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Very good flash fiction stories have been written in a burst of creative inspiration. Bam! First draft. Bam! Bam! A quick proofreading and off to the editor.
But if you are a writer and you want to understand how the flash fiction story works, take a week to write one. Not a little 200-worder, but a big, fat 900-worder.
First you need a good flash fiction idea. Maybe even do an outline. Then a first draft. This can take a couple of days. I don’t mean work on it all day long. I mean an hour there and an hour here. You know. Live your life. Just work on the story when you can. Then go over every word of the first draft until you get a second draft. Let that second draft rest for a day or so.
Then take a day to make sure that your grammar, punctuation and spelling are correct and that the story flows and you do not have too many characters or you are not telling a story that takes place over one month when it should really take place over one hour.
Then just let the story rest for a couple of days.
Then go back and read it again. If you are happy, send it off. Actually, you can send it to me. The submissions guidelines are at the top of the page.
That’s how you learn to write flash fiction. That’s how I learned to write flash fiction. And the great thing about this method is that after you have done it a few times, you can go back to writing flash fiction in creative bursts, because now you know what you’re doing.
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Recording Your Brilliant Thoughts
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The Old Soldier is old school. I actually carry a note pad with me when I leave the apartment. But an electronic device will do nicely. A writer never knows when a good idea will pop into his or her head. And all too often, if the idea is not recorded it fades away forever.
There is also another benefit that comes with carrying around a note pad of some kind: writing is never far from your thoughts. This in itself will help to facilitate the flow of writing ideas. Even if you are at work. Whenever you get a free moment, you can record your idea and get right back to work.
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