Flash Fiction Chronicles

Marshall Cook, in an online fiction class sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggested creating a feeling of “Not-Knowing” to draw the reader into a story.  On his FlashFiction.net blog, Randall Brown, in response to comments by Steve Almond, said “If a character knows something, the reader should know it.” Are these statements contradictory? Not really. Mr. Cook doesn’t advise not telling readers everything they need to know, nor does Mr. Brown say the reader needs to know everything up front.

Authors grab the reader’s attention by creating questions in the reader’s mind, questions that matter, questions that force the reader to continue with the story in order to find the answers. The inexperienced writer often poses the question and leaves it to the reader to figure out what happens. Many times this approach leaves the reader confused and unsatisfied. Even experienced writers leave out some important piece of information, at times. That’s not to say every story must end with a definite resolution; but that initial moment of Not-Knowing, the question posed that leads the reader to the story’s conflict, the reason why telling the story is important in the first place, should be made clear at some point.

Ethel Rohan’s story, “Reduced,” provides a good example of what I’m trying to say. In it, Ethel shows the reader a husband and wife in conflict. As the story progresses, the tension increases until the real problem is revealed. It’s at this point that Ethel shares with the reader that one piece of information that both characters know that explains the conflict created for the reader by that Not-Knowing. You can read Ethel’s story here.

In my brief experience as an editor, I find writers are good at creating the sense of Not-Knowing (although some take way too long to do so). It’s the sharing of information known by the characters that explains the “why” of a story where many authors fail.

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Flash fiction bewitched Jim Harrington in early in 2007, and he’s read, written, studied, and agonized over the form since. He writes about his personal writing journey at Quotes on Writing . His Six Questions For blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” In his spare time, her serves as the flash fiction editor for Apollo’s Lyre .

Where do your story ideas come from and how do you develop those ideas into a story are two questions often posed to published writers. In this article, I attempt to provide answers by discussing how to use myths, fairy tales, legends, and nursery rhymes to find story ideas; choosing point of view, setting, and characters; and deciding where to begin.

Mining myths, fairy tales, legends, and nursery rhymes for story ideas

You’ve heard the advice that story ideas are everywhere. It’s true. One area I hadn’t considered was the retelling of myths, fairy tales, legends, and nursery rhymes. John Updike’s “Pygmalion” and Charles Baxter’s “Scheherazade” are examples of short shorts in which the author retells an old story. I chose “Hansel and Gretl” as the basis for a story.

The original tale begins with the father explaining to his wife that there isn’t enough food to feed four and tells her about his idea to lead the children into the woods and leave them. This story line fits today’s world—with a slight twist. Many families are stressed financially, and it’s often the elderly parents who are a burden to the children. Perfect! I have a theme for my piece and a new way to tell an old story.

Choosing point of view, setting, and characters

After some thought, I decide to tell the story from “Gretl’s” point of view. In my mind, she’s the most sympathetic character—a mother who loves her son no matter what. (In my version, the son and daughter-in-law are trying to get the parents lost.) I keep the woods as the setting. I could have used a mall, but a forest is more intimate; and the characters can interact without other distractions.

I don’t pay much attention to my characters’ names in first drafts. The main reason is many times I don’t know how the story ends until I get there. Even when I start writing with an idea for the ending, my characters often change my mind somewhere between the first and last sentences. It happened in this story.

I like to use names that create a picture in my mind. This piece started out as the story of Harold and Grace. Boring! Finally, I decided to have the woman’s name start with h (Hazel) and the man’s with g (Gordon). They sound like old names to me, and they are names that invoke specific images.

Where to begin

The original story begins in the family’s house. I wanted my tale to start in the woods and stay there. In the first draft, Hazel and Gordon walked through the woods picking up objects—the opposite of Gretl dropping bread crumbs to mark the trail home. I realized this didn’t work. What things would they pick up that had meaning to the story; and, if these things weren’t normally found in woods, how would I explain how they got there? I dropped that idea and switched the first scene to an opening in the forest where Hazel waits for Gordon. I’d figure out later how they got lost.

Here’s the first paragraph of my story.

Hazel rested on a tree stump while she waited for Gordon to catch up. An ashen hand, its veins prominent, protected her eyes from the setting sun, as she squinted through the maze of pines, maples and oaks, wondering where he was. She couldn’t get home without him.

The reader learns who the characters are, that they’re in a forest, and that Hazel is concerned about getting home. It’s the kind of opening I look for in a story. I want to know what’s going on up front.

Myths, fairy tales, legends, and nursery rhymes offer many possibilities when you’re looking for story ideas. They provide proven themes, potentially interesting settings, and character ideas to jump start your writing.

The original version of this article and accompanying story first appeared in Apollo’s Lyre. You can read them here.

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Flash fiction bewitched Jim Harrington in early in 2007, and he’s read, written, studied, and agonized over the form since. He writes about his personal writing journey at Quotes on Writing. His Six Questions For… blog provides editors and publishers a place to “tell it like it is.” In his spare time, her serves as the flash fiction editor for Apollo’s Lyre.

One of my favorite things about writing is making up names for new characters.

Fun as that is, I think it’s important to choose those names with care. Aside from the basics, like avoiding reader confusion by not having Tommy, Timmy and Tammy in the same story, a name produces an image in the reader’s head (at least it does in mine).  

My old gran used to say, “You only get one chance to make a first impression, so don’t bugger it up, you pillock!” If we apply that sage advice to our characters, then I’d say we should begin with the name. After all, it’s often the first thing our readers will know about them.

Giving a name like ‘Britney’ to an m/c creates a different first impression than if we called her Anya, or Agnes. From the name alone, our brain fills in details about age, appearance and attitude. 

If we’re reading a story in which the m/c learns he’s about to receive a visit from a someone named Cecil Winthrope III, chances are we’d have a different expectation than if that stranger was called Ed Hunter (who may possibly be about to offer the m/c a job in a rival story… ahem, sorry).

Of course, I realize we need to provide a lot more information about our characters than just their moniker. Nevertheless, I think it’s good to have an idea of what image the name alone creates in our readers’ minds - not least because we can use that expectation to our advantage by turning it on its head. 

In my MG novel, Fur-Face, I have a cat named Snowy; a fox named Razor; and a gorilla named Mr. Tinkles. From the names alone you’ve probably got an idea about their appearance and character (though I’m pretty sure you’d be wrong about Snowy).

Here are some names from my current WIP Waking up Jack Thunder:

Bobby Newton
Winzig (means ‘tiny’ in German)
Lazarus
Jonas Van Der Staal

One of them is a hulking brute of a sadistic killer; one is a mysterious international drug lord; one is a shy scientist, and one a CIA agent

 With just the above information, I’m sure you could correctly pin the job to the name, as it were.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to tell anyone what to call their characters. I’m just saying that first impressions very often start with a name, so it’s a good idea to choose them with care.

How about you?

What character names did you choose for your current WIP, and why?  

Jon Gibbs was born in England, but moved to New Jersey in the USA in 2004 with with wife and three children. When he’s not writing or chasing after the kids, he likes to read, play Sudoku and watch the telly; sometimes all three at once. 

BY NIK PERRING

reprinted with permission from Nik’s Blog, January 26, 2010

I am not an expert on short stories. I’m not an expert on anything to be honest. But I am a short story writer, one who’s been published in some fairly spiffing places, and one who teaches writing every so often.

It occurred to me earlier that I don’t really give any advice here, so this post should change that. It’s not comprehensive. Lots will disagree with me, I’m sure. But this is what I think. I hope it helps. And if anyone’s got any of their own I’d love to see them – so do leave a comment.

Here are my tips for anyone wanting to write a good short story or piece of flash fiction.

Start where the story starts, not before. If I was telling you about a fantastic hotel room I’d stayed in I wouldn’t start by telling you about booking the tickets to get there (unless the story was about booking the tickets and ended in the room).

Take out everything, every word, every sentence, every character that isn’t absolutely necessary.

Similarly, only use the right words. Sometimes people do just ’sit’. Or ‘run’.

Make sure your characters are believable. What they do, or the situations they find themselves in, may be unlikely and fantastical but the way they react to them has to be something that readers will believe.

Be suspicious of anything you think is clever. The story comes first, the story’s what people should notice, not the writer.

Write for you, but spare a thought for the reader too.

Don’t overdo it. Big words are fine if they’re the right ones. Same with descriptions.

Say what you want to say in the simplest, and most effective, way possible. In other words: get to the point.

Aim to be brilliant.

Don’t expect it to be easy. Or quick. Be prepared to work hard.

Don’t be afraid of rewriting. In fact, embrace it; it will make your stories better.

Don’t expect to get it right the first time. You have total control of what can be changed. (I often find also that if a story wants or needs to be changed, then it’ll let you know.)

Trust your instincts. If you suspect something’s not working then it probably isn’t.

Don’t be afraid of putting a story away for a while. Sometimes stories, and your head, need space.

Don’t be afraid of failure. Nothing’s wasted. It’s better to try something new and fail (and perhaps learn something) than to play safe all the time.

Most importantly: BE BRAVE. You have an imagination, use it. Write the story you want to write, write what you think’s good and interesting, even if that means not sticking with the norm. Different, if done well, can be brilliant.

And read the greats. See how they do things. See why they’re the greats.

Nik Perring is a writer and workshop leader from the UK. His short stories have been published widely, in places including Smokelong Quarterly, 3: AM Magazine, Ballista, Word Riot and Metazen. His debut collection of short, short stories will be published by Roast Books in the summer. He’s also the author of a children’s book and occasional non-fiction. Nik blogs here .