I'm starting to get really into the idea of short shorts (extremely brief pieces of fiction usually about 1-2 paragraphs long) as a way to root out writer's block. Have you ever tried one?

No time like the present!

Share one below!

Lucy Silag

Book Country Community and Engagement Manager

(Short shorts are on my mind today because of this blog post I did with flash fiction master Dan Rhodes in honor of Valentine's Day. It's titled "How to Write About Love Like a Man" and he gave us permission to excerpt one of his short short stories on the blog. Check it out!)

~LS

I used to write flash fiction and enjoyed it. One story, about 300 words was titled, "They're Waiting" about a young boy on an old battlefield from the Civil War who heard voices whenever a breeze came up. An old man, Colonel Pylant, lived in his little village in the South. He led the Southern troops in the battle. The boy talked to the Colonel every day when the old man was sitting on the porch, and told Colonel Pylant about the voices and what they said. At the end, the old Colonel is hiking to the battle field, which was just outside the town, telling the boy he's going to be with his 'boys.'

I posted it on a site years ago and was told by several people I needed to expand it to story length or even into a novella. I tried but couldn't do it. It just didn't work when it was longer.