Sometimes flash fiction happens to me.

Hoarfrost
(c) 2011 Maura Anderson

As the crescent moon sets, shadows deepen to ebon velvet and the relief of dawn seems a lifetime away. The night sky is now decorated only by the faint shimmer of distant stars, their meager light unable to warm the sharp, freezing air.

Slowly gathering in the depressions and hollows, a light mist begins to blanket the land. Icy tendrils flow out and fill the valleys, deepening from silver to grey as the growing fog works to block out even the light of the stars until the very land beneath it seems isolated from the rest of the world.

A place between the worlds of Sun and Moon. A time and place so temporary and so rare it bears no name of its own, yet it’s the only time she can walk the lands of man again.

The fog thickens and roils into a column, then a vague form emerges and solidifies into a tall, gracile female form. Clothed in flowing robes that changed from white to grey to midnight black in a shimmering pattern, her presence makes the very air weigh heavily and the residual warmth of the earth fades into a dusting of frost. Her white hair streams out behind her like tendrils of clouds and glistens with drops of ice.

Released, at least for a short while, from the prison of her own making, she wanders this small part of the land of man. All the life she has missed, all the plants and animals she lost through her own attempts to manipulate others. Slow tears flowed down her face only to drop frozen to the ground, a trail of diamonds to mark her path. A gently caress coats a crocus in glistening frost. A slight brush against a bush freezez tendrils water dripping from its branches into tiny icicles.

The first faint colors of dawn begin to drain away her cloak of fog and she knows her time here is over again. As she fades from the land of man, her last heavy sigh flows out over the branches of a tree and freezes instantly into the lacelike tendrils of her namesake, fragile and delicate. Even that beauty is doomed to disappear at sunrise, leaving only a memory and the faint scent of the wild and regret.

She is Hoarfrost.

Lord of the Crows
(c) 2009 by Maura Anderson, all rights reserved

The earth clothes itself in the brilliant icy breath of the coming winter and breezes wash through the lands, carrying the sharp, bright scent of snow to all who dare to be outside this night. A blanket of thick fog fills the valleys as if preparing them for the coming months of snow and slumber.

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Today is my day to post a seasonal short on the Fiction with Friction blog. I posted “Soul Song” – another of the Bran’s Visions series.

You can read it here. As always, I’d love to know what you think!

So, back to the subject of Flash Fiction! (You can stop clapping now, I’m trying to get back on track, really.)

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 :)

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