This month has been all about Flash Fiction. It’s a fabulous way to:

• Tighten up your writing in longer projects
• Practice writing quick stories, for StoryADay May
• Rediscover the joy of finishing stories

Here’s everything you might have missed at the blog this month:

Flash Fiction Prompts

(I should probably stop calling the writing prompts that, because really they are mini-classes. But I keep calling them writing prompts anyway…)

This month the focus was on flash fiction and I’ve done three mini-class/prompts already.

Make It Flash encouraged you to write a flash fiction story with a literal flash in it and gave you some advice on how to do that. Bonus points to Jacqueline, Mark who shared their flash stories, and to Tracy who left a comment, telling us about what working on flash did for her novel-writing.

Specific To Universal highlighted some ways to make a story more than a self-absorbed tale of Something That Happened, and instead, resonate with the reader.

Terrific Titles talked about the importance of titles in short fiction (especially in the shortest forms) and gave you some tips for making your titles become the sizzle that sells your story.

Crafting Great Openings & Endings for Flash gave you tips on how to make your stories start strong and end with a punch. People’s perception of events is often shaped in the last few moments, and stories are no different. It doesn’t really matter how well a story is written if it leaves the reader flat at the end. Let’s learn how to avoid that!

Flash Fiction Podcasts

You can listen to two podcasts this month, all about flash fiction.

Episode 95 – What Is Flash Fiction and Why You Should Be Writing It in which I get excited about flash fiction and tell you how to start.

Episode 96 – How To Make It Flash, publishing Saturday, Feb 24, in which I get into the details of how to write really good, satisfying tiny tales.

You can subscribe to the podcast here,
or search for “StoryADay” in any podcast app.

Further Reading on Flash Fiction

Here’s some recommended reading from around the web:

How To Write Flash Fiction – an excellent, three-part, illustrated guide, with no-fluff, from Wikihow.

Expert Tips For Writing The Best Flash Fiction – a round up of most of the advice you can find on the web, about flash. A good summary article by the improbably-named Jack Smith (jk),  The Writer

Naming The Baby – How to pick a good title for your story, by Bruce Holland Rogers, Flash Fiction Online

Choosing The Right Name for Your Story – Another take on how to pick a title, by John Floyd, Writing-World.com

Wild Card: Doubting Yourself? How To Change The Cycle of Self-Criticism – this article doesn’t relate to the craft of writing or to flash fiction, but it does take on one of the biggest creativity killers out there: self-doubt. It’s a good read, from Christine Song, Ink + Volt

Serious Writers’ Accountability Group

Did you make a SWAGr commitment to your writing this month? Do you remember what you said you would do? Check out the Serious Writers’ Accountability Group here.

Swing by the blog on March 1 to make your commitments for the coming month.

Reading Room Reviews

Every month I try to make sure I’m reading plenty of short fiction, to inspire me. After I do, I make notes on the stories, from a writer’s perspective. You can read along here.

This month I’ve reviewed:

• Meteor, flash fiction by Josh McCollough;
• The Worshipful Society of Glovers by Mary Robinette Kowal;
• The Breathtaking Power of Dracula, flash fiction by Rolli.

Have you read a short story you’d like to share? Guest post here!

Call For Submissions

Don’t forget to submit your stories to the new 999WordsOrLess podcast, which is hungry for material. Check out the submission guidelines in the last newsletter.

Keep writing,

Julie Duffy
Founder & Director, StoryADay.org

P. S. StoryADay May begins in just over two months. Start gathering your Story Sparks now, or making plans to be a cheerleader, if you don’t think you’ll be writing this year!