Thinking up regular short stories is good discipline for a writer. Every writer should know how to edit themselves and writing a 100-word story (or whatever the word count of your flash fiction efforts) will force you to edit. All those unnecessary words need to come out.
We also like the discipline of practising writing short stories on a regular basis (hence the title Friday flash fiction) and that needs regular inspirational ideas. Here is where we get some of our ideas for Friday flash fiction:
- The news. Of course, there is always some kind of story you can add to. Is there missing information from a news story you think would work as fiction?
- Memes. Pictures and inspirational quotes that go viral are good sources for a back story.
- The seven basic plots. These include overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, rebirth, rebellion against ‘the one’ and mystery. If you tend to stick to one plot when writing fiction, why not try out one of the others?
- Looking around you. Look up from your laptop and select a random object. Now write a story about it.
- Your own life. Reimagine an encounter, a meeting or an event that has happened to you this week. Writers do this all the time, re-writing events in their life so make themselves look better/ sound wittier/ come out of something with more integrity or they just re-write it for comedy value. Writing is about exercising total control.
Where do you get the inspiration for your short stories? We'd love to know. Contact us via Twitter @comelybankpub or leave us a comment below.