Now, having newly discovered the very cool Flash Fiction Chronicles blog, I’ve wasted no time getting some scribbles of my own over there in the hopes that the coolness will rub off on me. My first post there, Flash: The Best Exercise, is up today, and in it I talk about how flash affords writers an unparalleled opportunity for development because it encourages us to try different things.
Flash fiction affords a unique opportunity for just this kind of stepping out and doing something different. The advice may be as old as the hills — writers have forever been saying that short pieces of free-writing, character sketches, writing-prompt challenges, and other assorted short short work are great ways to work out new techniques, explore untested ideas, or just cut loose with raw experimentation — the difference is that now such work stands a real chance of being published.
The growth of flash fiction markets is great news for anyone that wants to try new voices, styles, techniques, or genres because it lets us write something new not merely as a private exercise, but in a way that ‘counts,’ since writing toward publication really is the best way to get better.
Anyway, go check it out. I hope to have some more posts up in coming weeks, but there is a lot of great stuff on there already if you haven’t had a look.
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Your coolness has added to the Chronic coolness, fer shure.
Thanks, Gay.