Why do so many people like flash fiction? Because we have been exposed to it at a very early age through the nursery rhymes and fairy tales told to us at bedtime, as well as the picture books read to us at pre-school (often based on those same fairy tales and nursery rhymes).
So what if you had parents who weren't big bedtime story readers, or you flunked out of pre-school for running with scissors? It doesn't matter, because you've been exposed to these tales over and over again through other mediums such as playground games (London Bridge or Ring Around the Roses) and cartoons.
Let's face it. Walt Disney built his empire on the back of fairy tales such as Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, just as the corporation in his name continues this trend today with movies such as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.
Fairy tales and nursery rhymes share many of the elements of today's flash fiction. Fairy tales are short, mainly so they could be memorized and told over and over again without the need for the text. Many fairy tales have a “twist” ending popular with many flash fiction readers and they often have a moral to the story.
Fairy tales and nursery rhymes are great sources of flash fiction story ideas. Here are some ways to use them: Change an element, the point-of-view character, or outcome of the story. For some great examples of how this has been done by others, check out these books by Jon Sciezka:
Or James Finn Gardner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: A Collection of Modern Tales for Our Life and Times
Retell the fairy tale in a modern day setting.
Use the origin or the history of the rhyme or tale to generate a story.
Here are some online resources to get you started:
- The Wikipedia List of Fairy Tales: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fairy_tales
- The Wikipedia List of Fairy Tale Fantasies (stories based on or derivative of fairy tales) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fairytale_fantasies
- Nursery Rhymes: http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/
Michael Wilson is the author of Flash Writing: How to Write, Revise and Publish Stories Less Than 1000 Words Long (for details or ordering info go to http://www.flashwriting.com), and has been teaching creative writing for over a decade. He publishes two blogs: Grist for the Muse — The blog that gets you writing and keeps you writing (http://gristforthemuse.blogspot.com/), and The 15-Minute Writer — Helping you achieve your writing dreams in just 15 minutes a day (http://15minutewriter.blogspot.com/). To contact Michael send an email to michael@flashwriting.com.