Morgen Bailey's Writing Forum

Thanks Morgen & Phyllis

I loved the different meanings of the word "hanging" and when I wrote this I wanted to imply a youth hanging on a street corner at the start and then turn it around to give it a deeper meaning. Hanging is a very evocative word and I love that I had you changing your mental image with each line.

Rightly or wrongly I'm very proud of this piece and think it is my best effort at micro or flash fiction.

I really enjoyed reading that, Graham. It kept me guessing and the double meaning of "hanging" made it special.

I meant to say that Flash Fiction, whatever else it may be, is a great exercise for any writer . Economy of words, choice of the most potent words and phrases, emphasis on rhythm and variety of pace, not to mention emotion, all in miniature. In this age of Twitter and quick sound bites let's keep writing Flash Fiction.

I'm not sure why but everything I'm writing at the moment (for online writing group Tuesday Tales, see http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/tuesday-tales) comes out less than 550 words, mostly 200-350). I guess I must just be in that 'zone'. I run two writing groups, meeting alternate Mondays, and in the critique group I read out the latest two TT stories and one of the writers says that my strength is the longer stories and she wants to hear one of those instead. I have a week and a bit to either finish one of our workshop starters (or an old piece) or something new. If it's the latter it'll be interesting to see whether it becomes a 'long' short story.

I've found that most markets consider flash fiction 1000 words or fewer. Most short story markets prefer 5000 words or fewer. Some online markets tend to even shoot for 3000 or 4000, although as print costs aren't a problem, others will accept up to 10,000 words.

I believe the best thing is to write the story as clearly and concisely as you can and then seek a market, although planning and outlining can help streamline and keep the story on track, requiring less revision and editing--especially to meet a word count.