No, I don’t have a relationship with a comic book superhero, although I expect many comic strips are less than one thousand words and therefore qualify as a Flash.

I can’t remember how I met Flash, but I’m glad I did, for writing flash fiction has helped my writing in many ways.

A weekly challenge on ‘writeon,’ and later, ‘wattpad,’ helped me to:

develop a writing habit; be more precise in my choice of words; narrow a character, setting, and plot to its basics; link with many other writers; open doors of opportunity – competitions and magazines –;gain writing confidence and keep my blog posts short.

Although the term ‘Flash Fiction’ was coined in the 1990’s, stories of less than one thousand words have been around forever. Fables, fairy tales, bedtime stories, fireside ghost stories and fisherman’s tales to mention a few.

My friend Flash may be small, but he is perfectly formed, containing everything a story needs – a beginning, middle and end, character, setting, and plot, all in less than one thousand words. Sometimes he is only six words long.