Can Writing Flash Fiction Get You Anywhere?

“Can writing flash fiction get you anywhere?”

Let me tell you a story.  When the Old Soldier was a very young writer, he wanted to be rich and famous.  It didn’t happen.  But he kept writing.

When he was middle-age, he discovered flash fiction.  Flash fiction got him to go back to school to get a BA in writing.  Then flash fiction won him a fellowship that paid for his MFA in fiction writing.  Flash fiction got him published in a local weekly, print newspaper that paid him $30 for each flash fiction story it published and it published him for over two years.

By the time the paper folded, the Old Soldier had discovered blogging and now he is the editor/publisher of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette which is averaging over 360 hits every day and the readership of the PFFG continues to grow.

The Old Soldier is still not rich and famous.  He will never be rich and famous. 

But I think writing flash fiction has taken me a long way and the journey is not over yet.

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Hello, everyone from all over the world!

P writing blue

P writing blue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is my third post for the day and it’s not even 4:00 pm.  The sun is trying to break through on this chilly day in the City of Champions.  The Old Soldier got himself a six-pack of Old Milwaukee beer and he is going to take up his favorite position, on the sofa with two fat pillows under his weary head, and he is going to drink beer and read his book about the Negro Baseball Leagues.  Retirement is good.

Keep reading and keep writing that flash fiction.

*****

Read.  Study.  Write.  Submit.

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Writing: Tap Into Your River Of Experience And Knowledge

The May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening ...

Image via Wikipedia

How old are you?  Whether you’re young, middle-age or a senior citizen like the Old Soldier, everything you’ve ever experienced, everything you know can be put into writing the flash fiction short story.

Writing flash fiction is really less about ideas and more about form.  If you can take moments where something happened to you that had an impact on you, no matter how small that something was, you have a flash fiction story ready to be given form and brought forth into the world.

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Hello, my brother and sister bloggers, readers and writers.  The Old Soldier is still tinkering with the PFF Gazette, trying to get it just right to give you an enjoyable reading experience.

Keep reading and keep writing and read the submissions guidelines at the top of the page and send me something.

Blogging: Make A Joyful Noise

If it was not for the Internet, no one would know about the Old Soldier.  The PFF Gazette gets well over 20,000 hits a month.

Hello, all my brother and sister bloggers, writers and Flash Fiction Fanatics.  A special shout out to the University of Pittsburgh.

Yes, the Old Soldier tried print media for a while but that was a bust.  It’s like being in a rock and roll band or making a movie, two things the Old Soldier actually did: in order to succeed you have to depend on other people.

Blogging is very much a one-person gig.  And although the Old Soldier is not making money at this gig, thousands of people know about the PFF Gazette.

This is the beauty of blogging.  And with over 20,000 hits a month, the Old Soldier may eventually make a little money, too.

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Sex And The Middle Age Woman: The Writing Of “Taboo Love”

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This site is about blogging, writing, news, sex, male-female relationships and the pain and joy of life.

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