The Tricky Wicket of Writing Flash Speculative Fiction
Writing flash fiction in any genre is hard for me. I love a well-built world, a complex plot, a big cast of characters—all things that are tricky to fit into any short story length, much less in 1,000 words or less.
This is also what I’ve come to love about writing flash fiction, though. It’s a valuable exercise in focus and economy of language. Any flash story is condensed in some way, but that’s especially true for fantasy, sci-fi, or historical—any genre where you need to establish a world the reader doesn’t know yet. It takes a deft hand to immerse someone in a new reality, introduce them to a character they care about, and give them an actual plot to follow, without letting the story sprawl beyond a flash piece’s limited real estate.
As I’ve been working on whittling my natural storytelling inclinations down into a more compact form, I’ve come across a few tips that I’ve found very helpful. So I figured I’d pass those along to other writers out there who are seeking tips on how to write better speculative flash.
Tip 1: Tighten the scope before you start writing.
I’m usually a pantser. I like to wander alongside my characters on rough drafts, following their steps and letting that tell me the best plot movement for the story. The problem is, that kind of exploratory wandering takes a lot of words. The more steps there are in the story’s plot, the harder it’s going to be to tell it effectively in a flash length.
This isn’t to say I go full outline when I write flash. But I do usually take a second before I start writing to sketch out at least the big-picture steps and make sure I’m not biting off more than I can reasonably chew within the word count limits. I’ll focus especially on things like:
- How much in-story time does this plot cover? It’s definitely possible to cover a long timespan in a flash length. That said, the broader the time scope, the more you’ll need to zoom out to fit it all in. That means less time in-scene at the key points along that timeline. As a rule, the shorter the in-story time, the easier it will be to fit into a flash piece.
- What is the story’s driving conflict and what scenes are necessary to show it? I tend to aim for the fewest scenes possible, and favor flash pieces that have a single scene when I can manage it. Again, this is just about making the most of limited resources. The fewer scenes you have, the more words you can devote to each of them.
- Who is the main character and what is their driving motivation? Building three-dimensional, relatable characters takes space. Giving them a single clear objective or problem can help to quickly define their identity and focus the story at the same time, both very helpful in a short length.
- What parts of the world does the reader absolutely need to see? Whatever your story’s setting, there won’t be time to show the reader all of it. Instead, you need to pick only the specific locations, technology, history, culture, rules, and so on that are directly related to the story you’re telling.
Tip 2: Be exacting in your details.
Focusing on specific, unique details is a great way to enhance the realism of a story at any length, but I’d argue the shorter the story, the more important it is. A well-worded description sneaks in worldbuilding that would take a lot of words to explain otherwise. Describing a place as “the long-abandoned, carbon-scarred outpost” implies a lot of history and puts the location in a broader context while it sets a scene.
I try to make every descriptive passage do this kind of double-duty when I’m writing speculative flash. I also try to bring as many of the senses into play as possible to take that reader immersion to the next level. Smell and touch details can be especially useful for bringing a setting to life in a small space.
It’s not just about the details included, either, but also the language used to describe them. Voice can be another powerful tool for packing the maximum meaning into the fewest possible words. It’s kind of a backdoor form of worldbuilding—by replicating the worldview of a character on the page, you plop the reader right down into their reality. This gives the reader insights into how this world works so you don’t have to spell it out for them in narrative.
Tip 3: Make full use of your title.
I’m terrible at titles as a rule, which isn’t so much of an issue when you’re working on long things like novels—there’s a solid chance, if it gets published, someone else is going to write a new title for it, anyway. Even for full-length stories, I feel like titles aren’t hugely important. They can help to set the context for what’s coming and put the reader in the right mindset, but even a bad title tends to have a more neutral effect; it’s more forgettable than a drain on the reading experience.
Working in flash lengths has forced me to up my title game. When you use it right, the title can do a lot of heavy lifting to set the story up, letting you jump right in to the action from word one.
There are a lot of different ways you can do this. Sometimes it can be useful to use a longer, explanatory title—something like “The Day After the Sasquatch Army Conquered Portland” gives the reader a whole shit ton of world details before the story even officially starts.
You can accomplish the same thing with a shorter title, too. If you call your story something like “The Changeling” or “The Selkie”, the reader will assume this describes one of the characters, and you’ll only need to drop in a few words to flag which one rather than explaining the whole conceit.
Writing flash is a challenge for me, but I’ve found it’s worth the effort. Keeping speculative stories under 1,000 words forces me to think about worldbuilding, plotting, and language in a different way, and I’ve found that practice has improved my writing overall.
See similar posts: