Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction It's National Flash Fiction Day on Wednesday – the first one ever – and it's an exciting day for me and many others who specialise in this particular truncated form of prose. A few years ago, I published a book of flash fiction called Sawn-off Tales. But until only a little while before that, I hadn't heard of flash fiction or micro-fiction or sudden fiction or short-short stories. I began to produce these ultra-short stories – sawn-off tales, as I call them – when I was commuting from Manchester to Liverpool: a 50-minute journey, often elongated by windscreen-wiper failure, fights on the train, or getting stuck behind the "stopper". So the next day I boarded the 8.12am at Manchester Piccadilly, rushed for a table seat, and, instead of whipping out my paperback, set up my laptop and began tapping away. I was about to ditch the idea when I heard about a new website called the Phone Book, which needed 150-word stories to send out as text messages. It worked. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Off you go!
The Pixar Touch - history of Pixar - Blog - Pixar story rules (one version) Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeted a series of “story basics” over the past month and a half — guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories: #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. #2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different. #3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. #4: Once upon a time there was ___. #5: Simplify. #6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? #7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. #8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. #9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. #10: Pull apart the stories you like. #11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. #12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. #13: Give your characters opinions. #16: What are the stakes?