Flash Fiction – Harder than it Looks

I finally completed my first attempt at flash fiction and submitted it to Flash Fiction Online.  What an experience!

Initially the story, currently titled Uncommon Magic, was somewhere around 1065 words, which would have been acceptable as long as I would be willing to cut it down to 1000 or less if it was actually accepted.  However, in the true spirit of flash fiction I wanted to trim it down for a couple of reasons.

One is that I’ve read so many books, blogs, etc. which all agreed writing short fiction is extremely difficult because every word has to count.  Since this was the first story I’ve written in years, and since it was purely for myself, for a sense of fulfillment, I decided to give it everything I had.

And secondly, why would anyone submit something that wasn’t finished to the point that it could realistically stay in its current form if the long-shot, one-in-a-million chance, happened and it was picked to be published?  I’m now at the point that I can’t imagine having to change anything else in it.

I now fully understand what I’ve read – that it truly is all about revision.  It several hours total revising a three and a half page story.  I can’t imagine the struggle involved in revising a 300 page novel.  I found I was able to mold Uncommon Magic so that the main character had more personality and I could see the scene around him when I closed my eyes.

If it’s rejected, which I’ll be sure to pass along, I’ll try submitting it to a few other markets just to test the waters and if nothing else, I’ll be posting it here.

Uncommon Magic

Total Words = 997         Total Time Invested = 8+ hours

Related articles

• Flash Fiction Resources Needed (madhattermiscellany.wordpress.com)
• Flash Fiction: Three Brothers – An Unfortunate Tale (fantasyinmotion.wordpress.com)
• Flash Fiction: The Last Straw (thezombiechimp.com)