A Guest Post by Bart Van Goethem
Let’s not waste time on an introduction, shall we?
1. Develop a fear of death.
Life is short. Too short, some would say. But whether you like it or not, one day you will kick the bucket. Fear that day, fight it, by writing as many stories as you possibly can. They are all manifestations of the fact that you are alive. Of course, the shorter the story, the more stories you can write. This will lead to a high productivity that will also hone your skills.
2. Become a drama queen.
See the worst case scenario in just about anything. It will give you many ideas for many stories. Because you’re afraid to die, you won’t let any of these ideas go to waste and you will actually write all of those stories. Leading to a high productivity that will hone your skills.
3. Be insecure and a perfectionist at the same time.
This combination will have you chisel away at a flash story endlessly, even if it’s only a few hundred words. Then, when the story is finished, you’ll find it difficult to be completely happy with it. This feeds your perfectionism even more for the next story. You will repeat this process. Result? A high productivity…that will hone your skills.
There. Now you’re all set. Good luck!
In 2012 Bart Van Goethem self-published Life’s Too Short For Long Stories, a collection of mainly one-sentence stories, of varying quality. In March 2014 he started writing flash in the Flash!Friday community. Since then, over 40 one-sentence stories and 10 flash fiction stories of his have been published online and in print. You can follow him on Twitter at @bartvangoethem, check out his advertising work at TheBartCorporation.be, or connect with him on Facebook.
Great example of showing by doing. You jumped right into the article – the way we should jump into our fiction. Thank you!