Flash Fiction Flashcards
is imaginative literature of extreme brevity. It could range from a word to a thousand (Gacusan 2018). It is known as micro stories, postcard fiction, nanotales and short shorts.
Flash Fiction
Flash fiction presents the story with fewest words as possible
Brevity
Flash fiction emphasizes the development of plot. It has a beginning, middle and ending of the story.
Complete Plot
The successful hallmark of a flash fiction is its twist at the end of the story.
Surprising Ending
by Tara Campbell is a story of various explanations for the color of the sky
Angels and Blueberries
“Why is the sky blue?” you ask. Well, it all depends on who’s answering
Angels and Blueberries
by Hugh Behm-Steinberg tells a weird story of how anyone can order a perfectly clone of Taylor Swift at his doorstep.
Taylor Swift
You’re in love; it’s great, you swipe on your phone and order: the next day a Taylor Swift clone shows up at your house
Taylor Swift
by Tatyana Tolstaya is a story of finding an old and torn teddy bear that she adore when she was a child.
Unnecessary Things
This Teddy bear once had amber eyes made from special glass — each one had a pupil and an iris. The bear itself was gray and stiff, with wiry fur. I adored him.
Unnecessary Things
composed of 100-1000 words in length
Flash Fiction
consists of 1000-10, 000 words in length
Short Story
is significantly shorter than a novel
Short Story
has a well thought out plot and great
characters, but they don’t necessarily need to be fully developed
shouldn’t be more than one plot and one theme.
Flash Fiction
has one or a few characters and one or a few settings (limited in place and time, such as a day or a couple of
weeks) and expresses a single theme, or message.
Short Story
is punchy and to the point, a story of extreme brevity with the plot pared down to the core of the story. Every detail, every character gesture, every description counts; each word has its place. Take one word away and the meaning is lost.
Flash Fiction
generally is more flexible. There is more space to develop ideas, plot, character and theme; there is at most, one plot and a small subplot or a plot and a half.
Short Story
A flash fiction story is not the shortened version of a longer story; it still follows the elements of plot, including a beginning, middle and end, as well as a conflict and satisfying resolution.
Story Structure
Most flash fiction stories take place in one setting, as moving between locations uses up too much space. It allows the writer and reader to focus on the plot.
Setting
Flash fiction pieces are plot-driven and include no more than three or four characters. They may include some character development, but too much backstory can use valuable space.
Characters and Backstory
One may think that flash fiction stories are short on description to save space. However, a strong piece can balance vivid descriptions with a quick- moving plot. Stories that lack description are not satisfying to read, and a flash fiction piece should feel complete.
Description
It is the actual story and includes a beginning, a middle and an end.
Plot
Two Types of Plot
Unified and Episodic
a story that is realistic with a central character and action and the story happens in one place during a short span of time- a day, several hours or even just for an hour.
Unified
a story that happens in a much extended period of time. A writer who employs this plot frequently uses the technique of ‘flashback’ to lay out background details of the story.
Episodic
when the story transpires on a particular period of time such as an hour, a day, a week, a month or even a year.
PLOT – a movement in time
when the story is established on a series of casual events that happen one after another. Here, the writer is to create a story based on the principle of cause and effect that is, the first event sets off the second and the second event sets off the third and so on. Hence, every new event has a casual relationship to the old ones.
PLOT - movement in casualty
when the story has dialogue, action, details, descriptions and scenes that amplify the tension and persuade the reader to turn the page and continue reading. The techniques of foreshadowing, flashback and epiphany are oftentimes employed in this type of plot.
PLOT - a movement in dramatic tension
This is the beginning of the story, also known as the inciting incident. This is where the author introduces the characters, identifies where the story is happening, and establishes the main conflict. This includes events, actions or even decisions that build conflict, pressure or disturbance to the main character.
Exposition
This is also known as the plot complication where the writer fully introduces the conflict or the obstacle that will prevent the main character, the protagonist, to achieve his goal.
Rising Action
This part is considered as the most exciting part of a story. This part has the most tension or most exciting event compared to all other events in the story. Also, this is where important decisions are made or important things are discovered.
Climax
This point occurs after the climax as the problems in the story start to work themselves out. The excitement becomes less and less as the conflict is resolved.
Falling Action
This is the solution to the problem in a story.
Resolution
