Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. AI shots avoided.
I can guess what you’re thinking here. Something along the lines of Allison, you’re a month early with this at least, aren’t you?
Fair point but I’d say no. Why?
Too Early for Festive Flash?
Firstly, it takes time to prepare any length of story. Secondly, once you’ve got your draft down, it pays to put it aside for a while before coming back to evaluate what is fine, what needs improving (and there is always something), and to edit effectively.
I then rest the edited story at least one more time before looking at it again and, once happy, I submit it somewhere. In the rest periods, I’m busy drafting something else, including my CFT columns!
So, no, starting work on festive stories if you’re looking to put them on your website or newsletter is best done as early as you can, funnily enough. Certainly if you were writing for the women’s magazine market, they’d have wanted your festive stories in by the summer. The advantage we have of preparing material for our websites etc is we can set our own deadlines. I also find the darker evenings now the clocks have gone back encourage a wish to write something festive and cheery so I would say about now is the right time for me to be thinking of drafting my festive flash fiction.
I’ve been privileged to have some of my festive flash fiction broadcast on North Manchester FM but that is unlikely to happen for this year. I am sorry to say North Manchester FM is undergoing a revamp which means some of their previous shows may well not come back. Hannah Kate’s shows, including her Three Minute Santas special, will be much missed.
But will I still be writing festive flash? Oh yes. It’s fun, it cheers people up and it’s great material to share on social media, author newsletter, website etc in the festive season.
So for this post I thought I’d share some tips on writing festive flash, which I hope you’ll find useful. If you get some stories out there as a result, even better!
Festive Focus
Having a framework – in this case writing about the festive season and nothing outside of that – can help you hone in on potential characters to write up. A framework helps you stick to the point too, never a bad thing that. So my tips here would be:-
1. What aspect of the festive season will you be writing about? Are you going for Christian/Nativity linked stories or the secular market? (You can do both. I have).
2. The answer to 1 will give you ideas for the likely characters you want to write about. If you go for the Christian/Nativity basis for your tales, will you focus on the main characters or those who are lesser known or invent others who could have been there? The innkeeper’s wife is a good example of the latter.
3. If you go for the secular market, will you be writing about Santa, his employees, Mrs Christmas, characters inspired by a Christmas song (just who was rocking around the Christmas tree for example?).
4. I’ve found the best festive flashes tend to be under 500 words because these are often humorous tales and the shorter ones pack more of a humorous punch than longer tales. (You also have to wait longer with those for the payoff).
5. Focus on one character’s story, one moment in time, especially for those tales of 500 words or fewer. One of my longer flash tales in Seeing The Other Side follows the tale of a Christmas fairy over a significant part of the owner’s life. But I found it useful to focus on what the fairy witnesses during this timespan. That is the story as she sees the owner change (and yes it is one of my more thoughtful pieces).
6. It can be fun to end festive flash humorously, where appropriate, so it is useful to have a funny line as the ending. You leave your readers with a smile. With this kind of story, I know the punchline and work backwards to get to the start of the story.
Festive Characters
You have a good range here and don’t forget the pantomimes. Many of those add in characters from the original fairytales on which most of these are based. The classic example is the addition of Buttons to the Cinderella story.
But you could do that too. I’ve done so when I’ve written stories around the Nativity. I’ve had stories published based around the shepherds and the youngest shepherd boy being worried about having to leave the sheep only to be reassured it would be all right.
My tips for picking characters here include:-
1. Think about why you need these characters at all. If, say, you want to write about a character in the Nativity who isn’t in the traditional stories, think about who else would be likely to be around and able to witness the events. For example, the innkeeper and his wife would probably have had people working for them, their own family quite likely. Also in Bethlehem itself, who also saw the three wise men turn up? Someone would have spotted them! It’s hardly an everyday occurrence and as for that star, who else saw it?
2. If you’re going along the secular route, think along the lines of who works with Santa, ensuring the deliveries do get made. Also what happens when things go wrong? As for the fairy on the tree, maybe she’s got a tale or two to tell too.
3. Think about one moment to write about. The word count restriction for flash encourages that but it does mean you write a more focused story, again never a bad thing. So the witness to the three wise men turning up – who was that person, what did they make of it, did they tell anyone else, were they believed? Always ask questions around your character – what were they doing, why were they there, likely reactions etc. That is where you will find your story idea.
4. Think about story mood – funny or thoughtful or darker. And the latter can apply to stories set around the Nativity too. Who witnessed Herod’s murderous rage and his sending his soldiers to Bethlehem, for example? Though I must admit for writing to my website and newsletter, I keep the stories light. I tend to save darker tales for collections or suitable competitions usually though there is always an exception to any rule.
5. Think about why the story has to be set in the festive season. The season itself must be an essential part of the story, otherwise why write it in this time frame?
6. Keep dialogue appropriate to the character. Would they say “Merry Christmas” to someone or not? And there is always room for stories about those who don’t like the festive season – why is that? Can they change? (Dickens would say yes to that one!).
Conclusion
Festive flash fiction can be great fun to write. I try to share a story via my social media platforms, especially Substack and YouTube. It’s nice to come to the end of the year leaving readers with cheery stories which add something to the season.
Given life can be so grim at time, I firmly believe there is plenty of room for entertaining stories to provide some much needed escapism. Festive flash fiction can add to that.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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