As you know, we run free flash fiction competitions. Flash fiction, as I am sure you all know, is very short writing: some stories can be as short as six words, even less.
I know that flash fiction is not for everyone but I believe it does have applications if you are writing short stories because of the way it concentrates the mind.
It might be that you are tempted to spend two or three paragraphs describing a place or a person. That could well be fine but how much better in a short story if you can do it in a single line? Why so much better? Because it leaves you those other paragraphs to take your story on.
I am one of those writers with split opinions about flash fiction. I like the idea of novels - after all, I do write them - in which writers have the time and space to develop their themes, where you can devote half a page to describing something if the story requires it, but I can also see the advantage of an economical way of writing as promoted by the supporters of flash fiction.
Even though my novels run to 65-000-70,000 words, I have increasingly embraced the idea of economy, taking out words, lines, paragraphs, sections, extraneous material, all in the interest of creating a sense of pace and focus.
You can enter our latest free flash fiction competition at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inscribemedia/183385438479538
John Dean
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