Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

Woman As Art

The theory behind giving your flash fiction maximum impact is simple: unity of place and time.  Because of the short length of the flash fiction short story, the more places and the greater the length of time the story tries to cover the more diffuse the story becomes and therefore the less impact it will have on the reader.

So, you the writer should keep the number of places where the story takes place  and the period of time that the story covers to the bare minimum.

If the story takes place in a single locale within a few minutes or a couple of hours, the greater the impact the story will have on the reader.  These tips are guidelines, not hard fast rules; but they do work.

Of course, they work if the story is well-written.  Nothing will help a poorly written story.

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Summer Wind

The leaves of the trees
Dancing outside my window
Bring me joy and hope

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Hello, all my fans in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia!  And here’s a special shout-out to my fans in Poland.  When the Old Soldier checked his stats this morning, there were more hits from Poland than from anywhere else in the world.  Thank you.

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English: The cover of the February, 1837 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger, published in Richmond, VA, by Thomas W. White, containing the second installment of “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” by Edgar Allan Poe. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Old Soldier is already  on page 70 in the book that he got from the public library yesterday about Edgar Allan Poe.  Poe took over as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in 1835.  When he left the magazine in 1837, he had quadrupled its circulation.

You better believe I’m stealing from Poe everything I can about increasing the circulation of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.

As of this morning, this magazine is averaging 403 hits every day for the month of July.

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The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is an online magazine of creative ideas, serious writing and brazen sexuality.

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• Thoughts on Writing Flash Fiction (aecurzon.wordpress.com)
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Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | brazen sexuality, creative ideas, Edgar Allan Poe, flash fiction, online magazine, Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, Poland, serious writing, Southern Literary Messenger