Flash fiction is certainly one of the most economical forms of literature there is presently. A huge amount of literary work online is composed of flash fiction. Writing an event in less than five hundred words is pretty much brief and concise. Not even a gossip can last for less than five hundred words. However, the economy, directness and swift action in flash fiction makes it one of the widely read literary types around.
There had been early writers who used flash fiction, particularly for modernists like Charles Baudelaire. Early in its stages, flash fiction has been made to depict a scene, wherein that very scene implies a story instead of narrating it. One of Baudelaire’s works was about a sailor by the docks during sunset. With the economy of the words in the story, one can surmise a story with the scene. Why was the sailor looking at the sun? Why was he walking alone? Etc.
The aim of flash fiction is to economize the reading experience in fewer words by implying the story instead of narrating it. The narration of tales in modern short stories and novels are lengthy because of the number of artistic elements in it. In a normal short story, one can write and manipulate the imagery, the dialogue, the characterization, etc., whereas, in flash fiction, the character has very limited space. There is no space for the character to introduce that, for instance, he is an IRS agent that works forcibly for his wife and three kids. Instead, it would tell you everything by a client shouting tax rants at him while in a plain Armani-style suit.
To write successful flash fiction, one needs to be watchful in every detail in the story. Remember to always shorten an incident as concise as possible. For instance, in a normal short story you can create lines for a dialogue involving two couples on the verge of divorce. Instead, a sigh from the wife is all it takes to imply the problem of their relationship. The ideal length is more or less five hundred words in total.
This last tip is not very specific for writers of this literary type, but to all aspiring fictionists in general. When you write any type of fiction, ensure that your language is beyond the reach of most readers. Don’t make it very scholastic that you’d bet on it for a textbook slot. Another sense in writing flash fiction is for most readers to understand and feel the literary experience in as little words as possible. Also, the materials for any story are just around the corner. Give a twist to whatever’s happening around you with a dash of imagination. Say, make the average coffee bartender into a night time crook planning to steal the most prized gem in the jewellery store. Truly, there is no other place to be creative and free, but in the mind.
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