Micromanagement: 7 Reasons You Should Write Microfiction

I’ve been writing microfiction almost daily for the past five years under the prompted #vss365 hashtag on all the social media sites I currently inhabit, and I’ve blogged about the benefits of tiny tales before, but it’s been a while, and, well, the social media landscape and some of my thoughts on the subject have changed (drastically in some cases). Anyway, I’ve gathered up these old ideas, updated them a tad, and stuck them in a new blog post. So, here are seven reasons I think writers should try their hand at microfiction.

1. Savage self-editing. One of the best parts of writing microfiction, at least for me, is how it forces you to be utterly brutal and precise with word choice and sentence structure. What I mean is it’s largely an exercise of stripping an idea down to its bare bones so that that only the most vital words remain, and when you do it right, there’s a beautiful simplicity to the piece. Depending on the kind of fiction you write (and how you write it), that’s a skill that translates to longer works, from flash fiction to novels. I tend to have a fairly Spartan style anyway, and I find writing microfiction still forces me to knuckle down and make those hard choices (almost always for the better).
2. Stretching your literary legs. If you’re writing microfiction based on a prompt like I’m doing, I think you’ll find yourself writing outside your comfort zone a lot. I often find myself dipping a toe into other genres and even subjects approaching lit-fic (hell, I’ve even written a few limericks). That’s maybe not something I would attempt with a longer piece, but with micro I feel like I can experiment a little. That said, I still write a lot about vampires, zombies, demons, and hitmen, but I might try out different premises and setting for my favorite monsters and madmen that I might not in a longer piece.
3. Story seed generator. Look, it’s pretty difficult to write a complete story around 50 words (it is possible, though), but even if you don’t end up with a perfect micro, you might end up with a pretty solid idea that can be expanded into a longer piece. I’ve written something like 1500 micros at this point, and I’ve developed a number of them into longer pieces. If I actually went back and looked at all those micros—a daunting task—I’m sure I’d find dozens of ideas just ripe for development into flash fiction, short stories, or, hell, full-blown novels.
4. Easy to share. Obviously, I’m writing microfiction on social media, so every piece is getting shared to the folks who follow me. That’s a big benefit because it’s an opportunity to potentially let a lot of people see my work in easy bite-sized chunks. It has also introduced me to a fantastic group of writers and THEIR awesome work. Let me tell you, there are some supremely talented folks writing microfiction under the #vss365 hashtag (and others), and I strongly urge you to follow those tags and take a look.
5. New Markets. Believe it or not, there are (many) places to submit your tiny tales. I’ve published three microfictions at these markets (and I really need to submit more). If you expand a bit into drabbles (exactly 100-word stories) and other short forms, there are even MORE markets. Getting published in these markets is pretty great too because most of them share your easily digestible story far and wide, which can bring folks to your blog, get you social media followers, and generally get more folks reading your work. It’s certainly worked that way for me.
6. Warm Up. Often the very first thing I write every day is my #vss365 microfiction. It’s challenging enough to get the ol’ creative juices flowing and get me nice and warmed up for the day’s writing. It’s like a good long stretch, really, useful on its own and as a complement to writing other things.
7. Distraction/Validation. Really important at the moment. I’m finding microfiction to be a welcome distraction. It’s a moment I can focus without all the stress, doubt, and worry that comes along with writing longer works, like a novel. Sometimes it’s even cathartic, and I might spin out a microfiction as a way of exorcising the demons to some extent.. Additionally, when I complete and post a micro, I get a nice little boost of confidence. Yeah, it’s a small thing, but I wrote it, finished it, and shared it. That’s not a bad way to begin your day.

So, there you go; seven solid reasons to write tiny. I can honestly say that microfiction has been a fantastic addition to my writing repertoire and has helped me overcome writer’s block, meet an awesome community of fellow writers, and provided me with some excellent story ideas. Well worth the ten minutes (or half an hour in some cases) it takes me to bang out another fifty-word epic about vampires or demons or hitmen or whatever. 🙂

Thoughts on microfiction? Let’s discuss in the comments.