Splickety Magazine and Flash Fiction

Hello Seekerville! I come to you from the flashy side of fiction today to share some information about Splickety Publishing Group where I work as Operations Manager.

Who is Splickety? Let’s start at the beginning.

In 2010 Ben Erlichman, aka our fearless leader Ben Wolf, decided to publish fiction for busy people. Short stories they could read fast. But he needed a name. By divine intervention, he smashed his hands into the keyboard, and the letters “splkty” popped up on the screen. So began Splickety magazine.

Ben, along with Arpit Mehta (Art Director) and Andrew Winch (Editor ), turned out a total of three magazines in 2011. By 2012 they could barely keep up with their growth. In 2014 so many stories were coming in, they couldn’t keep up with them all. Splickety Love and Havok were born.

The original magazine was then renamed Splickety Prime. Today, we’re the premiere source of flash fiction, both online and in print.

But, what IS flash fiction?

Flash fiction is a story that is told in 1,000 words or less. It breaks down from there into micro fiction (300 words or less) and nano fiction (100 words or less).When you’re talking flash fiction, every word counts, and often does double duty so the story packs as much power as possible.

Think of it this way: boiling a liquid down into a concentrated essence is called a reduction. What we’re doing with flash fiction is boiling a story down (a reduction) until you bring out its essence. Ka-boom!

Notice that last sentence? I originally wrote, “And boy, is it powerful!” But, doesn’t ka-boom say it all in one word? Did you see the proverbial explosion in your head? I did.

That’s how you boil a story down.

But, you may wonder how would one begin to write flash fiction?

I polled Splickety’s staff and came up with a few great tips:

1.      Lindsay Bracket, our Web Content Editor says, “Treat the story as a snapshot, one moment in time. Don’t try to write an epic in 1000 words. There’s no time for that.”

2.      Erika Wisdom, Havok’s Production Manager says, “I tend to focus on one big action, and one main character.”

3.      Sarah Grimm, Splickety Prime’s Lead Editor suggests, “Don't try and hit the target word count the first time through. Write less so you have room to add during revisions if needed.”

Some writer’s think that because it’s a short story the standards are lower. Not so. If anything the writing must be stellar to be selected for our magazines. Splickety’s mission includes setting the standard for what flash fiction is.

What’s in store for the future at Splickety? We are planning to expand our magazine borders by introducing non-fiction and fiction book publishing divisions. Splickety book publishing will be open for submissions in 2016. Stay tuned to our Lightning Blog for updates!

World domination. It’s what we do.

Does writing 50, 70, or 90,000 words intimidate you? Have you started a book, only to quit before you finish it? Here's a way to build up those literary muscles: give flash fiction a try! Let's talk about Flash Fiction and what an opportunity it can be. 

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To sign up for Splickety’s newsletter and keep up with all of our amazing news and magazines, visit our Lightning blog (http://splicketypubgroup.com/lightning-blog/ ). If you’re interested in submitting a story to one of our magazines, check out our fun themes for 2016 (http://splicketypubgroup.com/submission-guidelines/2016-themes/ ). Or, if you’re into world domination as well, you can subscribe to one, two, or all three of our magazines (http://splicketypubgroup.com/subscribe/ ).

Dawn Ford has been writing young adult fantasy and adult small town dramas for eight years. She blogs with nine other Christian women at www.inkspirationalmessages.com and you can find her lurking in the cyber hallways, making sure everything gets done at Splickety Publishing Group.