Wed 16 May 2012

Today is National Flash Fiction Day

Posted by Gay Degani under flash, Inspiration, interview
1 Comment

May 16th National Flash Fiction Day

We’re about half way through Short Story Month and today is National Flash Fiction Day. Hard to find stories any shorter than flash! This event is the brainchild of Calum Kerr from the UK and since the day is in honor of flash, Flash Fiction Chronicles asked Calum a few questions.

Calum Kerr is a writer, editor, lecturer and director of National Flash-Fiction Day. His stories have appeared in Bugged, Litro, Flash, Shoestring, The Pygmy Giant, Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Delinquent, Ether Books, and on BBC Radio 4. His pamphlet 31, is available on Kindle on Amazon, and his new collection, Braking Distance, was published by Salt in April. Between 2011-2012 he wrote a flash-fiction every day over at Flash365 .

Flash Fiction Chronicles: Why National Flash Fiction Day?

Calum Kerr: I’m a writer of flash-fiction and when National Poetry Day came along last October, I thought to look for a National Flash-Fiction Day. There wasn’t one, so I suggested the idea to a few other writers on the internet. They thought it was a good idea, and so here it is. I originally planned it just to be a few events held by people I already knew, but it’s grown like crazy and now encompasses half the globe with competitions, anthologies, readings, workshops and more springing up all over the place. It’s almost as though people were ready and waiting for this idea to come along.

FFC: So you are a flash writer, and are you a publisher too?

CK: I’m both, actually. I’ve been writing for decades, but only seriously in the last few years. I started writing flash back in 2010, and since them I have completed a month-long daily flash project and a year-long one as well—flash365.blogspot.com. I am also the editor of Gumbo Press, an online publisher that has, for NFFD, branched out into its first flash pamphlet—“Enough” by Bristol Prize 2010 winner, Valerie O’Riordan.

FFC: How has the internet helped this relatively new genre of fiction grow?

CK:I think it’s made a lot of difference. Publishers—whether of books or magazines—were maybe not keen to publish tiny stories either singly or collected, but online, where the cost of production is so much less, the risk is less. As such, the form has had a chance to grow and become something really established and the more traditional publishers are now starting to follow along.

FFC: What is your definition of “flash?”

CK: Mine comes from the writer’s point of view, rather than the reader’s. So it’s not actually about length (which informs the usual definition). For me, it’s about writing from a prompt with no pre-conceived idea of what the story is going to be; just taking the stimulus and seeing where it leads. After that, there is the crafting to make sure every word is pulling its weight, but for me the “flash” comes in the writing rather than the reading.

For more information about national Flash Fiction Day (NFFD), visit the Natrional Flash Fiction Day blog: http://nationalflashfictionday.blogspot.com/. for more information about everything Calum Kerr does, go to www.calumkerr.co.uk and http://unmitigated-audacity.blogspot.co.uk/.

 

And if you want to participate in FFC’s own event, please go to our Facebook page and post your favorite story online. Can be off line I suppose, but prefer stories—classics too—that readers can find easily. Our goal this year is to give readers access to 114 excellent stories or more. (Last year we had 113). I will add the stories to a “note” here as the picks come in. That note will remain available as a note on FFC’s Facebook page. Here are the “rules.”

POST YOUR FAVORITE SHORT STORIES at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Fiction-Chronicles/111807932198001

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Mon 14 May 2012

How Flash is Like a House

Posted by Erin Entrada Kelly under advice, craft, fiction, flash
[5] Comments

by Erin Entrada Kelly

One of the best functions of flash fiction is the ability for writers to create a momentary peephole into a greater story. In fiction, as in life, it’s the small things that matter, and there are fewer art forms more ideally structured to offer life in small doses than flash.

But where to begin? We’re all full of big ideas. For many writers, a big idea can easily burgeon into an epic; sometimes it grows to such a point that the story seems too daunting to put on paper. Yet the compulsion to tell the story—and tell it quickly—still exists.

If you crowd all the furniture of the house into the living room, your reader will have trouble making much out of anything when they look through the peephole, but the answer isn’t to clear all the dressers and tables and chairs out of the house. It’s to limit your peephole to a single room.

The novelist writes of a divorcing couple’s journey from marital bonds to severed ties. Forget the peephole, they’re inviting you into the house with a wide open door so you can explore as you please. The short-storyteller writes of a divorcing couple’s day of reckoning—the moment when one breaks the news to the other, or when they finally sign the papers, or when they sit down with the kids. You may not have access to the house, but you’re sitting on the couch.

One of the joys of flash-fiction writing is the ability to delve even further, to adjust the scope until the big-picture gets smaller and smaller and fits inside a peephole of one-thousand words or less. The flash-fiction storyteller writes not of the couple’s romantic saga or their final days, but of the moment when the wife realizes she doesn’t love her husband anymore. That moment is the single room—and in the hands of a skilled storyteller, that room is enough to tell us more about the rest of the house.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Erin Entrada Kelly is staff editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles. Her fiction has been published widely in places like Keyhole Magazine, Monkeybicycle and the Kyoto Journal. She was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer National Fiction Prize and the Philippines Free Press Literary Award for Short Fiction. Her debut novel is forthcoming from HarperCollins’ Greenwillow Books. She currently works as a freelance fiction editor and is represented by the Jenks Agency. Read more at www.erinentradakelly.com. Find her on Twitter here.

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Fri 11 May 2012

Through the Looking Glass

Posted by Gay Degani under craft, Inspiration, life experience, motivation, reprint from another source
[6] Comments

Beth Lee-BrowningThis is part of a continuing series.

by Beth Lee- Browning

For the past six weeks I’ve woken up on Saturday morning, made a pot of coffee, written in my journal, and raced to my laptop to write about the previous week’s lesson. That was not the case this week; I started and stopped more times than I can count. I suppose it’s ironic that week seven of Walking in This World  by Julia Cameron is entitled Discovering a Sense of Momentum and she introduces it by saying “Creativity thrives on small, do-able actions. This week dismantles procrastination as a major creative block.” Apparently I needed to do a bit more dismantling.

I flipped through my notes for the umpteenth time and I found myself coming back to the task Easy Does it but Do it. It dawned on me that while I had completed the task, I hadn’t experienced the lesson.  I read the words and thought I understood what Julia was saying as she explained that ideas, like emotions can cause anxiety and make you to feel as if you are going to explode if they are kept bottled up. She described it as a “creative logjam” resulting from too many, not too few, ideas and spoke about the concept of taking small positive actions to keep the creative momentum flowing forward. “The truer the dream, the more creative pressure it has, and the more important it is to begin with small actions to keep them from getting frozen up. Don’t just talk. Do.”

I had to admit to myself that I had just gone through the motions when I followed the instructions to list five areas in my home that could benefit from some straightening up and in doing so I completely missed that the point was not to make a list and think about it, but to actually do it.

I looked at the laundry basket of clothes waiting to be put away and decided to take Julia’s advice, “If your head is awhirl and you ‘cannot think straight,’ then start by straightening something up. Fold your laundry. Sort your drawers….often, when we are engaged in such small, homely tasks, a sense of being ‘at home’ will steal over us. When we take the time to husband the details of our lives, we may encounter a sense of grace.”

One thing led to another and a few hours later, I had a clean house, an organized writing space, a clear head, and a fresh perspective. I was surprised to find that I was ready to write.

In the midst of it all I had a minor meltdown, but perhaps the author is right and it wasn’t a meltdown as much as it was a break through. “When we have creative breakthroughs, they may look and even be experienced as break downs. Our normal, ordinary way of seeing ourselves and the world suddenly goes on tilt, and as it does, a new way of seeing and looking at things comes toward us.”

These days my world feels turned upside down and when I look in the mirror I’m not entirely sure who is looking back at me. I see myself with what Julia refers to as “Strobe-light clarity. We look so different, so impossibly possible to ourselves that we are caught off guard.” I see my future, not through rose colored glasses, but with frightening precision and at the same time disturbing vagueness. My destiny has changed and so have my dreams. I don’t know how it will be achieved, but I know it will be.

The chapter ended with the ever so practical advice, Finish Something. Surprisingly, the “something” wasn’t about finishing a piece of poetry, an essay, or a painting, it was just about “finishing.” I found myself thoroughly engaged by the story of a young composer who bounced from project to project, full of energy and “promise,” but could never quite deliver.

His close friend and mentor advised him to clean up his arranging room, to organize his mess. He resisted and dawdled, and if not for the gentle prodding of his friend he would have quit. When he was done he “felt determination,” and moved beyond having “promise” to completing projects and feeling productive. The author didn’t say so, but I suspect he also felt peace.

We often stop before we start, afraid to try something new. We forget that we’ve encountered and mastered things we never thought we could. The learning curve isn’t easy, in fact can be downright scary, but it’s also exciting and mysterious and the destination is well worth the trip.

 

This article was originally published on November 7, 2011 at it’s a whole new world.

 ___________________________________

 Beth Lee-Browning lives outside of Philadelphia, is a transplanted Midwesterner, and a mid-life woman who is discovering the joy of living life to its fullest and under her own rules. She chronicles her adventures from the ordinary to the unusual with keen and thought provoking observations, a unique wit, sensitivity and an underlying theme that “everything is going to be all right.”

Read Beth’s blog at it’s a whole new world.

 

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Wed 9 May 2012

Interview: Ao-Hui Lin Has EDF’s Top Story for April

Posted by Sue Ann under advice, genre, interview
[12] Comments

Sue Ann ConnaughtonBy Sue Ann Connaughton 

In “Navel Gazing,” Every Day Fiction’s top story for April, Ao-Hui Lin gets close and confessional with readers in a conversation about diet, lovers, and expanding navels in a cross-genre piece with elements of mystery, horror, speculation, fantasy, romance, and realism.

Flash Fiction Chronicles interviewed Lin about the importance of a truthful narrator, intended message to readers, her writing process, and advice for reaching a wide audience without sacrificing personal style. 

FFC: The readers of Every Day Fiction rated “Navel Gazing” exceptionally high on the star-rating scale and in the comments.  Why do you think the story was so popular with readers? 

Lin: First of all, I’m immensely gratified that it was rated so highly and I sincerely thank everyone who took the time to rate and comment. I’ve read so many wonderful stories at Every Day Fiction, and I’m honored that readers found my story entertaining. As to why, I think it’s because the story doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s definitely horror and fantasy and possibly tragedy, but nevertheless a thread of light humor runs through the whole thing. There are places where I was going for a giggle even if I followed it up with something that I hoped would make the reader shudder.

It’s also one of those stories that takes an unexpected turn and yet the end is still somehow inevitable. 

FFC: Joe’s character is portrayed entirely through the narrator’s eyes—a couple of physical traits, diet behavior, his mysterious demise—but she may be an unreliable narrator.

When is it important and when might it be unimportant, for the reader to believe the narrator is telling the truth? 

Lin: I think it’s important to create a bond between reader and narrator, so playing with an unreliable narrator is always tricky. At no point, do I want the reader to feel like he or she has been lied to, because that breaks the bond. The reader needs to know that my narrator is sincere; she’s not trying to fool the reader even if she’s reluctant to elaborate.

As an aside, though I’m using the pronoun “she” for simplicity’s sake, I never explicitly state that the narrator is a woman, and in my own mind I’m not committed one way or another. Many readers will take the reference to anorexia and the narrator’s relationship with Joe and come up with “woman,” but that’s definitely not a given. What is given is that the narrator loved Joe passionately and was deeply affected by his death.

Which brings me back to the unreliability. Is she (or he) so unbalanced by her loss that she’s created this horrific image in her head, or did it really happen? I think the story works either way, as long as the reader believes that the narrator loved Joe and is genuinely terrified. Whether the reader buys into the creepy crawlies, or decides that the narrator is unhinged, or some combination of the two, it’s all still firmly along a spectrum of horror, either physical or psychological.  

FFC: The narrator’s appearance and behavior mimic Joe’s so closely that I considered whether they might represent one character, rather than two, a metaphor for the struggle to control the fears within.

What message(s) would you like readers to take from this story? 

Lin: That’s very interesting! I love it when readers see something in a story that I didn’t intentionally put there, but after the fact makes so much sense. I certainly enjoyed playing with the idea that loss of control can be terrifying, and I wanted to explore the paradox that at least when you’re dieting, food is both the enemy and necessary for life. But I think what drove me to write the story was the strong emotion the narrator feels for Joe, and the fact that no matter how nightmarish the end was, she still remembers her love and attraction for him. If there’s a message, it’s that attraction transcends physical appearance. 

FFC: I’m curious about your writing process for “Navel Gazing.”

What was in your mind when you wrote the first sentence: a situation, character, theme, point of view, atmosphere, or something else? How did you proceed from there?

Lin: I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but “Navel Gazing” was about the most process-less story I’ve ever written. I have a dear friend who actually does have an enormous belly button. (We are still friends, despite my use of this anatomical anomaly as fictional fodder.) I’ve also had many conversations with other women about the seeming futility of dieting and the way our bodies have changed after childbirth. Added into the mix was the ADHD quality of my own ongoing internal monologues and one particularly restless night.

I was lying in bed at 2AM, my mind wandering while trying to resist the lure of the refrigerator, when the line about “sleepwalking with the munchies” came to me, and that was enough to establish the voice of the narrator. I sat up, grabbed my computer, and had the story written and submitted by 3AM. It started with the voice and that one line and that time of night when things go bump in the dark, and it just wrote itself. I wish all my stories went so easily. 

FFC:  “Navel Gazing” shows that an 820 word story may explore a quirky plot, offbeat characters, and hazy ending, and still produce a cohesive flash fiction that appeals to a diverse readership.

What tips can you offer the writer of flash fiction who wishes to capture a large audience, without compromising his or her unique style?

Lin: Oh wow, I don’t know that I’m qualified to answer that. I do know that I enjoy reading flash fiction that’s character-driven and rich in plot. It’s tempting in this short format to say there isn’t enough room to develop character or make much of a plot, but I think that’s a mistake. When a writer starts sacrificing character and plot in favor of style, it’s going to weaken the story. At the same time, those elements are only going to enhance whatever a writer does with his or her particular voice.

I also think that mixing genres works particularly well in flash fiction, because there isn’t enough time to harden or disappoint reader expectations. A writer can suggest a bit of world-building, a touch of humor, a tragic backstory without going too deeply into it, and readers will fill in the rest, satisfied that they got enough to set the story. By mixing genres, writers can further play with reader expectations and avoid disappointing readers who expect their genres to be fully fleshed out.

 

Ao-Hui Lin spends a lot of her time pondering the nature of motherhood and hopes that when her children are grown they won’t wonder why so many of her stories about mothers end in tragedy. Her work has appeared in Jersey Devil Press Magazine and is forthcoming in Drabblecast.

__________________________

Sue Ann Connaughton writes from a drafty old house in New England. Her most recent works appear in The Linnet’s Wings, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Boston Literary Magazine, Barnwood International Poetry Magazine, and Meadowland Review.

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Mon 7 May 2012

First Mondays with Aubrey Hirsch: Why I Love Flash

Posted by Aubrey Hirsch under Column, flash, Inspiration, motivation
[6] Comments

Aubrey HirschSometimes I’m asked why I write, and it’s a difficult question to answer. An easier question, though, is why I write flash. That I could talk about all day!

I love to write flash because it’s short. I can conceptualize a piece of flash fiction and write it down in one sitting, in one big burst of energy. Then I can write it again. And again. And again. I can go through four or five completely new drafts in the time it might take me to draft one longer short story. If, after a few stabs, the piece just doesn’t work, the let-down is smaller because the time investment is smaller. As a result, I take more risks, try more ideas, and often surprise myself!

I love to write flash because it’s small…and big at the same time. A short short story can start with a small idea, a line of dialogue, a tiny scrap of concept and explore it until it becomes something bigger. A piece of flash is like a devotional or a meditation. I enjoy being able to focus on one effect until I’ve taken the reader where I want her to go.

I love flash because there’s room to play! You aren’t asking your reader to commit to twenty pages of the same character or voice or structure, so you have room to try some tricks you might not be able to sustain for 4,000 words. It’s very freeing to be able to try something new without worrying if it will wear on a reader after fifteen pages.

What are your reasons for writing flash fiction?

__________________________________

Aubrey Hirsch is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. You can find her work in journals like The Rumpus, American Short Fiction,  Third Coast, Hobart, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, PANK and Annalemma.  Her posts appear regularly in this spot the first Monday of every month.  She recently had two stories longlisted for Wigleaf’s Top 50.  ”Chairman of the Boards,” FLYWHEEL MAGAZINE and  ”Multiple Sclerosis FAQ,“ FICTION SOUTHEAST.

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Sun 6 May 2012

Flash Markets Update for Week of 4/30

Posted by Jim Harrington under advice
1 Comment

by Jim Harrington

Markets added

  • The Saturnalian (500, weekly) open to all genre
  • In Between Altered States (200-300, monthly) issues are themed

Editor interview added

  • Short, Fast and Deadly (420 characters, weekly) publishes all genre

Contest added

  • Fiction500

View complete markets listing.

______________________

Jim Harrington discovered flash fiction in 2007, and he’s read, written, studied, and agonized over the form since. His Six Questions For. . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” He’s also the Markets Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles’ Flash Markets Page. You can read his stories on his blog. He can be contacted at jpharrin [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Fri 4 May 2012

To Surprise or Not to Surprise

Posted by Jim Harrington under advice, craft, structure
[15] Comments

by Jim Harrington

A writer recently asked if a story can have more than one surprise? My first thought was, of course. Consider mysteries and thrillers. It’s mandatory to have multiple surprises. Many authors place one at the end of each chapter to entice the reader to turn the page. For example, a chapter might end when a PI receives a phone call telling her to be across town in thirty minutes or something dire will happen. Of course, it’s rush hour (obstacle #1). She races out of her office and down the stairs (the elevator’s broken– obstacle #2) only to find her car has a flat tire (obstacle #3). Surprise!

That’s how it works in novels, but what about short fiction? In this case, perhaps the real question is: Should there be multiple surprises in a story? The answer depends on the story that needs to be told and the length of the tale. I’m sure there are writers out there who could successfully incorporate multiple surprises into a 500-word story. They could. I’m not as certain they’d be willing to try. Story is about…well…the story, and any surprises need to enhance the plot, not detract from it.

What about in a 1,000 word story? It might be easier, but it’s still tricky. The reason? For the surprise to work, it must be set up properly–and this takes up valuable word count in telling the story.

What about a twist ending? If this is what the writer is referring to as a surprise, then my answer is no. Why? For a twist ending to work there need to be clues in the story that show the twist is really a logical conclusion to the storyline. I equate this to the difference between a writer purposely misleading the reader to get to the twist and the writer telling most of the truth about what’s happening and letting the reader assume things that aren’t true.

Many editors state they don’t like twist endings. I believe this is because the author’s lack an understanding of how this needs to work. I receive submissions at Apollo’s Lyre with twist endings. Most of them fall flat because the whole purpose of the story is to reach a punchline. And often the authors are in such a hurry to get there, they forget to tell a story. Standup comics make this look easy. They move from one joke to the next leaving the audience in tears. What we in the audience don’t see are the hours of work it takes to perfect the timing, wording, presentation, and order of the jokes. Like the elements in a storyline, jokes often must flow in a particular order. I don’t know if you remember the TV show Last Comic Standing from a few years ago. Comics presented a few minutes of jokes and either moved on to the next round or were booted from the show. I bet some of those eliminated failed because they had to shorten their act and in doing so kept what they felt were their best jokes, but left off the setup jokes. The same is true of a story. If the author leaves out the setup, the twist ending simply can’t work.

Here are two line from one of my recent stories.

“She’s my daughter.” Tony spun the glass some more.

The two men sat in silence while Molly deposited a full glass on the table and took the empty. She smiled at Tony. She didn’t smile at the man.

 

It’s clearer in the context that Molly is the daughter. She smiles at her father. So why doesn’t she smile at the man? It’s a simple statement, but it’s also important to the twist ending. A clue the reader probably won’t get until she reaches the end.

Here are two more lines.

“My wife is cheating on me.” Tony’s tone was as flat as a club soda that’d sat out all day.

“And you want me to find the guy. I charge one fifty a day plus expenses.”

 

In these two lines, I don’t exactly lie to the reader, but I’m not completely honest either. There’s something  Tony and I  know that the reader doesn’t at this point. It’s this ‘something’ that lets the reader make an incorrect assumption–and thus sets up the final twist.

So can a story have multiple surprises or twists? It depends. In a short-short story, probably not. It’s hard enough to do it once. Attempting two surprises/twists in the same tale will probably earn your story a fast trip to the rejection folder.

***

Here’s my story. This story first appeared at Near to the Knuckle.  Let me know if you think the twist ending works.

Saving His Marriage
by Jim Harrington

Tony sat at a corner table, his fingers laced around a glass of water, and watched the man traverse the room. He wore a grey suit, blue tie and brown shoes; and except for the limp, the man looked like a basketball player. He sat in the chair to Tony’s right, the one facing the door.

“How long you been sober?” the man asked.

“What makes you think I’m an alcoholic?”

“Who else would sit in a bar with a glass of water?”

Tony spun the glass in his hand. Stared at the water. “Three months, twenty-six days.”

The man saw Molly crossing the room and waved her off.

Tony raised his glass and smiled. “I’ll have another.”

“You like her,” the man said.

“She’s my daughter.” Tony spun the glass some more.

The two men sat in silence while Molly deposited a full glass on the table and took the empty. She smiled at Tony. She didn’t smile at the man.

“I got stuff to do,” the man said. “You want to hire me, or what?”

“My wife is cheating on me.” Tony’s tone was as flat as a club soda that’d sat out all day.

“And you want me to find the guy. I charge one fifty a day plus expenses.”

Tony lowered his hands into his lap while the man watched Molly slide a quarter in the jukebox. After a few groans from the relic, Hank Williams’ voice filled the dusty air.

“Not exactly,” Tony said. “I know who it is. A friend saw them coming out of the Super 8 in Smythville.”

“How long has she been cheating on you?”

“Four months and thirteen days that I know of.”

“So why am I here?” the man asked.

“You ain’t figured it out yet?” Tony shook his head. “Man, you’re stupider than concrete.”

“She’s your wife.” The man looked toward the door. “I didn’t know.”

“Now you do,” Tony said.

Before the man could make a move, a gun burped under the table and a bullet entered the man’s gut. He raised a bloodied hand as a second bullet joined the first. His hand dropped like it was weighed down. His shoulders slumped, and his torso bent to one side.

Tony walked to the front of the room and placed the gun and a Benjamin on the bar. The bartender put the bill in his shirt pocket and the gun under the counter.

“I’ll see everything gets taken care of, kid.”

“Thanks, Uncle Frank. See you around.”

Tony nodded three times to Molly and left the bar to go home to his wife.

______________________

Jim Harrington discovered flash fiction in 2007, and he’s read, written, studied, and agonized over the form since. His Six Questions For. . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” He’s also the Markets Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles’ Flash Markets Page. You can read his stories on his blog. He can be contacted at jpharrin [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Wed 2 May 2012

I’m Taking the National Post a Short Story Month Challenge and You Should, Too (Because It’s Super Easy)

Posted by Gay Degani under motivation, Stories
[3] Comments

By Virgie Townsend

Is there a story you’ve read online that you love and want to share?  Flash Fiction Chronicles is sponsoring 100 Story Links in Honor of Short Story Month 2012 on its Facebook page. Join us!  Post a link to your favorite story HERE.

I use social media a lot. I’m not always proud of how much time I spend on Facebook, but I love how easy it is to keep in touch with friends and stay up-to-date on what’s going on in people’s lives, especially people I’ve never met who don’t have rigorous privacy settings (kidding!).

In the past month, I’ve shared thirty-four items on Facebook and twenty-nine on Twitter. I’ve posted news articles, my own observations, and a ranked list of the hottest male characters in British fiction (Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia made the top 40).

I’m also a pretty big fiction fan. I read it, write it, think about it constantly. So, you’d think I post a lot of short stories on my social media pages, right?

Wrong. In the same month, I’ve posted a link to one short story. Of all the stories I’ve read and articles I’ve shared, only “The Prediction” by Kama Falzoi Post made it onto my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Despite my love for reading and writing short stories, I’ve failed to do the easiest thing I could do to support fiction: Click the “share” button.

And I’m not alone. Many of my friends are great readers and have active online presences, but don’t post a lot of short stories on their social media pages.

Maybe the problem is that we’ve all been told too often that literature is important in theory, but not as important as non-fiction, such as political news articles and puppy memes. Maybe the problem is that we view our reading lists as too personal, and we don’t want people to judge us based on the stories we love. Maybe the terrible truth is that we just don’t read as many stories as we should, even though it nourishes our brains and spirits.

Whatever the reason, short stories are getting the short shrift.

May is National Short Story Month. To celebrate, I want you and your friends to join me in taking the National Post a Short Story Month Challenge. All you have to do is post one short story per week on your favorite social media site.

It can be any kind of short story you enjoy: literary, mainstream, or the written equivalent of pictures of pugs in funny outfits. Chances are that if you love it, someone you know is going to love it, too.

This is how easy it is:

  1. Read a story you like. There are a ton of great literary magazines online and sites that publish classic short stories.
  2. Click the “tweet” or “share” or “+1” button on the page.
  3. If the story doesn’t have social media links, copy and paste the URL onto your social media page.
  4. If you’re using Twitter, be sure to use the Challenge’s hashtag #sharestories.
  5. If you don’t use social media, but you have friends who enjoy reading, email it!

That’s it. If you’re feeling ambitious, go ahead and tell people how you’re celebrating National Short Story Month. Spread the word that literature is important, reading is fun, and you’re taking the National Post a Short Story Month Challenge.

And don’t forget to send your mom a card for Mother’s Day. That’s not related to the National Post a Short Story Month Challenge, except that you can’t share stories if you weren’t born.

 

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 Virgie Townsend is a fiction devotee from Central New York. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in The Best of Pif Magazine, Every Day Fiction, and SmokeLong Quarterly. You can find her on Twitter under @virgietownsend.

↓P.S. Here are some of those buttons. Push them. Push them real good. ↓

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Mon 30 Apr 2012

How Flash Fiction Helped Me Write Memoir

Posted by Gay Degani under advice, elements of story, flash, memoir, skills, story arc
[10] Comments

Lucinda Kempeby Lucinda Kempe

Writing comes naturally to me—I have been a diarist since age thirteen—writing succinctly has not. About a decade ago, I wrote a 160,000-word draft of a memoir that consisted of a dense, expositional narrative juxtaposed against over-long passages of dialogue. I abandoned it. What I had written only a masochist with a machete could or would slog through.

Honestly, I did not know how to write differently. However, by focusing on the short form, the conventions of writing flash, I have become a better writer of the long and have refined my skills to shape memoir moments into “story.”

About three years ago, I received an invitation to the Flash Factory, an office at Zoetrope.com, an online writers’ site. I had no idea what flash fiction was, but I jumped into the weekly prompts. I had a lot to learn and unlearn. My first flashes were arc-less non-stories, or moments/ mini scenes. Scenes I could do. I have a theatrical background. Literally and figuratively. What I did not know was how to write a compressed piece of prose with an arc where something happens, that something is resolved, and changes.

Flash taught me how to hone dramatic moments. In Something About Your Mother below—a “memoir flash” based on a true event—I compressed a long scene into a dramatic moment where a cruel child tells a terrible lie to another child, leaving in only the most relevant words, details, and dialogue. In memoir, the writer uses fictional devices to create “story” based on personal memory versus pure fictionalization. Ditto “memoir flash.” What could have been a fifteen-hundred-word chapter is now less than five hundred words.

In the story, I introduce the protagonist Lucinda playing a game. Immediately, the antagonist, Cam, arrives and interrupts her play with a lie. This happens within a few short sentences. Upset about the lie, Lucinda runs home to her grandmother and the two of them go onto Chestnut Street to learn if the lie is true. When Mama rides up on her bike, the effect of the lie on Lucinda and Mamoo allows the reader to see the three familial relationships and reveals a universal truth about the cruelty of children.

Did the actual event happen in such a compressed period? Of course not. Things like dinner, baths and or phone calls interrupt real time events. However, what flash has taught me is that fewer words said well are better than many words meandering around with no end in sight.

I have become a better writer of memoir because of the skills I’ve learned from writing flash fiction: to strive to make every word count. I even do a bit of fiction on the side, which is great. It gives me a break from myself!

The 440-word flash below originated from a prompt—to write something about your mother.

Something about Your Mother

Busting ass backwards out of the Lime’s driveway, I laughed.  “See if you can catch me.” I raced to the corner of Chestnut and Second.

“Hey, Lucinda!”

I looked at the short, blond-headed girl two years older than my twelve who blocked my escape path with her expensive French bike.

“Hi, Camille.”

Her eyes scanned my Tomboy-scraped and bruised knees. I scratched my arm irritated by a sting and stared at my neighbor, Cam Mercy. Her younger brother Phinizy was my friend. Phin, I liked.

“Lucindah,” she said, playing with the pronunciation. “Or do you prefer Kemp-e?”

“Whatever.”

“Ya’ll have funny names.”

With a mother named Jay, a brother named Phinizy, and an uncle named Walker, well, what could I say? Bait her? No. I waited.

“There’s something I have to tell you about your mother,” she said, smiling in a way that didn’t look happy. “She’s been in an accident…on her bike. A car hit her. I think she’s dead.”

I looked at her bright white sneakers.

“Did you hear what I said?”

I heard loud. I flew around the corner, pushed open my front gate, and tore up the three front steps. Pounding on the door, I screamed.  “Mamoo, Mamoo!”

My grandmother opened the door.

“Mama? Where’s Mama, Mamoo?”

Mamoo looked startled.

“Camille Mercy said Mama was killed by a car.”

Mamoo’s eyes got big as raccoons. She grabbed the top of her sweater with her little hummingbird-sized hands. “What? No. She went to Zara’s….” She walked past me, down the steps, past the gate and out onto Chestnut Street. I followed behind her.

“To Zara’s for cigs, on her bike,” she muttered, turning to me, her face ashen as an elderly gnome. I came and stood beside her and together we looked towards Jackson Avenue. I could see Cam, in her yard cattycorner from our house, watching us.

Mama, I thought, no, no. Mama who took me to the bars. Mama who brought strange men home. Mama who told me daddy was crazy. Mama who I hated to love. Mama who I loved to hate, please don’t go. I squeezed Mamoo’s hand so hard she gasped.

We stood staring down the street when a figure on a three-speed Raleigh appeared in the distance. A figure wearing Bermuda shorts and a Greek captain’s hat rode up and stopped the bike right in front of Mamoo and me.

“Poots! Mother! Why how delightful to have a welcoming committee!”

I smiled bigger than I had in years. I looked across the street into the Mercy’s yard. Cam had dissolved into a puff of smoke, her bike tossed on its side.

 [The Dirty Debutantes’ Daughter]

My journey from long-winded expositional narrator to flasher reminds me of the A.A. Milne story, In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle, where Pooh and Piglet get lost taking the long way around a short bush.

One further plus I discovered. Flashing in public is an addictive habit that is actually good for you.

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Lucinda Kempe is a writer and memoirist.  Flash Fiction Chronicles, Fictionaut, MudJob, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature and The Short Humour Site have published Lucinda’s flash. Upcoming work will be at Metazen and Referential Magazine. Lucinda loves flashing and lives to do more of it publicly.

 

 

 

 

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Sun 29 Apr 2012

Flash Market Updates for Week of 4/23

Posted by Jim Harrington under publishing
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by Jim Harrington

Market Added

  • The Quotable (1,000, quarterly) issues center on a theme and a quote

Editor Interview Added

  • Leodegraunce ($, 200, weekly) publishes literary fiction

View complete markets listing.

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Jim Harrington discovered flash fiction in 2007, and he’s read, written, studied, and agonized over the form since. His Six Questions For. . . blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” He’s also the Markets Editor for Flash Fiction Chronicles’ Flash Markets Page. You can read his stories on his blog. He can be contacted at jpharrin [at] gmail [dot] com.

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