It's a good time to be a short fiction writer - or to try your hand at it for the first time. There's a couple of micro-fiction opportunities coming up and I've also conveniently come across a few resources for writing it, so I thought it was the perfect time for a blog post!
What is micro fiction?
Micro fiction is a very, very, short story. While guidelines will vary between places accepting submissions, for the purpose of this post we're saying stories that are told in 100 words or less!
What are the opportunities?
As you might have seen, YA for WA is heading down to the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival to host two events: one of them, YA'll Like Books? has a micro fiction competition involved! If you come along (and we'd love to see you there), you'll be chatting with authors Holden Sheppard and Mark Smith about reading, writing, publishing, and more - then writing a 100 word YA story with a $100 prize!
Love to Read Local Week is Writing WA's official celebration of our state's wonderful stories and writers, and over a week the campaign includes events and opportunities. (We're hosting an event with Brendan Ritchie - check it out!) One of these opportunities is a writing competition called Flashscapes, which calls for stories of 100 words or less inspired by West Australian landscapes, seascapes, towns and landmarks.
What are the resources?
Writing WA have recently launched a podcast called Podstreet, and Night Parrot Press publishers Linda Martin and Laura Keenan were recently guests on it, chatting all things flash fiction. They give great tips for how to write a story in 100 words, so make sure you give it a listen! The Night Parrot Press website is also filled with helpful tips to writing short fiction.
I recently came across two blog posts by competition-runner NYC Midnight on writing micro fiction: one for structure and the other for character arc. I found them to be very helpful, and I hope you do too.
Where can I read some short fiction?
If you're looking for a few examples of short fiction, I recommend checking out the anthologies published by Night Parrot Press (that exclusively feature WA authors, and there might be another call-out for a fourth collection so there's another opportunity to look out for). There's also a nice list of short fiction on Reedsy's website.
I hope you choose to give short fiction a go and look at submitting your work. Best of luck if you do!
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