Here is a catalogue of posts from this past week.

Nine Tips on Writing Flash Fiction by Sean Lovelace

2.

Find a story, a sparkle. A boy-crazed ruse. I mean essence. There are many ways. Here’s one of my little tricks (feel free to try this yourself, or use in the classroom): I drink a pint of schnapps (to open the doors of perception) and go people-watching at the world’s largest daycare/rehab center, Wal-Mart. Observe the ill and obese, the trodden and tired and pissed off and screaming and slouchy. Straight out of Bobbie Anne Mason, or maybe Chekhov (a fine flash fiction writer in his day).  More…

 

 WHITHER DO I GO NOW WITH MY FLASHES IN THE PAN by Rumjhum Biswas

These days I write more flash fiction than I used to. Some have found homes. But that is not the only good thing that I have gained. Writing flash fiction has, I have discovered, helped to make the prose in my longer pieces sharper. The tendency to meander is getting reigned in. I am not there yet, but I do have a sense of direction now. Taut writing acts like a tightly pulled bowstring; the arrows, or rather ideas in the case of stories, fly faster and truer.  More…

 

 

The Many Voices of Flash by Bill Ward

 

…flash rewards experimentation in voice.

 However, ‘voice’ can mean many things. There is an author’s voice, his style, which mostly means the way he uses words; his quirks of diction, syntax, and punctuation, and really almost anything else about his work that lends it a recognizable quality. This is essentially unconscious and hard to change or embellish — which is reason enough not to worry all that much about it.  More…

Some notions about flash fiction by K. C. Ball

Since last June, I’ve written fifty pieces of flash fiction, about one a week. Some I’m still polishing. Some I have retired; I call them dead soldiers. Twenty four have been accepted for publication, most of which have appeared in print.

And here are some notions about flash I have developed over the past year; no hard and fast rules or standards, just notions that work for me:

  • Keep character count low; no more than three. The story feels crowded if there are more.
  • Don’t give any character a name or description unless you want readers to pay attention to the character. Readers have different expectations after being introduced to Millie Roberts, the red-head at the register, than to the check-out clerk. And it’s fewer words.  More…

 Talent and Skill by Gay Degani

I think it was Robert McKee (the writing coach whose book STORY is an excellent resource) who said that all we can do is to “take out our little bit of talent,” push it around every day, apply our hard-earned skills and hopefully, that will result in something worthwhile. I’m sure I don’t have that quote exactly right, but you get the gist. It takes both talent and skill to become good at anything and skill takes patience.  More…