To illustrate the process involved in creating a work of flash fiction, I’ll use one of my completed stories, Wednesday’s Child, as an example and lead you through six steps from the glimmer of an idea to the story’s climax and resolution.
1. Capture the flash of an idea.
While perusing Roberta Allen’s book, Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes mentioned earlier and listed in Appendix F, the following writing prompts captured my imagination:
Write a story about a child.
Write a story about a secret.
Write a story about a traumatic event.
An idea for a story began to take shape. I saw a woman with a past riding on a streetcar and I had 500 words or less in which to tell her story.
2. Write the hook.
The streetcar is crowded today, and Meeda has to stand in the aisle, her s
