I'm having the hardest time keeping the word count down for a short story I'm working on. Err - rather a short short story - 1500 words aprox 3 pages. Could be I'm trying to jam too much info in. I've got three scenes planned. But I'm thinking three is too much. Then I was thinking of doing it in flashback - but does anyone like flashback stories out there. I don't mind them, if they're done well. Okay, I'm yammering... Anyone got any tips - how to cut down on word count? or that one scene would work best?
Flash fiction is a real challenge, although1500 words is on the high side of flash. But it's a worthwhile exercise, in my opinion, because it teaches you how to be concise with your use of language, and surgically precise with your storytelling. Sometimes it means you have to simplify your story. But mostly it's a matter of tightening your focus and ruthlessly pruning anything that isn't completely necessary to the story.
there IS a 'short short' category [under 1k] between 'flash' [99-1k] and 'short' [2k-7.5k]... so you're well within the short short range at 1.5k and should have nothing to worry about... if a flashback is really needed for your story to work, go ahead and put it in... but if it's not, a straight timeline usually works best for short stories of any size, so don't stick it in just for the helluvit... and don't consider page count, or scene count... only word count counts!...
