What is Flash?

And for that matter, what is flash craft (the title of this substack)?

I have always loved short stories. I have an enormous collection of The Best American Short Stories collections spanning nearly all the years I’ve been alive. When I get a magazine with a fiction or creative nonfiction piece in it, alongside essays and news articles, that’s where I go first. In the last seven years or so, flash captured my attention.

Does Flash mean you write it, you know, in a flash?

Flash is a misnomer. I mean, your first draft might come to you in a flash, and lucky that, but rather, flash pieces are referred to for their length, generally 1,000 words or fewer, or, depending on the publication’s guidelines, sometimes 750 words max. A micro might be 350 words, or 100. There’s that famous six-word story about baby shoes.

The shortest story I’ve published so far is this dark little story: Al Dente, at 101 words.

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The video below is of a flash mob, which has nothing to do with flash, but which I hold partially responsible for me missing a flight on my way home from Mexico. Boo. Anyway, Happy 50th anniversary DFW, I guess.

I would have written a shorter story, but I did not have the time

I like the challenge of telling a complete story in under 1,000 words. I am a Gen Xer of the Sesame Street set, and I wonder if the attention span of my people and those that came after us is just about right for this length story. In any case, I adore flash in all its forms. And even though it is short, drafting, revising, and revising, etc. can take a very long time, especially when every word, and every sentence carries so much weight.

Most of what I have learned about flash has been from reading it, but also from the excellent workshop I’m in, led by Smokelong Quarterly. I’m writing Flash Craft to share some of what I’m learning and as a way to share my work as it finds its home.

Where to publish or read?

Chill Subs lists 1,489 publications that accept flash fiction and creative nonfiction.

Norton, famed for anthologies, put out one full of flash fiction last year.

Last summer, The New Yorker published a series of flash fiction stories.

Flash is having a moment, and I am here for it.

I recently had the most amazing correspondence with the editor of a journal that will be publishing a piece of mine soon. I’m keeping this message forever.

On the other hand …

I’m just back from a writing retreat where I thought a lot about my goals and workshopped a couple of drafts of stories that are, in their current state, flash length. What I realized is that both stories need more, and that I by no means have to write only flash — no rule says that I only write one genre! So I’m letting these pieces become whatever they want to be, and when they’re done, I will send them out to places that accept slightly longer works. Liberating!

The last word

Two things: this Friday night, 1/19/24, Rapunzel’s in Lovingston will hold a poetry and literature open mic night at 7pm. I plan to be there, weather permitting. In other news, Streetlight Magazine has opened submissions for an essay/memoir contest that closes April 1, 2024. (I have a piece appearing in their winter issue!)

I bought this fancy pink faux fur cape at a secondhand shop and if you see me at all this winter, I hope I am wearing it because I feel like a famous writer in it (or a glamorous film star). No one can have imposter syndrome while wearing a fancy faux fur cape.

A memoir piece I wrote, The Things We Can Leave Out was published in Volume 16 of Delmarva Review. If you’re a Kindle (app or device) user you can get it electronically here. Otherwise, support literary journals by buying a print copy and waiting for it to come in the mail.

Thanks for reading! And if you’re writing, I wish for you much success.