Woman As Art
A writer can write nearly an infinite number of flash fiction short stories if he or she has a clear understanding of just how the form works.
The form incorporates the classic short story form: a beginning, a middle and an end. I like to use the terms: the setup, the buildup and the resolution.
Because the form is so short you want to keep the setup as short as possible. The longer the setup is the more a writer has a tendency to explain what is going to happen instead of showing what does happen. You want to get the characters interacting as soon as possible. Dialogue is a great device for doing just that.
Five Stories (short story collection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Keep in mind that the flash fiction story is about a significant event in the life of at least one of the characters, usually the protagonist.
Finally, we come to the resolution. There are three basic kinds of resolution: epiphany, change of direction and the summation.
An epiphany is a realization. A change in direction is just that. The entire story is going in one direction until the resolution sends it in a different direction. And a summation clarifies what the story is really about.
Keep reading and keep writing that flash fiction.
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