count required. I would hope that takes some nerves away.

Flash fiction writing develops focus. All that goes into your story is all your readers need to know. Nothing more, nothing less. In crafting a flash piece, you are always thinking about what your reader needs. Doing that means you are less likely to go off at tangents. It can save a great deal of editing time later.

Flash fiction is renowned for intriguing hooks and powerful endings. Practicing crafting these for the shortest form of prose writing is bound to pay off for your longer works.

Jesus’s parables are all flash fiction pieces in terms of word count. Flash isn’t a new form at all, far from it, but more are aware of it now and I welcome that. Why not try it?