The purpose of this article is to share my method for obtaining more votes in flash fiction competition. My hope is that this article will give other writers an approach to improve their results in competition, and the reward of continuing to craft interesting stories.
A little background first. When I learned about the Indies Unlimited site in early 2012, one of the things that interested me most was the weekly Flash Fiction competition. Many of the weekly picture and story prompts would beckon a story.
There was a feeling of accomplishment when I finally had complied with the 250-word constraint and had something I was proud of. However, after weeks of non-winning results in the weekly voting, I was ready to put my efforts elsewhere.
Life presents many opportunities and someone came to my rescue, and encouraged me to continue entering. I studied what I might have been doing wrong and realized it was not about the quality of my story; it was about not getting enough votes to win. Most of us know ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is not just about the three judges’ votes, it is about viewer votes. Realizing this Flash Fiction competition was about reader votes set me to having more supporting readers.
Here’s what I did that changed many of the stories into winning entries. Continue reading “One Writer’s Guide to Flash Fiction Success”
