6 Great Publications To Share Your Flash Fiction and Hone Your Skills
We love you at Microcosm, but you need to spread your wings
At Microcosm, we like to help our writers build their skills with a daily writing practice that feeds their souls.
As someone who has struggled with Time Anxiety, a daily practice has been the single best way for me to overcome my persistent fear of wasting time.
If you want to write and publish daily, you’re going to need more places than just us. Although you’re welcome to publish more than one story a week.
Let’s start with our first 6 publications! Next week I’ll share markets outside of Medium to test the waters outside our lovely walled garden.
1. Centina Pentina
“‘Great things come in small packages,’ they say. But I’ve noticed small things also come in small packages.” — J.A. Taylor
Run by the two great writers J.A. Taylor and Bill Adler. This is one of my favorite publications; it has an amazing community, and Bill is the most helpful editor I’ve come across so far. I’ve learned a great deal with his patient support.
Cetina Pentina focuses on stories of 100 or 50 words; their inspiring prompts are out on Fridays.
📌 Use the tags ‘Centina’ (for 100-word stories) and ‘Pentina’ for 50. 📌 Their Writer’s Choice prompts allow you to choose which length best suits your story.
- Submission Guidelines: Become a writer by leaving a response.
- Writing Guides: How to Write Better Pentinas and Centinas | How to Edit Your Centina and Pentina | Microfiction Writing Tips
2. The Bad Influence
We’re a Bad Influence because we INCITE change through inclusion, thought and creativity. We imagine a world where people can think critically, express themselves, and thumb their nose at the status quo, together.
The Bad Influence has quite a few editors, which bodes well from submission turnaround times. Some of the editors who also write a lot for the pub include Reuben Salsa, Jonica Bradley, and Chris Hedges.
This publication has a colorful personality and looks like a lot of fun to write for. They accept Flash Fiction or very short stories in two forms.
📌 Note they have separate guidelines for each form. 📌 Follow them on Twitter for an easy way to see their weekly prompts 📌 Both prompts are out on a Monday
- Submission Guidelines: 100 words | 50 words
- Other Links: The Story of their Mascot | Twitter | LinkedIn
3. The Junction
The Junction is a literary crossroads devoted to stories, culture, and ideas. Our interests are legion.
The Junction is managed by Stephen M. Tomic, Mike Sturm, and Sven Howard; with over 14K subscribers, they’re quite a large fiction pub.
They publish a host of writing besides Flash Fiction, including Serial Fiction, which might be something to look into if you fall in love with a particular Flash piece.
- Submission Guidelines: Link to contributor form in the text.
- Other Links: Flash Fiction Tag
4. Sci-Fi Shorts
J.A. Taylor and Rod Castor run this publication for science fiction stories of 500 words or less. Their submission guidelines give detailed indications of what exactly they’re looking for.
A fun fact and something I love about the publication is all stories are given a public domain comic book image, which gives a consistent and very nostalgic feel to Sci-Fi Shorts.
- Submission Guidelines: Use their submission form.
- Writing Guides: Tips for Writing Sci-Fi Flash Fiction
- Other Links: Prompts | Stories from the Founder | Editor’s Stories | Insta
5. The Weekly Knob
A weekly publication dedicated to ‘prompting writers to write’. Weekly writing challenge. New edition published every Saturday. Supporting creative writing in all genres and writers at every level of development.
The publication is run by Sandy Knight, Aura Wilming, and Geoff Atkins. With almost 13K readers, the venerable Weekly Knob is both a large publication and the oldest weekly prompt pub on Medium.
They promise their ‘premise is simple but challenging’ — each week, they nominate an ordinary object that must be an integral part of your story.
📌 The Weekly Knob runs things a little differently, favoring a patron model. All writers can contribute non-paywalled stories, while paywalled stories are reserved for supporting authors. 📌 Prompt usually out on Saturday (currently Promptus Interruptus 😕)
- Submission Guidelines: Email [email protected] (see details)
- Other Links: Patreon Page | Random Prompt Generator
6. Fantasy Shorts
“When someone told me I lived in a fantasy land, I nearly fell off my unicorn.” — Anonymous
Fantasy Shorts is another (what’s with this guy!) pub by J.A. Taylor; this one focuses on Fantasy Stories in 500 words or less. They have a detailed and helpful submission guide to help you craft the right story for Fantasy Shorts.
Like Sci-Fi Shorts, Fantasy Shorts use public domain images from the British Library and other archives to lend a recognizable aesthetic to their pub. No need to find an image for your story.
- Submission Guidelines: Use their submission form
- Writing Guides: Tips for Writing Fantasy Flash Fiction
- Other Links: Prompts
Of course, you’re always welcome to write at Microcosm, but these six great Medium publications each have their own unique benefits for you to learn and grow as a writer. Good luck!
Daily Practice Challenge: Take these six publications and Microcosm and you build a weekly schedule, with a different prompt and publication every day of the week.
