Flashing through July

The powers that be declared July to be flash fiction month so of course, I had to get involved with a series of daily prompts throughout July. With just a couple of days left to the month, I wanted to blog all the prompts I shared in one place, just in case you missed any.

I did not think these prompts up. I came across them on Pinterest and thought they were too good not to share.

AND because I enjoy writing flash fiction so much, I also released a new book this month called Flashing Here and There which you can download from Amazon for just .99 and enjoy reading the short yet snazzy stories over coffee and a slice of cake.

Here are your first five prompts:

• An impulse buy leads to intergalactic warfare
• Smoke hung so thick in the library's rafters that she could read words in it
• The language of flowers, pjs and a secret passageway
• His wife was having tea with the king and he didn't even know about it
• The story of how your parents me, transposed to another era in time

You might be asking, what is flash fiction? Let me clarify for you:

"fiction of a type characterized by being very short, typically consisting of only a few hundred words"

So think around the 500-word ballpark and you're doing great.


Here are the next five prompts (I thought one long list might be off-putting):

• A balloon, a ball and balustrades
• A language class for aliens
• She liked to fit people into the world like puzzle pieces
• Go to extreme lengths to return something you borrowed
• An explorer with multiple personality disorder, a widow and a house in the woods

Your next question is probably how exactly do I go about writing flash fiction? Google has some great advice. Start in the middle of the story - don't use too many characters - make sure the ending isn't at the end - sweat your title - make your last line ring like a bell - write long, then go short.

Here are the next five prompts:

• Winter was the only season we could be together
• The fate of the telegraph operator
• Life has new meaning after discovering an unusual tree
• A sailor comes home and his wife knows every detail of his life away
• Plague, a piece of chalk and the colour viridian (blue-green)

What sorts of things should you avoid when writing flash fiction?

Don't confuse your reader - don't bore your reader - don't use a hokey dialect - don't fail to provide a plot - don't use incorrect facts where accuracy matters - don't use your story as a soapbox

Here are your next five prompts:

• There were 48000 gods in their mythology and not one...
• Stuff that generates ideas, a spy and 1 minute
• The floor tasted like...
• A light test, an actress and two worlds
• Obsessed with marmalade

When you've written your flash fiction, what should you do with it? Blog it! Share it with your readers in your author newsletter. Give it away as a free book. Enter it into competitions - you've got nothing to lose.

Here are your next five prompts:

• Steampunk sleeping beauty
• An unfinished work of art, a mycologist and a sense of foreboding
• Please shut the interdimensional time rift when you've quite finished
• Mind controlling wallpaper that creates a happy ending
• Lancelot, a flannel and aeronautics

If you're still not sure and you don't want to splash out any money but you do want to read some flash fiction, check out my free collection The Blue Serpent & other tales. You can get your hands on it by signing up to my author newsletter.

Here are your final list of prompts:

• Story sandwich
• The colour of her blood was the least of my worries
• A single lily, a cliff and 3 hours
• The story begins and ends with a bicycle
• Champagne truffles, physio exercises and a fan

I hope you've enjoyed this post and that you'll check out my books of flash fiction. I'd love to read any flashes that you are inspired to write yourself so don't hesitate to get in touch. Happy writing!

Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find all her books on Amazon. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.