Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "editing-skills"
Flash Fiction Skills
I believe all writers, regardless of their usual genre, would benefit from writing flash fiction from time to time. Why?
Firstly, writing flash fiction really hones up your editing skills. You can kiss goodbye to weak word choices.
In a form where every word has to earn its place in your story, you do learn to select the strongest words possible. No more of the "He made his way quickly up the hill". It will be "He raced up the hill".
The image is so much stronger in the second version (yes, you could use "ran", but I think "raced" is superior. To me it shows more effort being expended).
Secondly, if you can summarise your story or non-fiction work as a flash fiction piece, well you've just written a good basis for your synopsis and/or blurb, which I know most writers dread writing.
Thirdly, you have to have strong, memorable characters. As flash fiction is so short with no room for much narrative, I find the tales must be character led.
Therefore, those characters must stick in a reader's mind. Developing strong characters like this can help you in writing them for longer fiction works too.
Fourthly, you can set your character in any genre or time with flash fiction. You never know but in doing this, you might find a genre you didn't know you liked to write in becomes a favourite. That's exactly what happened to me with flash fiction. I gave it a go and quickly became hooked!
Good luck if you do try writing flash fiction and have fun. It is a great form for experimenting with and that is one of the joys of writing overall: to discover new ways of story or genre you want to explore further.
Firstly, writing flash fiction really hones up your editing skills. You can kiss goodbye to weak word choices.
In a form where every word has to earn its place in your story, you do learn to select the strongest words possible. No more of the "He made his way quickly up the hill". It will be "He raced up the hill".
The image is so much stronger in the second version (yes, you could use "ran", but I think "raced" is superior. To me it shows more effort being expended).
Secondly, if you can summarise your story or non-fiction work as a flash fiction piece, well you've just written a good basis for your synopsis and/or blurb, which I know most writers dread writing.
Thirdly, you have to have strong, memorable characters. As flash fiction is so short with no room for much narrative, I find the tales must be character led.
Therefore, those characters must stick in a reader's mind. Developing strong characters like this can help you in writing them for longer fiction works too.
Fourthly, you can set your character in any genre or time with flash fiction. You never know but in doing this, you might find a genre you didn't know you liked to write in becomes a favourite. That's exactly what happened to me with flash fiction. I gave it a go and quickly became hooked!
Good luck if you do try writing flash fiction and have fun. It is a great form for experimenting with and that is one of the joys of writing overall: to discover new ways of story or genre you want to explore further.
