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A new contender on the saleable fiction scene is flash fiction. This generally means no more than 1000 words, but there are also sub categories, such as microfiction (no more than 500 words) and `drabbles', which must be told in 100 words exactly, no more, no less.

These forms are challenging for the fiction writer, but they can be fun too. The Internet is largely responsible for the rise of ultra short fiction, since few people have the patience (or the eyesight!) to read long fiction online. Consequently the markets for these forms of fiction have grown, and are hungry for content.

Brevity is the very soul of flash fiction. There is no room for long lingering descriptions. The story is the essence, and it is expected that you will leave your audience gasping with a killer ending - preferably one they didn't see coming. In this way, flash fiction has much in common with a good joke - except that the tale can be a horror story, a romance or any genre you like, as well as humor.

Can any story be written as flash fiction? No - some stories need room and space to tell in a more luxurious manner. But if you have a story that is needlessly padded with description and dialog to make it the `correct' length for mainstream submission, maybe you have a flash fiction story in there trying to break out.

Flash fiction is a snapshot, literally a flash illuminating a moment, or moments, in time. Two people are sitting across from each other in a coffee shop. At first glance we may think they are lovers having a quarrel, a couple going through a painful break up. Then the flash goes off and in a few succinct words we are given the real picture. One of them has travelled to the spot from another dimension - they are brother and sister reunited after being separated at birth - they are really aliens from Planet X plotting to take over the world.

The element of surprise is not the hardest thing to come up with when writing flash fiction. The hardest thing is setting a scene and creating believable characters in 1000 words or less. You don't have time to describe the coffee shop, the waitress or the street outside. Your characters must be sketched in with deft quick strokes. No one, and nothing, that does not relate strictly to your plot is allowed to get in the way.

Dialog is often the most effective way to introduce your characters. Have one of them complain about the quality of the latte ("They never serve decent coffee here") and you immediately establish the setting, and the character of at least one protagonist. Have the other character make allowances for an overworked counter hand, and the other character is established.

With flash fiction it is important to know about your characters than you will ever write - you should be able to see them very clearly in your mind so you can shape the dialog and the few words you will use to describe them in a way that expresses far more than the words themselves.

Remember - there are no sub plots in flash fiction. If one starts to appear, yank it out and use it for another flash story. Flash fiction aims right at the target, which is your ending, the twist or exposition in the last paragraph that gives your story its special flavor.

Learn more about this author, Gail Kavanagh.
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