Rumjhum Biswasby Rumjhum Biswas

Looking over the posts in my column, I discovered that the incredibly talented writers and editors I interviewed last year had shared experiences and opinions that readers, all of us here in fact, could carry away and mull over; words of wisdom that could take us forward into our writing lives in this brand new year. The quotes compiled here are ones that I felt best expressed their personal viewpoints and advice on Flash fiction. I’ve included the links to the posts as well, so you can read the whole interview if you want.

Tim Dicks (Interview in March 2011)

“With flash I want to eliminate as much narration as possible, so I try to think of actions, etc. that will convey the most relevant information about a character’s internal life. Then during a break I’ll write up a draft, and on another break I’ll return to it, and later I’ll return again, until it’s finished. I know I’m done when I go through and don’t find any words that make me cringe.”

More about Tim at Moonshot/writing for writing, duh and read some his writing at UnCanny Valley, “His Sleeve Stretching 16″ Biceps. “

 

Anuradha Kumar (Interview in April 2011)

“I think they (Flash Fiction) are really difficult to write. For these should resonate long after you’ve read them and that may be difficult with 250-300 words even.  But I love Bradbury’s short short fiction really…. It (the story) should have one memorable character, an image, something that stands out. Build the story around that. And the first sentence should grip.”

 

Benjamin C Krause (Interview in May 2011). 

“The fat. Eliminate unnecessary words, phrases, and images. Reduce when possible, reuse only when necessary, and never recycle. Choose the best words and put them in the right order: when it comes to short versions, this applies to prose just as much as poetry. Make sure everything from your words to your punctuation to your paragraph breaks  has a purpose. And when you’re writing extremely short prose, don’t be afraid to use dialog. Some of the best 20-word-and-under prose I’ve seen has used dialog, but sadly, most submissions to twenty20 Journal still neglect it.”

More about Benjamin at Twenty20 Journal  and his press at Diamond Point Press.

 

Hema Raman (Interview in June 2011).

“I started with flash fiction and it is still one of my favorite forms though I don’t write as many of them as I used to. The main advantage I think for  those like me who don’t write much poetry is that flash is a way to explore those epiphanies that just must be written down. Writing them down  satisfactorily gives me the kind of immediate gratification that longer pieces cannot. The disadvantage is that being shorter it kind of cheats you into believing it is easier, but for a flash fiction to really shine the editing takes really long.”

Hema Raman was recently shortlisted in the Tibor -Jones South Asia Prize for her unpublished novel Fear the Hero .

 

Beate Sigriddaughter (Interview in July 2011).

“I think flash fiction suits our age of impatience and conceptual overload very well. When well done, it is powerful. A few words. A lot of punch… On the opportunity side, flash fiction compels the reader to focus and to dwell on a single or limited scenario, i.e., it almost invites the reader to pay more attention, NOW, rather than being led by the hand in a longer piece where a reader tends to relax more and goes for a more leisurely and passive ride. The challenges? No room for fluff… I go with my gut feeling and that usually means moving toward a story that has more emotional impact on me than others. It is a very subjective thing, and I feel that the subjectivity simply cannot be avoided. I feel if a story really grabs me, there will be others who will also be grabbed by it and so I want to single it out for attention.”

More about Beate at The Glass Woman Prize.

 

Oonah V Joslin (interview in August 2011)

“For me the advantages of Flash as a writer are that it gets you writing. Setting out to write a novel would be way too daunting for me. Begin with a Flash and it can take you anywhere… little stories can stay with you in a very powerful and unique way… The art of précis. Knowing what to cut out is all important with both Flash and Poetry and it is that above all I think that attracted me to Flash – that it can have the density of poetry. These are short forms and so, like a good sauce, the secret lies in reduction… My heart sinks when I see any sentence that is constructed: Looking out the window, he saw Mrs Smith watering the garden.Picking up the telephone, she said hello. This seems to be very prevalent in much contemporary writing and it grates with me every time. Much better: He looked out the window. Mrs Smith was watering the garden.She picked up. ‘Hello.’ And these are shorter too. Short sentences are key rather than convoluted clauses and a lot of gerunds.”

More about Oonah at Oonahverse and her viewpoint at Every Day Poets.

 

Vanessa Gebbie (Interview in September 2011)

“Every piece of fiction has its own right length, I think. A story feels ‘right’ at the length it was meant to be…You can feel it when the writer tries to push the envelope, tries to add enough words to make a good flash into a short story, for example. Or to extend a flash a few hundred words to cross a minimum word count. Or indeed, you can feel it when a writer slices too rigorously, without an ear for sound, for rhythm in sentences…As for flash – it is so hard to define, everyone has his own thoughts on the matter, and I guess that’s part of its charm. It’s a slippery beast! And like all slippery beasts, gives the impression it is easy to catch hold of – when actually, it is anything but…Flash is a superb discipline, for the writer, and for the reader.

“It is not something to gulp in one bite – but something to linger over, to reflect on. Often a good flash will continue to reveal its layers on second or third read. Like the best poems. Flash as a process, freeing up, writing to a prompt, for example, as I do, maybe in a timed session, can produce extraordinary results…It’s useful to look at what it isn’t – flash is not a scene from something longer, it’s not a character sketch, not an anecdote with no echoes. You can’t afford to use the same constructs you use when writing a novel. Or even a short story.

“Every word, every punctuation mark, every space really does need to be considered, and has to earn its place. Sometimes it’s a story, sometimes it hints at a story – and that’s where it is most successful, for me, anyway – when the reader is complicit, and makes what is missing into part of the whole. Sure, a flash can be worked up into something longer… but unless the whole modus operandi changes too, I think the writer risks losing something quite precious in the effort…I look for voice, for authenticity, for intrigue, for confidence. If a writer can deliver that lot, I am secure in the knowledge that this is a writer I can trust to deliver me a great reading experience, and I forget I’m reading, completely. Doesn’t happen often, sadly! So many writers seem to think a flash piece is just something less than so many words. It isn’t. The words, the spaces between words, all have to weave together to create a tight tapestry. No holes.”

More about Vanessa at Vanessa Gebbie’s News and vanessagebbie.com

 

Nathan Rosen (Interview in October 2011)

“Before you can write horror, you have to open yourself up to it, and that’s the hardest part. Each and every one of us has our own comfortable paradigm, and horror comes from outside of that. You have to take a chance and look beyond the things you know, and when you do that you run the risk of discovering literally anything. It’s difficult, and it’s scary, but I like to think that by pushing those boundaries horror writers are doing a service for all of humanity…

“Like any editor, I’m looking for the new and original. That doesn’t mean I dislike stories about old familiar tropes, but I’d like to see them explored in unusual ways. I want good atmosphere, realistic dialogue and characters who are more than just props. And for my own tastes, I love twist endings– I’m a huge fan of the old EC horror comics. If you can twist a story well, and create an ending that brings the whole thing around without cheating, it’s guaranteed to make me smile… For the love of the Old Gods, people, please take care with your spelling and grammar. The English language is the tool you’re using to create your stories, and no good craftsperson abuses tools. If a writer doesn’t care enough to proofread, I’m going to assume that he or she doesn’t care enough to write a good story, either.”

More on Nathan at nathanrosen.com.

 

Dipika Mukherjee (Interview in November 2011 )

“Sometimes it is a question of whether to write a poem versus flash fiction, but never flash fiction versus a longer short story… I think there is still a certain distrust of flash fiction, almost as if it’s a disease of our modern society which can’t handle anything longer than a sound bite. But of course, flash has been around in Chinese literature for a long time. It is slowly gaining popularity among writers, and online magazines are mushrooming with flash fiction because it IS easier to read something shorter online than a story of five thousand words.

“Some students who come to a Creative Writing class like flash fiction as warm-up exercises; I have found that the brevity of the medium is less daunting than asking them to, say, start writing the prologue of their Big Novel. Students do eventually enjoy writing Flash Fiction, but essentially, a short story of 3000-5000 words is still generally considered a tougher thing to write and flash easier…I think a good flash fiction needs to have the impact of an epiphany–not in the religious sense but in the way it hits you. Something commonplace made uncommon. One can’t dither about or meander on a separate trail when writing flash–it has to be tight with a punch. Like other genres, bad flash fiction also ends with a whimper.”

More about Dipika at dipikamukherjee.com   and her novel, Thunder Demons.

 

Angel Zapata (The last interview for 2011)

“Successful short fiction is like screaming “Fire!” in a crowded room. People won’t need an incentive or a back-story to react… When flash or micro fiction is done well, the genre is inconsequential. Success can be found for literary and speculative fiction writers alike and is based solely on the talent and creative ability of the writer… Too many writers fear the restraint (myself included) of completing a story in so very few words. They let that fear override the voice of their muse.

“My advisement is for writers to tell their stories in as many words as it takes to complete it. THEN, condense it to fit the form you require; be it 1,000 or 25 words. Practice it. Try shortening, refining stories you have laying around on your desktop or have previously published…We writers are often hesitant to ‘chop’ any of what we deem to be a perfect string of words. We consider our works as babies, so severing away any part of it seems an almost monstrous act. Writers need to begin to think of editing as more of a ‘grooming’ and less of a ‘maiming’. Invoking the baby analogy, refining words from a manuscript should be likened more to the trimming of hair or clipping of fingernails and not the loss of a limb or a beheading.”

More about Angel at A Rage of Angels and his journal at 5 X 5 Literary Journal.

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Rumjhum Biswas ‘s fiction and poetry have been published all over the world. She has won prizes in poetry in India, was long listed in the 2006 Bridport Poetry Prize and also was a finalist in the 2010 Aesthetica Creative Arts Contest. One of her stories was among the notable stories of 2007 in Story South’s Million Writers’ of the Year Award. She has performed her poetry in Chennai and Hyderabad. She is one among ten Indian poets to feature in an exclusive forthcoming anthology edited by Jayant Mahapatra along with Yuyutsu RD Sharma.She blogs at Writers & Writerisms and polyphagous.wordpress.com.

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