A Head Full of Stories: 30 Flash Horror Stories Celebrates Halloween and All Things Spooky

 

When I gave myself the task of putting together a collection of 30 horror flash fiction stories in less than a month (because that’s how much I love myself), at first I thought I couldn’t do it. I even tried to get out of it, hoping I could change the cover I already had for this book to read “10” instead of “30.” Because ten was totally doable! But I wasn’t able to do that, so I was stuck with thirty.

 

Thirty!

 

I actually threw a fit. I can’t write thirty flash fiction stories in less than a month! No way! Not with everything else I already have going on!

 

After I had that little outburst, I sat down to start writing it.

 

It helped that I decided to make these storis no more than 500 words each. With flash fiction, you have some flexibility. You can write drabbles, which are 100-word stories (I have written many), or flash, which is anywhere between 100-1000 word stories. (Anything less than 100 words are called micro fiction stories.) And while this word limit was helpful in giving me the confidence to be able to write the stories, it did present a challenge in its own right. I ended up having to cut a lot of words to get to 500! Some stories, though, ended up being less than 500 words.

 

And because these stories were so short, I wrote MANY of them on my phone.

 

I surprised myself with actually getting closer and closer to that number of thirty stories. I managed to get ideas for stories in a variety of ways.

 

One of the stories, “A Good Deed,” had been in my head for years.

 

The idea for “Spaghetti Face” came to me after I created a face out of spaghetti at dinner one night.

 

I got the idea for “What We Do in the Dark” after I noticed that, because of my frequent headaches, we often leave the lights off in the house anytime I’m dealing with them.

 

“Finding a Body” came to me one day after I was driving past a park and noticed a local crisis response unit there along with the police.

 

“The Scary Costume” is based on a poem I’d written that has the same story.

 

I used to work as a DSP supporting individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and while I loved that job, some days were a big challenge and those days would exhaust us and really test our patience. I got the idea for “A Bunch of Whiners” based on one particular coworker who I had a difficult time working with on top of the challenges associated with the job (I even started calling him Lucifer!), and while the DSP in this story acts out, that never happened with this coworker. But I kept wondering, What would happen if he lost it? While I know what happens in the story would not happen in real life, for the purpose of fiction, I decided to add some plot twists.

 

“Departure Time” was inspired by an article I read in the newspaper.

 

“Killer Toes” is the result of a typo that came up on an iPad I used for my work as a DSP. (Don’t ask!) I saw that and thought, That could be a story title!

 

The idea for “Teacher Problems” came to me after my youngest said he didn’t want to attend Open House at his school.

 

Some of the stories, such as “Routines” and “Monday Coffee, are revisions of other drabbles or flash stories that never made the cut anywhere I submitted them to.

 

And something interesting happened with one story idea I got for this book. I created the cover for this book several months ago. I had not looked at it too much on the days leading up to publication, because I was focused on writing stories for it! One story idea that popped into my head included a floating white skull that was chasing people through a town. I was able to write the story and, later, when I looked at the cover again, I saw the white skull that was already on it! How very interesting I got the story idea with a floating white skull when the book cover has a white skull on it. Though the skull in the story is MUCH larger, floats, shines with a brilliant white light, and, well, eats people. Still, it works out. Very cool!  

 

And other stories – such as “Gore Galore” and “No Rest for the Wicked” – came to me as titles. I just took it from there.

 

Aside from all that, sometimes, I just had ideas for stories pop into my head, as was the case for “The Sign” and “Her Last Halloween.” An idea wasn’t enough to get me writing the story, though. I had to think about it! I had to work with that idea and figure out how to turn it into a story. Thankfully, I did manage to figure it out and get those stories written.

 

Some days, I wrote several stories, and others I only managed to write one or two stories. Then there was the odd day I wasn’t able to write any stories at all! (The horror!) But I did keep up with writing the stories. Every so often. I would count how many stories I had so far and plan out how many more to write.

 

When I started writing these stories, my intention was to make it a collection of horror stories (since horror and paranormal stories are my thing right now). But as I continued writing, some of the story ideas tied into Halloween and I also ended up writing stories that had elements of Halloween in them. I guess, since I’m writing these stories during October, that was bound to happen. (Halloween is my favorite holiday, so maybe that influenced the stories too.)

 

And while my focus with all this story-writing was to write 500-word stories, sometimes the stories I wrote were longer. Many were 1000 words. I decided to put THOSE stories into a different collection of flash fiction stories, which I plan to write at leisure!

 

Writing this story collection has been a fun challenge for me. It reminded me of the time I challenged myself to write a short story every week for one year – except this time, my stories were shorter, and I had to write them in one day instead of one week.

 

Writing flash fiction can be a fun writing exercise for some, but a challenge for others. It can especially be a challenge for the kind of writers who are purists for writing fiction, such as following the “rules” of fiction writing and writing the stories in the same way as writing a normal short story. But with flash fiction, some elements of fiction writing, such as description and characterization, must be sacrificed in order to meet word count limits. In some cases, I do throw in bits and pieces of character description, but for the most part, I leave what the characters look like up to the readers’ imagination.

 

Another thing I leave to the readers’ imagination are endings. Some stories have open endings, where the reader can decide what happens next.

 

If you have always wanted to write a story or would like to give flash fiction a try, then I hope the information shared here will give you a good idea on where to start. Ideas for stories are everywhere, and sometimes we have to twist thigs around a bit in order to make a story “work” or fit into the genre we are writing for, such as horror, fantasy or science fiction. It’s also a good idea to decide how long you want your flash fiction story to be. Remember, you can write a drabble, which is 50 or 100 words, or you can write a story of up to 1000 words. It is entirely your choice. Once you get better at writing flash fiction, you can experiment with different word counts and genres.

 

But flash writing is not limited to just fiction. There is also flash nonfiction. These are “mini essays” or mini stories of something that happened in real life.

 

You just may find that writing flash fiction can be addictive! I’m used to writing longer things, but being able to write a story in less than an hour is a very satisfying feeling. So satisfying that I tend to write many more!

 

The beauty of writing flash fiction is that it can be done really quickly. With just 50 or 100 words, you have written a story! So give it a try, if you feel so inclined. If you’re not sure about what to write or how to write flash, check out my list of writing books included at the back of this book. It includes some titles that can help you with the writing of flash fiction.

 

I hope some of these stories will inspire you with your own story ideas. You can also get ideas for things to write from your ow life – your experiences, your dreams and observations. A lot of the stories I write come from my own personal experiences and from dreams.

 

The thing I love about writing flash fiction is that it forces a writer to be careful with their word choice. When writing flash fiction, you only get so many words to write. In that limited space where you must deliver a story with dialogue, characterization, description, etc., you must also write tight. Choose your words carefully. Write “many” instead of “a lot.” Use the word “teased” instead of “made fun of.” Also, when you have to cut words in order to meet the word count limit, keep the most important stuff. If you must show that a character spoke with a “deep voice,” then find another word somewhere else to delete.

 

What can really help you in learning how to write flash fiction, though, is to read flash fiction. And lots of it! Look at how other writers tell their stories in 50, 100 or even 1000 words. Notice the words they choose and how they show the action happening.

 

If books are your thing for learning, then here are some titles that can help you get started:

 

·        The World in a Flash: How to Write Flash-Fiction by Calum Kerr

·        Writing Flash Fiction: How to Write Very Short Stories and Get Them Published by Carly Berg

·        FLASH!: Writing the Very Short Story by John Dufresne

·        The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field by Tara L. Masih

(Many thanks to Maria Elena Vogt for suggesting the first title)

 

My friend and fellow author, Ruth Burroughs, knows flash fiction writing well. Not only has Ruth taken a course in writing flash fiction, but she also wrote a book of flash fiction stories (which I really enjoyed reading!) called Michelangelo 2000 and other microstories: a collection of short science fiction stories

Here are some articles Ruth recommends to writers interested in writing flash fiction:

 

"A Crash Course in Flash Fiction: An Essential Reading List of Very ShortStories" by Laura I. Miller (via LitHub)

 

"10 Hands-On Tips For Writing Flash Fiction" by Maria Haskins (via the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association)

"Top 24 Websites for Flash Fiction" (via Bookfox)

 

I’m so glad I still buckled down to write these stories! Yes, some of the stories are revisions of old stories, and it added to the final count, but a majority of these stories are the result of me sitting down to write them. I did prepare myself for the possibility that I might not be able to write ALL 30 stories this month, but I was determined to accomplish that goal.

30 Flash Fiction Horror Stories is available as a free ebook, with the option to buy the print.

 

Here is the blurb:

 

Looking for something spooky to read for Halloween??

 

Look no further than 30 Flash Horror Stories!

A flash fiction story collection full of spine-tingling thrills and chills!

 

A mysterious sign only one man can see…trick-or-treaters getting more trick than a treat…and ghosts that never rest. These are just a few of the thirty flash fiction horror and Halloween stories awaiting you within the pages of this book. Read these stories at your own risk!

 

Download your free copy here

 

If you prefer, you can buy a copy for just 99 cents here

Link for Kindle here

 

Link for the print coming soon!