Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. And I (eventually) wrap up my favorites of these into a “FridayFlash Favorites” post.

Recently, I’ve posted two short-short stories:

• “Of Death and Smiles,” about a man who wants to live forever, and it changes his life in a way he never expected;
• “The Woman Who Loved Men,” a twist on a kinda-cool storyline from The Love Boat (which has nothing to do with the novel or films of the same name). — And yes, even The Love Boat had the occasional storyline that I don’t have to feel guilty for enjoying.

I’m up to February 4 in my #FridayFlash reading, and though I continue to fall behind, here are…

7 #FridayFlash Favorites

(in no particular order)

• “Zumba, Meet Depression” by Lou Freshwater — Take heart. You can “make Zumba tapes for home.”

• “Unraveled” by Laurita Miller — The things we do for family.

• “The Zombie Poets” by Trevor Belshaw — A funny twist on the zombi concept. Yes, they really are everywhere, and I wish I could escape them!

• “Safety First” by Rachel Blackbirdsong — And this is why you should not worry. Sufficient is the day for its own trouble.

• “The Ring” by Deanna Schrayer — A very special ring for a very special person.

• “Waiting For Zachary” by Al Bruno III — Is this love? This story will make the skin of your heart crawl.

• “Family Matters” by A.M. Harte — How much does family matter to you? By the way, how much meat is there in Argentina?

Note: While I do browse Twitter for #FridayFlash posts, the best way to get me to read yours is to put it on the #FridayFlash Collector. I judge posted stories according to my own preferred flash fiction qualities; your mileage may vary. To be selected as one of my #FridayFlash Favorites, the post must be a genuine flash story, not a chapter in a longer piece, a series of one-paragraph vignettes, or anything else. It should have a beginning (conflict), a middle (thickening), and an end (resolution). Not necessarily a happy ending (though I do enjoy happy endings), but whatever conflict the story introduces at the beginning, it must resolve at the end. No fair building up suspense and then stopping in the middle of the story, just to avoid figuring out how to save the hero in 1,000 words or less; that’s cheating. The story should also be a single scene, because multi-scene flash usually does too much “telling” and doesn’t “show” enough to engage me in the story. (And scene divisions stop the flow, which I usually dislike in flash.)

Till next week, and…

Keep writing!
-TimK