FlashFiction.Net

You’ve written some flash, and now, before it’s complete, you must revise in order to get the piece to be the best that it can be, whether you’re looking to submit it for publication or simply to share it with friends and colleagues. Every writer inevitably develops his or her own revision process, but I would like to share my current method for revising flash fiction in four simple steps.

Step 1: “Put it away.”
I think a critical part of any revision process is to approach the work with “fresh eyes.” Since it’s easy for a writer to become numb to certain parts of a work after spending so much time writing it, sometimes the best way to get some distance is to do just that: don’t look at the piece for several days (or longer!) This yields two benefits. Firstly, when you do take another look at the story, you will probably pick up on things you weren’t able to see before. Secondly, it gives you a couple days to generate new material. This way, you can always have pieces in both the drafting and revising stages. Hooray for productivity!

Step 2: “Weed out the weak.”
In flash, every word counts. If our aim is to tell the most poignant stories in as few words as possible, then every word we choose must serve a purpose. Read through your flash and circle any words that are ambiguous, confusing, indirect, or redundant. If you can eliminate them, do so! If not, spend time considering whether there are other words you could use that would carry more meaning. Do you need to be more specific? More emotional? Are you trying to get across a message that could be more direct if you used different language? Make these changes.

Step 3: “So what?”
Sometimes, as writers, we get caught up in one element of storytelling—language, character development, setting, etc.—and as a result, forget to tie everything together for a greater effect. Perhaps you wrote this story in order to showcase a dynamic character you invented, but even the best characters fall flat when their stories are dull. Read over your flash and think about how things come together at the end. Have you created sufficient conflict? Does the ending have emotional resonance? If not, perhaps you need to rework some parts of the story in order to get it “there.”

Step 4: “What’s in a name?”
In flash fiction, titles carry an immense amount of weight and power. Especially in uber-short pieces, the title contributes heftily to your word count, so you want to make sure it is absolutely the perfect one. What kind of emotions will your title stir in your readers before they delve into the rest of your flash? Is it memorable? In my opinion, the best titles are ones that have several meanings, or give the reader cause to rethink the meaning after finishing the flash. After you are done revising the content of your story, make sure that the title does justice to your work.

About the Author

Joanna Leigh Simon is an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) candidate at Rosemont College. She has had poems and essays published in Laurel Moon and Glasses Glasses, and has contributed writing for Public Radio International. She lives in Philadelphia, and always goes out of her way to step on a crunchy leaf.

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