Image Credits:-
Images were created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. AI images avoided. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.
I was delighted to have another story, Out With The Old, recently broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM recently. It was also a joy to hear the other tales too, especially since another was from a dear friend of mine from the Association of Christian Writers.
https://www.mixcloud.com/Hannahs_Bookshelf/hannahs-bookshelf-spring-equinox-special-21032026/
I often submit work to Hannah’s Three Minute Santas show later in the year but I fancied a go at the spring show and was pleased my tale went on.
For this kind of show, flash fiction is in its element. All contributing authors have only three minutes maximum to record their stories. I’ve found that leads to a word count of around the 175 to 200 words mark so very much in my field.
The shows give listeners a chance to find out more about flash fiction simply by hearing some. Naturally the authors taking part welcome the publicity from this and the listen again link gives us something to share on our website and social media.
Tips For Flash Fiction For Possible Broadcast
As with any fiction, get your story drafted and rest it for a while. You can always draft something else in the meantime. It’s what I do and has increased my productivity levels.
After the break from the story, you should more easily spot works and what doesn’t. You’ll be able to read the story with fresh eyes, basically taking the tale in as a reader would. You do need to get yourself out of the mindset of creating something and then go into the mindset of looking for the faults/working out how to improve things further. I’ve found having time away from the piece is the only way which works for me to give me that necessary distance to be able to get into that second mindset at all.
Once you’ve sorted the story out, read it out loud. Better still record it on Zoom and play the recording back. You’ll hear how you sound, for one thing. Are you speaking too fast? That is so easy to do and is something which Zoom has shown me I tend to do so I now know to look out for this and rectify it.
You can also hear how the pacing of the tale works, are you placing emphasises in the right places and so on. The recording will also show you the time your story has taken to be read and recorded. I find that the most useful thing of all. It means there is no guesswork on my part when I come to send the story in (which is usually done by using a record link from the broadcaster. You usually read your own work for these things).
Tips For The Story Itself
Don’t have too many characters. I find it useful to keep it to a maximum of two for such short pieces as these. That makes dialogue possible which does engage a listener’s attention but you can’t have the characters going on at length. Mind you, that is no bad thing!
For such a short piece as this, I find it useful to know roughly what the ending is going to be, especially if I’m using a punchline or twist ending. That means I know what leads directly to that and this in turn gives me pointers as to how the story can open.
Think about the impact you want your story to have on a listener. Do you want to make them laugh, cry, or shudder? Do you want your piece to be a thoughtful, reflective one? The latter can work amazingly well but need to be led by character(s) who grip the reader. Their thoughts/dialogue will move the piece along but all of this needs to build towards a powerful, emotive ending.
Knowing the impact you want will speed up the writing process if only because it will rule out other avenues. You know you want to write a sad story, say. You then give thought as to what it is about the character and/or their situation which would trigger that sadness. You follow a particular route here.
Character motivation should be clear and believable too. They’ve got to stick to the point in this short tale. It will be a case for the listener of wanting to listen on to see if the character gets what they want or not. Listeners should see where the character is coming from, even if they don’t like the character.
Rehearse
I find it pays to have a couple of practice runs before I submit anything on a broadcast link. I use my Zoom recording as one of these. Doing this helps steady the nerves because you know you can do it. You’ve rehearsed it after all. But also it means you can know your story sounds good. It has to be reasonably easy to read. There is no room for anything complicated here.
The biggest problem to watch for here is not to garble your story. It’s so easy to do. The adrenaline is going because you are performing here but you want to rein that in a bit so you can read at a good pace without racing through the material.
Can you over-rehearse? Yes, just as you can over-edit. At some point you do have to let the material go out there. I limit to two/three read throughs because by then I really should have ironed out any issues and be good to go in submitting the piece.
Conclusion
Community and internet radio can give opportunities for writers to get some material on the air. Go for it if you have the chance. I’ve found you’re thinking of your audience as you write, edit and rehearse your story. That’s a good thing. We want our stories to go down well. You do have to think of the audience’s needs here. It makes it more likely your story will go down well.
I also think radio and flash fiction are a match made in heaven. The stories can break up the show into segments (which Hannah Kate does). It makes for an interesting mix of story styles. None of the stories can go on for too long. Someone listening in will have the time to listen to one or more complete stories. They might not have the time to listen to a whole chapter of a novel, say.
So there are opportunities for the short form writer here. I love seeing this as a huge advert for short form writing.
Hope you enjoy listening to the Hannah Kate show, link above. It was great fun taking part in this.
Related Posts:-
Books On The Radio – Local Author News – Richard Hardie/Allison Symes
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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