Making Every Word Count

I write fantasy novels. Woman of Honor was over 88K, Knight of Glory over 96. Hidden in Shadows is 97K.

But I also write short stories. And flash pieces.

Now I find that flash pieces are by far the hardest to write. You can't go into too much detail and you definitely don't have time for character development. Heck, you're lucky if you can spare a few words to give details like the MC's hair color! With flash pieces, each word has to be important, has to move the plot along. Each word has to be...