How To Write A 100-Word Short Story

Bush - Basic Training 1968

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Hello, creative writers, writing majors and my Flash Fiction Fanatics.  The beauty of flash fiction is that it has everything in it that a regular-length short story has in it.  It’s just that flash fiction is a lot shorter.  Sometimes it’s only around 100 words.

Now, the Old Soldier likes to write within the 400-to-900-word range.  That seems my best range.  I feel comfortable writing a story that’s 400 to 900 words long.  But every once in a while I like to step out of my comfort zone and write a really short flash fiction story.  Like 100 words.

Writing a story of any length is a lot easier if you remember that a short story is made up of these three things:

  • A setup
  • A buildup
  • A payoff

The following story is around 116 words.

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Basic Training

My father was a wife beater. So in 1964 at the age of seventeen I enlisted in the army to get away from home…

“Hey, Carter!” Murphy called across the barracks. Everyone was working on his gear. I sat on my foot locker spit shinning my boots.

“Yeah!” I called back.

“You ever eat a woman?”

Eat a woman? I really didn’t know what that meant. Besides, I got flustered around girls. All the older men in the barracks were listening.

“Sure,” I called back.

“Oh, yeah,” he called. “Well, tell me. How did it taste?”

“Salty,” I called.

Several of the older guys laughed appreciatively. Murphy did not harass me for the rest of the day.

The End

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If you like sex in your flash fiction, click on the Sexy Stories tab at the top of the page.

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My Father Was A Wife Beater

Yes, my brother and sister bloggers and writers.  My father was a wife beater.  It was a very painful time in my life.  I was just a kid.  He stopped beating my mother when I was around fifteen, but kids don’t forget.  My father’s dead now.  Mom, bless her soul, is still living.

Being the oldest son, I always felt guilty about not protecting my mother.  But knowing my father, if I had ever raised a hand against him he probably would have killed me.  He was a professional boxer before he got married and worked in the steel mills in Pittsburgh while I was growing up. 

You want to know where ideas for flash fiction stories come from?  They come from life.  The following 115-word story is based upon my life…

If you are new to the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette take out a subscription so you won’t miss anything.  The subscription tab is at the top of the page.

To move your writing to the next level in a matter of days, download my Ebook of “show don’t tell” fiction.  You won’t be disappointed.  The Ebook tab is at the top of the page, too. 

A flash fiction writer takes mud and makes gold out of it.

*********************

Basic Training

My father was a wife beater. So in 1964 at the age of seventeen I enlisted in the army to get away from home…

“Hey, Carter!” Murphy called across the barracks. Everyone was working on his gear. I sat on my foot locker spit shinning my boots.

“Yeah!” I called back.

“You ever eat a woman?”

Eat a woman? I really didn’t know what that meant. Besides, I got flustered around girls. All the older men in the barracks were listening.

“Sure,” I called back.

“Oh, yeah,” he called. “Well, tell me. How did it taste?”

“Salty,” I called.

Several of the older guys laughed appreciatively. Murphy did not harass me for the rest of the day.

The End

********************

Writing Sexy Flash Fiction

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