One-Hour Flash Success Stories (2021 Update)

Many of the stories I write begin life as part of a prompted bi-weekly one-hour flash fiction writing contest. I’ve been doing this contest with my writing group for years, and some of the stories produced during these sprints turn out good enough to publish (a lot more don’t). I first published a list of my one-hour successes back in 2018. At that time, I’d managed to place 23 one-hour flash fiction stories. Since then, I’ve published 27 more. Not too shabby. If you’re curious, my success rate is about 37%. I’ve written 135 one-hour flashes and 50 of them have been accepted. I think that’s a solid ratio, and I expect it might even improve.

The updated table below lists the story title, where it was FIRST published (many of these stories have been sold again as reprints), and the length it was published at (some of these tales were expanded considerably). You’ll see a lot of repeat offenders in the publisher column, of course. The Arcanist and The Molotov Cocktail have published me a lot, for example. A few publishers listed below have closed their doors, but most are still in operation, so tracking down these tales shouldn’t be difficult if you’re so inclined. Of course, you can read most of these stories in my flash fiction collection Night Walk & Other Dark Paths, so, you know, go do that. 🙂

*Forthcoming

The point of all this is that the one-hour flash contest, and more so, the limitations it imposes, has been and continue to be very good for me from a creative standpoint. Some of my best work has come out of these one-hour mad dashes. Basically, when I force myself to write outside my comfort zone (with a clock and a weird prompt), I am likely to write something I normally wouldn’t out of sheer desperation and less likely to fall back on overused concepts and tropes. In other words, the contest keeps me on my creative toes, and that’s a good thing.

If you’re in a bit of a creative rut, I wholeheartedly recommend giving the one-hour flash fiction contest a shot with your writing group. It’s fun, a little bit terrifying, and, who knows? You might just end up starting a one hour success list of your own. 🙂

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