A long time ago, I had a blog over on Write.As, an independent blogging service which is part of the Fediverse. Back in the day (man, I hate that phrase!), I used to really enjoy writing flash fiction. I have decided to get back to those fun roots now that I am more active on Substack.

For those who might be new to the term “flash fiction,” all it means is super short stories that normally come in at less than 1,000 words. At the most, a flash fiction will hit 1,500 words, but that’s pretty rare. In short, flash fiction is perfect for a lazy, fat bum like me who has the attention span of a drunk newt. Anything longer than that is really a short story.

The flash fiction I write is raw. This is writing on the edge; stream of consciousness sort of improvisation only exceeded in its fleshy freshness by (maybe) the #vss365 hashtag on Bluesky and Twitter (screw Elon Musk, X is a dumb name!). My flash fiction is usually written in one take, with minimal editing. If you’re lucky, I might proof read it once before I hit the publish button.

Flash fiction for me is a beautiful thing. Sometimes, all it takes is a photo, a character idea, or just a word, to get the inspiration going. Even in such a short narrative length, it never goes where even my vague plans hope. This is part of the beauty: totally unpredictable from the author’s perspective, the results are often ridiculous, sometimes sublime. It is also the arena in which characters who appear in my novellas and novels sometime find their genesis. You might read one and think, “Hey! I read about that dude in NeoTokyo Dead!”

Flash fiction, for an author, is invaluable. The need to get a story compressed to a mere grand in words makes you really think about the content, and what is absolutely necessary for the narrative and the characters within. Flash Fiction is the sharpened edge of writing, cutting the fluff to the utter essence of the story. I absolutely loved writing it and I had forgotten that love.

In wrapping this up, I am going to be writing more flash fiction for my writing website (click the image Bryan Beal above) and revelling in it. For the insanely short, if you want to check out my contributions to vss365 (Very Short Story 365) on Bluesky, I can be found there, too.

Keep rocking and stay neon!