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Written by Elizabeth Genco
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Tuesday, 01 November 2005 |
Short-short stories, a.k.a. flash fiction, can help you build serious writing chops. They're also a hoot to write. Elizabeth examines the form and dishes up tips on how to write your own.
No, I don't mean that. Put your pants back on. Geez.
I'm talking about flash fiction, one of my favorite bits of writing practice.
You know from flash fiction, don't you? If you're a Warren Ellis aficionado (and really, who isn't), you're probably familiar with the form. Or perhaps you've read Neil Gaiman's "15 Portraits of Despair" in ENDLESS NIGHTS. Or maybe you're a closet highbrow and you've run into some short bits in magazines like the New Yorker and the Atlantic.
These days, you don't have to go very far before someone's flashing. Short-short fiction is making a comeback; it's everywhere. Me, I read the Gaiman ENDLESS NIGHTS thing and decided that it might be really fun to follow his lead and write a flash fiction piece for each of the Tarot's Major Arcana (you can read a sample of the results here and order the chapbook here). It was fun. And really, really hard. And excellent practice.
Even if you don't think of yourself as a prose writer, you can get a lot out of trying your hand at flash fiction. The practice of writing shorts is infinitely versatile. You can target a certain part of craft, like plotting or dialogue, for improvement. Because they're so short (most of my flash is around 300 words, though word counts can range from 50 to 1000 words), you're forced to say only what you really mean, a challenge for us long-winded types and a crucial skill for any writer.
Shorts are also make for good psychological reinforcement. Jay Lake, a speculative fiction writer who sells dozens of stories a year (who says there's no making a living writing short stories anymore?), uses shorts as an integral part of his practice and encourages others to do the same. Jay's process (which he elaborates on here) involves writing a story a week. Length doesn't matter, so if he has a particularly busy week, he writes a piece of flash, both meeting his goal and producing a piece of saleable writing, too.
Don't know where to begin with writing flash fiction? Here are a few strategies to help you get started.
1. Read a lot of flash fiction stories. You knew this was coming. If you want to get a feel for the form, you'll have to take a lot of it in. Homework haters can rejoice, as it's all, you know, short (heh). Luckily, a lot of it is free, too. Online, check out the online flash fiction zine Flashquake. For you genre fiction types, the FlashShot mailing list will deliver a new story to your mailbox every day, each around 100 words. There's also Michael Azaran's Gorelets, where you'll find samples of his horror flash and links to other flash resources. These sites are just the tip of the iceberg of what's out there.
2. Start with a small idea. Remember, this isn't your OGN or your six-issue limited series here. Flash fiction shines the light on a single idea, but flashlights don't have a whole lot of range. Concentrate on illuminating a single moment in all its brilliance. Your small idea can always be developed into a bigger piece later (flash is great for generating ideas for longer pieces, too).
3. Get the entire story written in whatever way that you can. You've got your small idea. Now, go. Don't worry about your word choice or word count or much of anything other than getting your story on paper. I find that writing as fast as possible helps here, too, though it can be hard to write fast when you're not accustomed to it. Personally, I've never been all that great at writing fast, but in the spirit of running through the cafeteria naked (you know, flashing), I try to write first and ask questions later. It seems to work pretty well.
4. Then edit like a mofo. That's the "ask questions" part. Question everything, starting with the basic elements of fiction. Is there really a story here? Is there conflict and resolution? Does a change occur? Can the reader make sense of the setting? What about the characters?
Not all flash fiction pieces have to consist of a beginning, middle and end; what flash fiction is/ain't is rather loosely defined. If your pieces don't follow the traditional narrative arc, no need to sweat it, unless you're planning on sending the piece out to a market that demands it (and most do). That's not to say you shouldn't go for it, however. Creating a narrative arc in such a small space is extremely challenging. That alone makes it excellent practice, and well worth your time.
After you've got the big picture covered, it's time to start cutting out extra words. Ditch every clause, phrase, and word that doesn't absolutely need to be there. Take it word by word, if you like. Make every word earn its keep.
5. Use dialogue to do the dirty work. In fiction, dialogue's big job is to move the story along. If you take a look at some of your favorite comics by the masters, say, you'll see this in action. Take advantage of dialogue's strengths to save space when writing flash fiction. Conflict can be created in simple exchanges; tone of voice can be used to create vivid pictures in the minds of your audience. Speaking of which…
6. Rely on what the reader already knows. If you refer to things for which your audience already has a solid frame of reference, you won't have to describe them, and you'll save a lot of words. When I say "sleeping beauty", chances are good that you'll know what I'm talking about, if you speak English and you were born in the United States. "Sleeping beauty" conveys a lot of information, as does "Civil War" and "McDonald's".
By the same token, beware of using references that are too obscure. A certain kind of person may chuckle when I mention "wankel rotary engine", but nerds are but a small (albeit delightful) subset of the human population.
Flash fiction demands skills crucial to all forms of fiction writing. As such, you can use it to target or practice certain areas of craft where you may be rusty. Force yourself to create dialogue that moves by writing a story consisting of nothing but. Test your plotting skills by writing a flash piece with a narrative arc. Work on your word choices by giving yourself a word count of 300 or so. And so on.
Flash fiction is good for one more thing, too: exposure. There are many, many small press genre markets that accept flash fiction. Read up on those markets here.
Elizabeth Genco recently completed a chapbook of her flash fiction, PORTRAITS OF TWENTY-TWO KEYS, which you can check out here. When not flashing, Elizabeth writes comics, book reviews for the Endicott Studio, freelance articles on Tarot, and is working on her first novel.
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