I’ll look up the up-to-date instructions for using it and update my Friday Flash page as well.

Sorry I don’t know any more.

Over the last year of doing a weekly piece of flash fiction, I’ve come up with the following list of guidelines that I follow. By no means am I saying these are the rules for flash fiction, these just happen to be mine. Many of these are

Yank the Reader In
You only have a very limited number of words and you don’t have time to coax your reader into your world slowly and carefully. Instead you need to write words that reach out from the screen and yank the reader in. This can be strong action, emotion or even description but it MUST be compelling.

Keep it Simple
If you have a complex story idea, only use part of it for a flash fiction. There isn’t enough room to get really complex so focus on one aspect, one person or one relationship.

Be Strict on Word Count
If you set a word count limit, stick to it. It can be a challenge but it will actually teach you a lot about how to condense or tighten things so you can squeak in just one more paragraph or one more description.

Don’t Stop with a Whimper
Either write a true flash fiction (complete the story in the allotted word count) or leave the reader with a hook. Whatever you do, don’t just peter out and trail off.

Be Willing to Experiment
Friday Flashes are a great place to experiment with ideas, concepts and characters. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. You can hone great new skills by playing with them in these small flash projects.

Pay Attention to Feedback
Watch the reactions your various pieces of flash fiction get from readers. This is a great way to discover what resonates with your audience and you can use that information to help hone your other work.

What is “Flash Fiction”?
“Flash Fiction” is a term that is thought to have originated with a 1992 anthology of the same name by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka. The definition given by the editors of that anthology were that the story had to be limited to two facing pages of a digest-sized magazine – so about 750 words.

There is, however, no universally accepted length for a flash fiction but most top out at 2,000 words. The common length stated seems to be 250-1,000 words.

Flash fiction is, however, supposed to be more of a complete story in the allotted length. It should have a beginning, a middle and an end.

Of course, this is not what I do :)

What I Do
When I came up with the idea of turning a bunch of the random concepts and characters that appeared in my brain into little flash fiction tidbits, I read a bit about flash fiction but decided to do my own version. I like setting the rules, you know :)

I knew I was constantly afraid of losing some of these great ideas I’d had and I also wanted to give readers a taste of what I could write. As a reader, I always liked seeing these from authors I read and had often bought books based on a short I’d read for free. I’m a pretty new author, so it might even help people come to my blog and learn about me.

First I decided that I wouldn’t focus on any particular genre – the story could be whatever the story decided to be. I also wouldn’t let myself spend more than two hours on it (I usually spent far less).

The biggest decision was that I would not force myself to make it a complete story. A partial, a start, even a scene was fine for my purposes. Yes, this violates one of the common definitions of flash fiction – umm, sorry….

Then I decided my word count was going to be 750 words at the most. I have violated that a time or two but it seemed like a do-able figure that wouldn’t take forever to write and, if I sold a story based on one of these flash fiction bits, it would be under the typical 1000 words publishers start to consider as “previously published.”

I wasn’t too worried about having other people join the effort (though some did) but asked permission to promo it on a few groups that I belong to. I decided Friday would be the day and I’d call it the Friday Flash.

With all that, I set out to write my first Friday Flash. Check back next week to see what happened and what I’ve learned to date about writing these very short tidbits.

Remember that there is a contest for people who comment on all the Friday Flash How To posts. The winner will be by random drawing from all entries with a max of one entry per person per post. Winner gets to give me a set of prompts to see what Flash Fiction I can come up with based on it. Ask questions, add your own notes, I’m easy!

For the next few weeks, I plan on using Fridays to house a series of “How To” posts on Flash Fiction itself. What it is, my tips for writing it, things to remember when posting it and then some of my inspirations and what has happened/is happening to them. At the very end, I’ll talk a little about why I started writing flash fiction, why I started posting it, what it has done for me and what my plans are for my own flash fiction on this site.

If you have any particular questions or requests, leave a comment and let me know what they are so I can be sure and address them.

As an added enticement, at the end of the series, I’ll choose a winner who can then give me a set of 4 prompts and a sexuality choice and I’ll write a flash with it, 500 words minimum, up to 1500 as the muse takes me. I do well with challenges.

Rules to Enter:
I’ll randomly choose with a random number generator from all the commenters to this series.

You can have one drawing entry per post, you are welcome to comment more than once but to avoid spamming, only one will count. If I see posts of multiple “I want to be entered on the same post”, you still only get one entry and, if you happen to win, I may not be nice to you in the flash.

When you comment, make the commentor something I can recognize and refer to easily. More than one Anonymous becomes impossible to prove who is who. Email address (only I can see them) would be even better.

Winner will be announced the friday AFTER the last post in the series. All series posts will remain open until then.

Winner has ten days to respond to the comment that they won with their choices or I’ll choose another winner.