The Very Short Story Starter - by John Gillard (Paperback)

About the Book

For the time-crunched writer, or anyone who wants to squeeze a little creativity into the day, flash fiction is the perfect story-telling outlet. Flash fiction is an ultra-short story that can be written on your morning commute or in the time it takes you to finish your coffee at a cafe. With 101 original and thought-provoking prompts, this workbook offers inspiration and guidance to help you write powerful stories under the creative constraints of length and time. Use it to launch a short story writing practice, and see how much you can actually communicate with 500 words or fewer.

Book Synopsis

Think about your writing from a new perspective and learn to tell a story in the most effective way possible with John Gillard's The Very Short Story Starter, a flash-fiction workbook.

Popular with creative writers around the world, flash fiction is an ultra-short story format (usually 1,000 words or less) that distills a narrative into its most economic and impactful form. In this lay-flat paperback workbook, you'll find 101 flash-fiction writing prompts, each crafted to inspire an incredible variety of very short stories. Some prompts instruct you to focus on setting or developing a specific character. Other prompts ask you to play with story structure, to begin at the end or jump right into the middle of the action. You are also encouraged to bring the journal to different locations (a coffee shop or a museum) and take story cues from your surroundings.

With helpful writing tips and just the right amount of space to write, this journal is the perfect tool to jump-start a flash-fiction writing practice.

About the Author

John Gillard is a writer and designer who lives and works in Brighton, England. He runs creative writing workshops, performs his own works of short fiction and poetry, and is the author of The Creative Writer's Notebook.