Woman As Art
Of course, I’m talking about a good idea for a flash fiction story. After all, this magazine is the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.
Hello, everyone!
As of this morning, the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is averaging 1,035 views every day for December 2012. This means that there is a good chance that this publication will get more than 30,000 views this month for the first time in its four-year history of publication.
You can’t beat that with a stick! But I digress.
In my humble opinion, the element of time is the deciding factor in whether or not an idea will make for a good flash fiction short story.
You have to ask yourself, will this idea allow me to present a significant situation where the majority of the action takes place within a time frame of a few minutes or at most within a time frame of a few hours?
If the answer is yes, you should pursue the idea and see where it takes you.
If the answer is no, you may want to come up with another idea.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania skyline photograph, taken from the West End Overlook. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Remember, none of my suggestions on how to write flash fiction are meant to be hard, fast rules; but they work for me and I think they will work for you, too.
This is the Old Soldier reporting from Pittsburgh.
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Be sure to check the front page for the latest updates.
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The Less Time Your Flash Fiction Covers The Better
Image via Wikipedia
One of the easiest mistakes for a flash fiction writer to make is to try to cover too much time. The less time a flash fiction story covers the more impact it will have; and the more time a flash fiction story covers the more diluted its impact will be.
How much time should a flash fiction story cover? Minutes are great. Hours are good. Days are okay. Months are not so good and years? Forget about it.
These parameters are not etched in stone, but they are good guidelines.
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If you are a writer, why don’t you send me something? The Anything Goes tab at the top of the page is for non-fiction. The Submissions tab is for flash fiction.
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