Small Story, Deep Heart: Beginning Flash Fiction this Month

If you've been waiting to write flash fiction until you feel "read," start anyway, Flash Fiction is built on motion: One sharp idea, a handful of scenes, and an ending that leaves a mark.

This month, I'm drafting a Beauty and the Beast twist set in the late 1800's near a reservation. In my version, the cherokee male is "Beauty" and the colonists's granddaughter is "The Beast." They meet, and he helps her-- through romance, survival, and the slow unlearning of cultural bias.

Here's how I'm beginning:

• Start with the twist

  One reversal can carry the whole piece

• Choose a setting with pressue

  Time and place should add sstakes, not decoration.

• Write scenes first

  I'm freewriting the storyline for each chapter, building moments, and writing some dialogue.

• Use simple fact charts

  I look things up when needed, but I don't let research steal the draft.

• Set a short finish line

  I'm giving myself a few weeks to complete this flash fiction.

  You don't need a perfect plan to begin--

  just a moment worth writing, and the willingness to follow it!