The day I tried writing a 50-word flash piece and now I get the hype

I spent two years convinced flash fiction was just lazy people skimming their own stories, but after I forced myself to cut a 900-word short story down to exactly 50 words on a napkin at a Love's truck stop in Flagstaff, I realized the real challenge is picking which single moment actually matters, and now I'm wondering if anyone else has had a format they hated suddenly click after one specific attempt?

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gracec1625d ago

Admit it, I used to roll my eyes at flash fiction too. I figured it was just people too lazy to finish a real story, you know? Then I tried doing one of those 50 word challenges for a writing group and I had to scrap like six versions before I got it right. It's not about cutting stuff out, it's about figuring out the one beat that carries the whole feeling, and that's way harder than it sounds. Honestly, after that I went back and looked at my longer stuff and saw how much extra junk I was dragging around. Ngl, it kind of ruined long stories for me because now I see all the fat that could be trimmed.