Murder Your Darlings: Writing the Best Flash Fiction

Learn the weight of each word with flash fiction writing.

If you haven't noticed yet, here at Dark Descent Magazine, we love the tiny and the terrible. 

Terribly frightening, that is. 

There's a lot to be said for writing flash fiction. As a writer, it hones and sharpens your skills like nothing else. The small size of the story does not equate to easy. On the contrary. Every word takes on weight like never before. Take Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's famous advice to "murder your darlings". Any flowery language should be murdered as quickly as Casey Becker's boyfriend in Scream.

But before we can delve into the specifics of how to write horror flash fiction, let's take a look at some tips to writing flash and micro-fiction in general.

The Title

You can write this in the beginning before you write your story, or wait until the end. In powerful flash fiction, your title is like an extension of the story, which can be an easy way to establish setting, genre, conflict, or even the story's themes and symbolism. And the title doesn't count against your word count! Use this to your advantage! Like a spider, lure your readers in with a beautifully crafted title and don't let them go.

Your cast should be small. Characterization? Huge.

The Cast

First up: You only need one or two characters, three tops. Any more and you'll get too bogged down. Imagine flash fiction as a really tiny room, like a Harry Potter closet. Now, how many people will fit in there in addition to Harry? Only one or two. More than that, it gets crowded and a little uncomfortable, especially if you've invited Hagrid. 

The Hook

Like I said before, every word counts, so you want to make each one matter. A strong hook (your first sentence) helps your reader immediately become invested in the story. Your first sentence needs to really pack a punch, to reel in your readers, so make sure your opening will make them ask questions and want to keep reading to answer them. You don't have time for exposition. You're dropping your reader into the middle of a specific moment, called in media res in the biz, which means in the middle. 

Some great ways to begin to grab your readers: 

Try dialogue that sets the conflict, tone, setting, and even genre, if applicable. Make it immediate, short, and punchy. Give your readers the feeling of something being "not quite right". In my drabble "The Cure", I begin with: "You've been abducted how many times now?" Readers are immediately asking who was abducted, why they've been abducted multiple times, and who is asking the question. In this instance, I dropped the reader into the middle of a therapy session with an alien abductee and their therapist. No back story, just boom! You're in the therapist's office. 

You could also drop readers right into the middle of an action scene: "With my pursuers a breath away, I peered over the edge of the cliff, closed my eyes, and plummeted into the abyss." Here I have established conflict, immediate danger for the MC, and the possibility of the MC not surviving the fall. The reader will also be dying to know who the villain is, and why they are pursuing the lead character.

Your story needs to resonate with your readers from the get-go. Make them wonder, make them question, make them keep reading.

Leave those weak descriptions at home and haunt your readers with strong imagery.

Imagery and Strong Verbs

Because you have a limited word count (usually 1500 and under), it's time to let your vocabulary shine and do your 8th grade English teacher proud. Strong sensory details need to attack each of the senses. The imagery should translate into visceral, realer-than-life scenes that can live on in readers' minds long after the story is over. This is also time to bust out the thesaurus to help you with those strong verbs that say so much with so little. For instance, instead of "He laughed", he could guffaw, chortle, chuckle, snicker, or cackle. These paint a more vivid scene in your readers' minds than a simple laugh. How vanilla. 

This excerpt from “Double Promotion” by Sudha Balagopal is an incredible example of both strong imagery and verbs:

Ma says we’ll unravel the stitches from her trousseau’s embroidered napkins. She beheads a knot with tiny scissors, shows me how to undo the brilliant-shaded peacock pattern…I unwind the turquoise, navy and gold threads, pulling and yanking, until all that remains is the faint outline of Ma’s work on embarrassing, yellowing cloth.

Instead of simply cutting the knots, his mother "beheads" them, giving the reader an oddly violent image of something that is usually very mundane. He also uses beautiful imagery with "brilliant-shaded peacock pattern" and "embarrassing, yellowing cloth." This one excerpt paints such a vivid scene with few words.

Haunt your readers long after the story is over with a perfectly crafted ending.

As Above, So Below

Just as your first line should dazzle the reader, so should your last line. As above, so below, as we witches say! 

You want a twist, but not one that comes totally out of left field. How do you want readers to feel at the end of your story? Shocked? Grossed out? Pissed off? Use that to craft a last line that will stay with readers for long after the story is done. Make sure your ending has as much impact as your beginning. You want it to linger. Haunt. Terrorize, if that's the vibe you're after. 

With all these tips, you're almost ready to start. If you're new to flash fiction, you'll want to read as much as you can get your hands on! Sites like Fractured Lit and Friday Flash Fiction have oodles of free stories for you to read and study at your leisure. 

But if you're looking for all horror flash, all the time, look no further than right here at Dark Descent Magazine! We have some free stories available, as well as subscription tiers that start at only £2.99 so you can read the monthly magazine, delivered right to your inbox! Support indie authors and publishers in the horror sphere with our print versions too!

Come back next week, when I'll get into the nitty-gritty of writing horror flash!

Happy writing and haunting horror babes!

*Stock images by Unsplash

H.R. Parker is a speculative fiction author, poet, entrepreneur, and a member of the Horror Writers Association, SFWA, and SFPA. Her work has been featured in magazines and literary journals such as Clover & Bee, Synthetic Reality, Writerly, and many others. You can find her books, published works, and socials at www.authorhrparker.com