Tension in Flash Fiction – Audrey Niven QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Make sure you actually tell a story. A descriptive vignette, however gorgeous, is not a flash story. A woman lolling in a hammock sipping cocktails is not enough. But if she’s on a high-rise balcony, or it’s raining, or she’s just buried her partner, you have tension; you have the start of something intriguing…
It’s vital your story has a beginning, a middle and an end. An easy trick is to think about balancing the length of these three elements in roughly equal-sized sections. (Though it’s equally okay to have a one-sentence beginning, or ending – rules are made to be broken!).
‘But do keep up the energy. A brilliant opening is easily let down by a limp third sentence…
Audrey Niven, judge of the 2022 Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition
Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash
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