How to Write Flash Fiction For Fun & Profit

Flash Fiction is the label literary folks have put on fiction that’s super-duper short. Ask 100 editors what the word count is, and you’ll get 100 different answers…200 if you come back a year later and ask again. Generally, we can assume anything under 5,000 words might count and anything under 500 words definitely counts. My flash fiction newsletter, Flash in a Flash, cuts it off at 1,000 words. 

Jennifer invited me to come on today and talk a bit about why flash fiction is fun, why authors might want to try some out, and a few places that might pay for yours. 

Sound fun? Good. Let’s get started. 

Why Flash Fiction is Fun

Readers enjoy flash fiction for different reasons, but a few things keep popping up when we ask. 

● It’s quick to consume, something people can dip into on a work break or riding  public transportation. On days when time isn’t there to read a chapter in a novel, we can still get our reading fix in.

● It’s punchy. The form forces authors to get to the point quickly, and deliver the feels. Flash fiction often hits harder than longer works because of this. 

● Instant gratification isn’t just for video games. Dopamine is real, and flash fiction delivers. 

● It offers a lot of different reading experiences in a short time, for readers who like variety.

● It’s mobile-friendly as compared to longer phones: just the thing to bring up on your phone while you’re out in the world.

There are as many other reasons as there are readers, but those are the top five. They explain why flash has been enjoying a bit of an ascendance over the past five years or so.

Why Authors Should Try Flash Fiction

The most important fun aspect of flash fiction (for me, at least) is that you get to be creative. You’re not bound by genre for most markets. You’re not bound by a commitment to a long piece. You can play with style, structure, voice, and weird concepts that came to you in the shower that one time. 

Almost every author I’ve ever met has a notebook of ideas they’ve never gotten around to working on. Given the “I should write that” pile most of us have, we never will. Flash fiction is an outlet for those ideas, a set of literary monkey bars too few of us take the opportunity to swing on. 

It can also give you immediate feedback. Flash fiction sites tend to have a rapid publishing schedule, and the stories take only a short time to read. You’ll hear what people think of your work early and often, which is a welcome change for many of us. 

Flash fiction is an opportunity to get loose, get weird, and get feedback. More of us should take that chance. 

How to Win Fans and Thrill Audiences

It’s possible I’ve suggested that writing flash fiction is easy. It’s not. It can be fun, and it doesn’t take a long time, but telling a complete and compelling story in just a few hundred words is a challenge. A few tips to start out:

● Start in the middle (or the end) of the action. Let the readers imagine and intuit what comes before. 

● End as soon as the crux of the story is over. Never provide an epilogue, or explain the consequences.

● Focus on a single event, moment, or emotion. These stories aren’t the place for sweeping exploration.

● Make every word count by trimming all the fat and using the most powerful vocabulary you can manage.

● Don’t just make tension the core of the story, make it the whole story.

● Make the ending surprising or resonant.

● Edit with absolute ruthlessness. Cut your prose to the bone. 

An overarching method is to leave much more to the reader’s imagination. Rather than spell out all but the most essential details, imply the depth, breadth, past, and future. This freedom for the reader is one of the reasons flash fiction is so effective and popular. 

A Few of My Favorite Markets

If you’re not convinced you want to try writing some flash fiction, that’s okay. You do you. I’m not mad…just very disappointed. If you would like to give it a shot, here are some places that buy great flash from great authors. 

● Vestal Review does two tiers of flash: those up to 500 words, for which they pay $50, and those in the 500 to 1,000 word range for which they pay $25. I guess they really buy into that Twain quote about writing a long letter because he didn’t have time to write a short one. They prefer stories with a twist.

● Flash Fiction Online accepts stories in the 500 to 1000 word range, and pays $80 for them. They accept all genres, though your chances are better with literary or speculative fiction and pretty slim for graphic horror and erotica. They are a higher-paying market, so expect tighter competition than with other options. 

● The Molotov Cocktail goes darker and edgier than most but is a good home for stuff you might not want to show your mom. Word count limit is 1,000. They pay $10 to $20 per story, and have themed contests with higher payouts to the winners.

● Flash in a Flash. I mentioned this one earlier, because it’s my own project. We publish two stories a week and an annual anthology. Word count limit is 1,000. At present we pay $5 for the newsletter, and another $5 if your story gets picked for the anthology, and plan to increase that as we grow enough to get some ad revenue.  

● Brevity. The market is smaller, but some sites like Brevity pay for nonfiction flash. If you’d like to give that a try, they pay a “modest honorarium” for slash nonfiction of 750 words or less.

One Last Little Thing…

I’m going to put my marketing hat on here for a second and talk about one final advantage of writing flash fiction from time to time. It’s an opportunity to A/B test some of your ideas. 

Generally, we shouldn’t “write to market” and instead follow our passions. But if you have a couple of ideas for your next book, and you’re genuinely equally (or almost equally) into both of them…write a few pieces of flash fiction related to both and put them out into the world. Whichever one generates the strongest response is the book you write next. 

BIO

In the 22 years of his professional writing career, Jason Brick has been involved in over 100 books and written more than 6,000 articles for online and print publications. He is the skipper of Flash in a Flash, a newsletter delivering flash fiction to subscribers twice every week. He lives in Oregon where he practices martial arts, plays tabletop role-playing games, and spoils his wife and sons. 

Thoughts, readers?

Image credits: Freedigitalphotos.net