Jennifer C Nelson

writer. reader. book hoarder.

Finding My Voice Through Flash Fiction

A Reevaluation of Sorts

In my last post, I talked about making a pivot in my writing process and focusing more on what I have to say rather than what I think will sell. Since that post, I’ve pondered quite a bit on why I write in the first place. When I first started writing in my late teens, I had an idea for a story and wanted to see if I could turn that into something more. Later, my reason morphed into wanting to be a working writer, earning some kind of living as a novelist. That was in the early days of e-readers when a handful of self-published authors were making fortunes writing and publishing their own books. I wanted in on that. My thought was if they can do it, why can’t I? It was during this time that my focus was not on what I wanted to write (mystery/suspense) but rather on what I could write that would sell well (romance), which led me on the wrong journey for years. It took a while, but I eventually realized this way of writing was not sustainable or even enjoyable.

That bad critique experience that I spoke of in my last post triggered something inside of me and I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching with regard to writing ever since. Specifically, what the hell am I even doing? Do I want to continue, if so, why? I think WHY is the important question. Why do I want to write and what do I want to get out it? At this stage in my life, I can’t really imagine not writing. The urge is always there. The ideas are always surfacing. I just don’t know what to do with them right now. That is precisely the reason why I decided to start from scratch, find my true writing voice, and figure out what I want to write.

Turns out that bad critique wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Writing Practice

Flash fiction is a great way to practice. You can improve upon your writing skills and feel like you’ve accomplished something in the process by finishing stories. I’ve dabbled a bit in flash fiction. Even had a few stories published here and here under an old pen name. Technically, these two stories might be considered microfiction because they’re under 500 words, but generally speaking, stories under a 1000 words are considered flash fiction. I had a lot of fun writing these and realized during the process how much I enjoy writing so short. It’s a real challenge to try to pack a punch with such limited word counts.

I decided to dig out some of my old craft books to help me with my own writing practice.

I’m starting with Writing Fiction by Janet Borroway. I’ve had the ebook version for a long time and it’s been years since I’ve read it. At some point, I bought the print version and never opened it until this week. I’ve begun penciling notes in the margin and tabbing it with page markers.

My plan is to use the exercises in The 3 A.M. Epiphany and What If? in conjunction with the exercises in Writing Fiction and get in a ton of writing practice.

Flash Fiction Resources

If you’re new to flash fiction – reading or writing it – here are a few sites you might want to check out.

I’m looking forward to this new writing plan. In the end, I should end up with some finished flash stories, the beginning stages of longer stories, a better understanding of storytelling, improved writing skills, and, most importantly, a definitive writing voice.