I started a project at the beginning of January this year. I
intended to write one piece of flash fiction every day for the whole month. I
managed it and I’m now, to some extent, addicted. You can find the work at http://gillsstonesjanuary2013.blogspot.co.uk/.
I’m not sure that actually everything I wrote is flash
fiction. There are, at a stretch, pieces of memoir, some philosophy and just
collections of words it pleased me to put together. But the texts are all very short and each one
makes its own point.
It wasn’t necessarily easy all of the time though it did get
easier as I went along. I was constantly searching for stories. Sometimes I’d
have two or three lined up. I’d then rehearse the next story over and over in
my head until it was time to write it. Now I’m actually finding it impossible
not to find stories everywhere.
I was never too strict about word count. The story or the needed
to be the length it needed to be. It had to be short and it had to be tightly
written.
I’ve enjoyed this experience and now want to make flash - fiction
or otherwise – something I write regularly, though perhaps not as often as daily.
It is a different writing experience from what I normally do
– writing for children and young people. For those texts I see a film in my
head which I need to get down into prose. With my very short pieces I hear a
voice telling me the story. I feel a more intimate relationship with the
readers and even the narrator I have created. Intriguingly the voice in each piece
is entirely different.
I’m so glad I took on this project. It has been a joy.
