Can every Flash grow to a Series?
At first, I thought this post would be about the potential of serializing your Flash. But, as I was gathering information, I ran into very important instances of how Flash works (or not) when there are non-human creatures, in an epic or high fantasy world with its magic system, or sci-fi stories featuring galaxies and other worlds.
In my Infographic How to Write Flash, I mentioned that a Flash must have:
one POV
as few characters as possible
one scene
one location
conflict.
After that, I received stories that met all those requirements - and yet still felt off.
I proceeded to analyze the stories, trying to figure out what went wrong.
BAM!
There were way too many details that were unknown to me. Non-human creatures used as the protagonist (POV character), other non-human characters - all different, but this difference wasn’t something explained within the story which is set in a world different from ours.
To craft a good story featuring non-human characters, you need to use their ‘odd’ behaviour in action, in order to make them both believable and relatable (e.g. in Seduction you can see how the angel is not used to her wings and the demon is constantly turning into smoke).
To make a high fantasy or sci-fi world believable, you need to describe the space around your characters - so if you mention a galaxy or another world, the reader will unconsciously want to have more information about it, which means you need to describe something unusual.
Doing both requires a lot of words, taking away from the actual conflict, thus making the reader unsatisfied with the final result, even if the story told in Flash doesn’t break the well-crafted story’s structure.
So, in order to write a strong Speculative Fiction Flash that includes non-human characters, consider placing them in a familiar backdrop. Or, use human characters in an unfamiliar setting. Trying to do both would take away from the actual story.
e.g. In Seduction there are non-human characters -- angel and demon -- but they act on an easily relatable background - library.
Now, when we finally made clear what should (and shouldn’t) be in well-crafted Flash, let’s dig into the topic of, Can every Flash grow into a series?
Every writer has advantages and limitations when working on different topics. At least, as an author, I prefer to write about things I know or have experienced. For example, I could expand my Flash Mentor in Alien Language Class into a novella, because I have some mentoring experience. But I wouldn’t like to work on a space theme (at least for now), because I don’t have a lot of experience there :D.
I have an interest in History and would enjoy digging into the topics mentioned in the Time Traveler Flash. In fact, I’m already writing my first novella in this series.
Red String - I’m committed to making it part of a set of serialized Flashes. However, I don’t even want to try and extend Seduction (the characters are lovely, but I’m satisfied with how the story ended and don’t want to ruin a perfect ending).
A Flash portfolio can help to introduce readers to an author’s versatility - their ability to handle different styles and moods.
Use flash to develop your characters and practice world-building.
Never forget Flash is meant to be simple and self-contained.
Resist the temptation to over-complicate matters and force it into a series.
