Everyday Canvas

Flash Fiction

Prompt: Flash Fiction
Other than being short, what do you think is at the heart of flash fiction, and how would you go about writing a flash fiction story with a surprise ending?

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Flash Fiction or Fan Fiction? First, let's look at these two definitions. Since most writers are confused about the terms of flash fiction and fan fiction, let's see which is which.

Fan fiction is fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc. Fan fiction doesn't have the length rule.

Flash fiction, on the other hand is a highly compacted short-story. It is usually very short in length, from a few words to a thousand or so.

It is unfortunate that even some publications today mix these two styles of writing. The differences between the two do not only involve context but also the length of a story.

Since the prompt is about flash fiction, I'd say, flash fiction is like a painting. It has to hit our senses at first sight or in a very short time. Where in a painting, line, texture, color, density, placement, and message are important, in flash fiction, too, language, imagery, and surprise are the most important.

As to the language of the flash fiction, the sentences need to be excellent giving an internal rhythm to the story. Among other things that are necessary is the imagery, which doesn't mean that the writer has to describe a scene at length but give the idea of it, possibly in one or two words. The next important element is the surprise, more or less, that may come at the last couple of sentences. On the other hand, not all flash fiction has a surprise at the end, some end with a deep emotion or a moral.

Then, an internal rhythm is also necessary, which can be partly handled by the skillful use of the language. To top it off, a brilliant title and ending do enhance the effect of flash fiction. Elements such as tone and point-of-view, sometimes can and do fill in for the plot, although I personally like a good plot in any kind of fiction.

Here in Writing.com, we have two long-time surviving contests on what can be called flash fiction. Here are their links:

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge  [13+] #896794 Enter your story of 300 words or less. by Arakun the Twisted Raccoon

The Writer's Cramp  [13+] #333655 Write the best story or poem in 24 hours or less and win 10K GPs! by Sophy

Since I'm mostly long-winded, I have entered both of these wonderful contests at one time or another in the past and learned a lot about fiction writing from them. This is because compressed space does put more emphasis on the language choices we make. Still, as exercises, they are both priceless, although "The Writer's Cramp"  offers more word-count allowance and "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge"  is more compact.

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