Flash Fiction: Important Writing Exercise or Waste of Time?

The opinions contained in this article are solely those of the author and not Fictionista Workshop.

Like a lot of writers, I have a file full of plot bunnies. Some of them are fleshed out. Others are just an image. Some words. An idea. What do you do with them? Yeah, you can wait until you finish your next manuscript, but that might be a while. Some concepts you want to explore a little sooner, and that’s where flash fiction comes in handy.

So what is flash fiction? Generally speaking, it’s a very short story, and sometimes it’s called microfiction. Think of it as less rigid haiku (in a way). Some lit journals consider it anything under a thousand words. Some define it as five hundred words or less. There are flash contests and calls for submission that are as few as fifty words. Whatever the case, it’s becoming an increasingly acceptable form of writing. Many journals focus on flash fiction, and even more feature it alongside short stories. Over the last several years I’ve had just over a half dozen of my short stories picked up by lit mags, and most have been flash fiction.

You’ve heard the saying “Brevity is the soul of wit,” yes? Flash fiction relies on that standard. Just like a longer short story, it has a beginning, middle, and end. It tells a complete story. Of course, because that story is abbreviated, the writer is forced to get to the point, to make some stylistic choices that suit the form. I guess the question you might ask yourself is why bother writing flash fiction?

Like I said, flash fiction is great for getting an idea out of your head without spending the time it takes to complete a full-length short story, a novella, or a novel. Sometimes it’s just that the idea itself won’t sustain the length of anything longer. Many writers, myself included, enjoy flash fiction because it’s an excellent exercise and keeps your writing muscles limber. There’s something really useful about paring down your work until only the essentials remain—it helps you become a better writer, to include only what you must while still turning out a great, thought-provoking story. Several flash fiction pieces I’ve written have turned out to be the start of a novel. When I was writing THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS, my just-released psychological thriller, I used various flash fiction challenges to try new things for scenes within the novel. That’s the beauty of flash fiction: it allows you to try something without feeling bad if it doesn’t work.

One of my very favorite lit mags that regularly features flash fiction is PANK. There are hundreds of other, but PANK tends to pick really beautiful, thought-provoking pieces that really serve as a primer for how to do flash fiction right. If you’re not ready for PANK, but you’d like to try out some flash fiction, consider giving a weekly challenge a go. 5 Minute Fiction is my favorite, but I’m biased—until recently I moderated the challenge. For this challenge, you show up at the site on Tuesday night and get a prompt; you then have fifteen minutes to write, edit, and submit your piece (ostensibly, five minutes to write). If timed challenges aren’t your thing, there are others that give you more time. There’s a pretty good list of challenges available here. Give it a try—it might just become your favorite short story form.

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Nicole Wolverton is a freelance writer and editor from the Philadelphia area. Her short fiction has appeared in The Molotov Cocktail, Black Heart Magazine, and Penduline, among others. Her debut novel, THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS, was released in March 2013 (Bitingduck Press). Publishers Weekly calls the book a “skillful mainstream examination of a psychotic woman’s final descent into insanity.” For more information, visit her website at www.nicolewolverton.com or follow her on Twitter.

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Renew Yourself

People often ask me how I have time to write with everything I do in my life. The truth is, I need to write. Writing gives me the energy to do all the things I must do. It renews me.

Like so many of you, I’m a full time employee, a wife, a mother, a homemaker, and every so once in a while I even like to hang with friends. I have responsibilities at my kids’ schools, at church, and at work. It feels like everyone and everything around me constantly needs me and my time. In the process, I feel like I lose chunks of myself, like I give little pieces away until there’s nothing left.

Before I sat down to work on my writing this morning, I started the coffee, the laundry, and the dishwasher. I cleaned the clutter, fed the dogs, and clipped coupons for the groceries my family needs. All of these things had to be done, and none were for me.

Well, yes, the coffee was for me, but, really, I can’t do anything without the coffee.

Even as I type this, my wonderful old cat is trying to shove the laptop out of my lap so he can cuddle with me and my house is screaming for attention as it languishes under a ferocious dust bunny attack.

Sound familiar?

Everything seems to need my attention, and I’m willing to bet your life is the same way.

And yet I still sit here working on a manuscript and writing a blog post. Why?

Because it’s one of the few ways I get a little of myself back.

When I’m writing, I’m completely immersed in a world I love—a world I’ve created filled with characters I enjoy.  I’m in control of the world and how I write it.

And if I don’t love the world and enjoy the characters? I can destroy and kill at will, and no one is the wiser. (Okay, yes that sounded a little scary, but you get the gist of it.)

Writing isn’t the only way I relax and renew myself. I love to paint and run as well. Writing is simply cleaner than painting and far less painful than running. Besides, if I’ve done it correctly, I can share writing with many others—like now.

This is why I’m also a member of the Fictionista community of writers. I can and do use the WitFit prompts to help my daily writing. I participate in the Workshops and Collectives to help others, and in the process, make myself a better writer.

I invite you to become a part of us. Sign up for WitFit. When we run a Workshop or a Collective, submit an application to be a participant, and perhaps a writer.  We’d love to have you join us.

In the meantime, write. Renew yourself in your words in whatever form you sculpt them.  Find a community to share your creation with and get involved. And, most of all, renew yourself. You need it.

Write with Us!

Sometimes, writing sucks.

Seriously sucks.

Writing is a lonely, hard, and often boring occupation. Sometimes it seems the only exciting things that happen are all in our heads. We have no one to play with, no one to talk to, no one to bounce our ideas around with, and no one to share our stories with.

Well no more!

Fictionista Workshop is here to save you from yourself and those persistent voices in your head.

This spring we’re running a twelve week Writer’s Collective where you can get together with fellow authors and talk, bounce, share, and vent.

The Collective is made up of several small groups of authors from similar genres. Each week, the authors get together with a moderator to discuss writing, critique each other’s work, and have fun talking about the ups and downs of the craft.

Best of all, it costs nothing more than your time.

If you have a manuscript that is over 50% complete and can give two or three hours a week to reading and critiquing the works of fellow writers, we want to hear from you.

Yes, you!

Do you have a manuscript that needs polishing? Do you need that final nudge to complete that book? Do you like the word “free?”

If you said yes to any of these, please click on the link below and send in your application today.

Submissions close on February 19^th, so don’t delay.

The Writing Collective

Fictionista Workshop Writing Collectives

Thank you for your interest in Fictionista Workshop’s Writing Collective. The admissions are now open to apply to the collective. You can find the application here: http://www.fictionistaworkshop.com/collective-application-form/

The Collective groups are designed to provide authors with feedback from a support group of their peers, something many authors do not have. At Fictionista, we believe this can best be done in small groups of three or four authors selected according to writing experience and/or genre.

Our hope is that everyone involved will gain valuable knowledge, edits and feedback on their writing. We will assign a moderator to each group to help facilitate discussion, provide resources, and offer feedback. A critique participant may be added to some groups to give additional feedback.

Every week the authors will participate in a Skype call to discuss each other’s work. The moderator will help facilitate discussion and offer valuable resources to each writer according to their individual needs. Our hope is that by keeping the groups small, everyone involved will receive detailed and valuable edits and feedback on their writing in a relaxed setting.

How it works:

·         Each author will need to submit their application here: http://www.fictionistaworkshop.com/collective-application-form/ and attach the first 5000 words of their manuscript at the bottom of the application in .doc format. Manuscripts must be at least half way completed. Please note that not all submissions will be accepted.

·         Authors will be grouped by experience and genre, and an additional critique participant may be added to provide extra feedback.

·         After the writing groups are chosen, a moderator will be assigned to each group. The moderator will then schedule a weekly Skype meeting for a total of 12 weeks.

·         Each author is responsible for posting a weekly selection (there is usually a minimum word count for each week) in a group Dropbox file. The authors will then read, edit, analyze and critique each other’s work and provide helpful feedback to everyone in their group.

·         At the scheduled Skype meeting, each author will discuss what they have written and will offer helpful comments on what they read from fellow group members. The group’s moderator will guide all discussion and critique.

*We regret that not all applications can be accepted due to staffing and other administrative considerations.