This inactive forum was for a generally well-received flash fiction contest that challenged participants to create a story from one of several provided-prompts. I've only recently begun to explore flash fiction. Being a sci-fi/fantasy novelist, I've always been a bit snobby about shorter works of fiction, looking down my nose at it. I deemed it to be a lesser form of fiction, unimportant and unimaginative, uninspired flashes in the pan that didn't deserve attention because it lacked depth. But, boy was I judgemental and misinformed. I had it completely wrong!

It's the exact opposite! With a novel averaging 75-150k words, I have all the time in the world to flesh out every shimmering detail and subplot of a subplot that my heart desires. Because there's room and I don't have to worry about it. But with flash fiction? There's a true art there in restraint, word choice, and having poignant prose. With 300 words, a writer has to accomplish a ton! And that's the challenge. It forces writers to make creative decisions because literally every word counts and must be doing something useful otherwise it's dragging down all of the other 299 words around it.

The last post within this forum pertaining to an actual contest was made in 2009, 15 years ago. That's quite a while. I'm curious if you're interested to revive or revisiting this contest? If not, I'm curious why it's been made available to view?

If you're wanting to bring it back—which I think would be fantastic and you absolutely should!—I've come up with a list of a few different directions you could possibly go to make your flash fiction contest stand out a bit from the others and make your niche among the flash fiction contests:

Theme Roulette: Participants spin a virtual wheel (in this case the virtual dice) to determine the theme of their flash fiction piece. Themes could range from "time travel" to "underwater civilizations" to "lost in space." This adds an element of surprise and challenge to the contest.

Collaborative Flash Fiction: Writers are paired up and must collaborate to create a cohesive flash fiction piece. This encourages teamwork and creativity, as writers must blend their styles and ideas.

Visual Prompts: Instead of traditional writing prompts, participants are given a series of images or artwork to choose from as inspiration for their flash fiction. This can lead to more visually striking and imaginative stories.

Speed Writing Rounds: Contestants are given a limited amount of time (i.e. 48 hours, etc.) to write their flash fiction piece. After that 48 hours is up, their challenged with creating another piece of flash fiction in the same universe, same characters, different scenario. At the end of let's say 5 rounds, the best collection of cohesive "flashes" wins. This adds a sense of urgency and excitement to the contest.

Genre Mashup: Participants are asked to combine two or more genres (e.g., sci-fi and romance, fantasy and mystery) in their flash fiction piece. This can lead to unique and unexpected storytelling.

Interactive Judging: Instead of traditional judging, readers and participants are invited to vote on the winning stories. This can create a more engaging and community-driven contest.

Wildcard Element: Each participant is given a "wildcard" element (e.g., a specific object, a line of dialogue) that they must incorporate into their story. This adds a fun challenge and can lead to creative storytelling.

Flash Fiction Duels: Participants are randomly paired up and must write a flash fiction piece inspired by a single prompt. The community then votes on which story they think is the best, leading to a series of "duels" until a winner is determined. You could even have a bracket judging system where "flashes" are pitted against one another and advance to the next bracket until they've won.

Best wishes on all your endeavors—past, present, future, revisited

Write on!