One of the most important parts of writing a ficlet is self-editing. With only 1024 characters to get a complete mini-story across (see #3, Ficlet Structure), you may need to be ruthless.

Check the Internet or your library for more detailed advice, but here’s a simple 3-step guide.

1. Plan ahead. After you write a few ficlets, you’ll start to get an idea of about how much story will fit in one 1024-byte chunk. Try to plot out just that much.

2. Overwrite. Don’t worry if you’re not quite done by the time you hit 1024 characters. Don’t interrupt your flow. Finish your idea, then see what you have to cut.

3. Prune deadwood. Ask yourself, “Does this word/sentence/paragraph move the story along? Do I really have to keep it?” If the answer is “no,” see what the story looks like if you remove it. Adjectives and adverbs are great candidates for removal. Especially words like “really,” “very,” “somewhat,” “slightly,” and so on. Try removing every single one from your story and see how it looks.