Gaffney, David. Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction. The Guardian, 14 May 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/14/how-to-write-flash-fiction.
In Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction, David Gaffney, a well-credited author of flash fiction, recognizes the value of flash fiction, identifies the difficulty of writing such stories, and provides tips to improve one’s work. At one point in the article, Gaffney supports his reasoning by paraphrasing a quote from Elmore Leonard, one of Gaffney’s colleagues who’s an expert in flash fiction; additionally, Gaffney uses his personal experience with writing flash fiction to support his arguments. Hence the title of the article, the intended audience is aspiring writers who similarly value the simplicity of flash fiction and seek to improve their craft. In addition to honoring the importance of flash fiction, the purpose of the article is to provide helpful strategies that have worked for Gaffney in his pursuit of flash fiction; his goal isn’t to tell his audience there’s only one way to write flash fiction.
Before reading this article, I was struck between writing a short story and flash fiction (also referred to as a short-short story). Fortunately, now that I have read the article, I feel better informed to make my decision. In the text, Gaffney mentions he aims for exactly 150 words when he writes flash fiction; however, he adds there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. In my opinion, 150 words is too short, so I’ll aim for a story slightly longer than that, say roughly 1,000 words (still staying in the realm of flash fiction). Some of the tips he mentioned that I may implement include:
- Start in the middle (don’t have time to write conventionally with a drawn out introduction)
- Don’t include too many characters
- Provide most of the important information in the first few lines
- Pick the title carefully (it should add meaning to the story)
- Make the ending complex (leave the reader confused with something to think about)
- Start long then chip away
Great source!