Flash Fiction Chronicles

Remember when Lars Ulrich of Metallica went “crazy train” over Napster? Now most musicians purposefully give away mp3s of their music. Funny how times change.

I don’t mind giving away some of my stories. (Flash Fiction Fridays, duh.)

But I won’t self-publish a novel. Not yet. And I’m glad I didn’t start handing out short stories on my blog when I started writing.

When you self publish (be it POD or traditional or what-ever), you eliminate competition. Yes, competition sucks sometimes. Yes, the system has inherent “unfairness”. Yes, there is a bit of nepotism out there. And name? Man, once you have one, you can write your ticket. Have you ever read an anthology and felt the strongest stories came from “unknowns” while the best-sellers punted? It happens. Too much, in my opinion.

But competition breeds a better story. It makes writing better. It’s made me work harder; I know that much. And yes, competition brings rejection (or losses, however you want to frame it). Yesterday, it brought three to me: one from a long-time short list, another from a pro market, and a third from a market that just decided to close, bang. I hated “writing” for a couple of hours yesterday, but I’ll keep writing. It’s what I do. And “unfairness” is just another excuse.

I’ve learned to cherish the challenge that writing brings. I don’t love competition, but I love what it’s done to me. I love chiseling away at a story because I know it isn’t good enough, not yet. I want them all to be that story, the one readers want to share. Wouldn’t have happened without competition. It wouldn’t have happened if I gave up. There would be no thrill, no joy if I self-published from “go”.

So I won’t self-publish a novel. Not yet. But I don’t mind sharing bits and pieces; I know I need to in today’s writing world (remember the Metallica lesson?) Flash fiction = free mp3s, right?

 Reprinted from The Other Aaron which appeared on January 19, 2010.

Aaron Polson currently resides in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, two sons and a tattooed rabbit, enjoying every mood swing in the Midwest weather. His flash fiction has appeared in Every Day Fiction, 10Flash, Northern Haunts, Everyday Weirdness, and on various bathroom walls.  Stop by his blog and read the free Friday flash.

YOU WRITE. You have some great ideas for a story, a review, a play, perhaps, even a novel. You have reams of scribbled ideas, short stories, a flash or two. But you want and dream of the satisfaction of getting published, not just a writer, but the right to now call yourself a published author.

Author. Has a nice ring to it, huh? And you don’t have to be famous to write the title of your published story in italics. And when someone asks: “Oh. Anything I’ve heard of?” You don’t have to sheepishly answer that your unpublished. You can proudly tell them where and when. (and hopefully, they’ll go look!)

Writers and actors have much in common. Ask one what they do and you’ll get a list of credits—Jack Nicholson and Stephen King obvious exceptions. But don’t think professors, nurses, firefighters, and sales clerks don’t brag about their achievements too!

But there is a void between the published and unpublished. Once there it might well be easier to attain that next publication. And it is frustrating when an editor requests you put any credits you might have in your cover letter and your stuck admitting you’re unpublished. Not that it matters to most editors, they’ll accept or reject your submission on its own merits. But I know what it feels like to write at some point in that cover letter, “I’m unpublished.” It’s like the job interview where you must admit you have no actual experience in the position for which you are applying.

Actors don’t just show up in Hollywood and land a leading role in the latest blockbuster. Neither should a writer expect to have Stephen King’s Carrie experience. So what to do?

Well, you’ve joined that reading group, have sought advice from them and online at sites such as Flash Fiction Chronicles and others. You’ve made a pact with yourself to hone your skills and write every day. Your group likes what you write. (and hopefully your group isn’t polite and genteel, but brutally honest) Then the next step, intimidating as it might be, is to send that manuscript to a market.

But what market?

If you’re minimally computer literate there are sites which separate the wheat from the chaff for you. Two I would recommend are: Duotrope’s Digest and Ralan’s Webstravaganza.

Read everything on each site they have to offer before you submit a manuscript anywhere. Their advice and instructions on how to navigate their sites will save you time and rejections from markets.

Now comes something very important. Send your story to an appropriate market!
If you send your space opera, no matter how great it is, to a market that specializes in horror, your not only going to get a rejection letter, the editor is going to know you never read their submission guidelines (which many markets direct you to before you submit—and many are very picky about writers who do not bother to read their guidelines) So when you send that nice little horror story in the future, that same editor upon seeing who’s submitting might just delete it unread. Things like that can and do happen. It’s best to keep editors happy, just like traffic court judges! Little things mean a lot. Read The Guidelines!!!

If you still live in an uncomputerized state and write on an old IBM Selectric or some such, fear not. For there is a journal called Writer’s Digest which produces lists of every market imaginable in a large book titled, Writers Markets. And you don’t have to go to Barnes & Noble and plunk down $50. to get it. Just go to your local library, it’s probably right there collecting dust.

Don’t worry if your are computer-less! Many markets, especially professional-rate-paying markets, want hard-copies via Snail-Mail—no e-mails at all! And there are still numerous small and local journals and weekly newspapers just dying to have some local writer send a story be it fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. But you must look for these, they may not be laying about on every newsstand.

And one other point: Your manuscript must appear professional. Many markets, right in their guidelines, will tell you specifically how they want submissions formatted—follow what they suggest exactly—you are, after all, competing with other writers. Never forget that! You might have a nice little fantasy that you’ve sent to the perfect market, but your manuscript is single-spaced, no space between paragraphs, typed in a small font, and, well, not very neat in appearance.

It will generally take much more memory space, or paper and postage, to format your manuscript as the editors want. But like that traffic court judge, they look at these things all day long! If you care about what you write—make your manuscript look like you do. The editor will pick up on that, appreciate it, in fact. Like many things, it’s easy for the editor to just quit reading a sloppy manuscript and send it to the oblivion of the rejection pile—so make it neat, clear, and follow those writer’s guidelines!!!

I began writing seriously a few years ago. The Rejection-Connection, that was me! And I deserved all the rejections, too! But I wrote every day, worked on my voice and flow. Tinkered with dialogue and genre. Started using prompts. Joined a writing group. And finally have had at least a modicum of success.

That kind ear of your spouse, or sister, or neighbor is not the best one to read to. Get in a group. They’re not emotionally involved, meaning: They’ll most likely speak the truth. If what you wrote stinks, they’ll tell you so.

And lastly, don’t get bottled up by genre. You may do one thing well, but bear in mind the more differing types of writing you do, the more and more markets open up for you—remember that competing with others aspect I mentioned.

There is no race. Take your time. Make it neat. Follow the Guidelines. Write something every day. Join and participate in a writing group. Get feedback. Give feedback. Read books of genres you write. Try to write in some genre you haven’t before—you might surprise yourself. And don’t be shy—write what you love, hone it, perfect it. And when it’s ready, submit it!!!

DJ Barber writes stories, flash, poems, and novels. He was born in the northeast and lives in the northwest. When not writing he has a wife and two dogs that keep him busy.  He has been published online at Every Day Fiction, Moon Drenched Fables, Tales From the Moonlit Path, Big Pulp, Every Day Poets, and Everyday Weirdness.

In print, DJ has been published by Darker Intentions Press, Odyssey Magazine, has a short story in the anthology, Damned in Dixie, and has a flash in the Best of Every Day Fiction 2008.

DJ would like to remind everyone that even a broken clock is right twice a day.  DJ’s website is located at http://canyonsofgray.blogspot.com.

– reprinted from The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008 –

Although there will always be a place for the novel – and I will not deny the pleasures of a good thick novel – it has competition. Short, sweet competition that tells a story with minimal words and maximal impact, to be enjoyed from start to end in a single brief sitting.

Flash fiction is generally recognized as being fiction under a thousand words – the perfect length for a coffee break, for a handful of stolen minutes. It is uniquely suited to online reading and people with spare and precious leisure time.

***

Quite the opposite; it can and should be one of the most demanding literary forms, with a need for perfectly crafted prose, a complete story arc in a tight space, and an immediately engaging hook.

More than in any other form of prose, every word counts in flash fiction. It’s the art and purpose of flash to write with sparse clean prose, and any flaws or filler stand out with jarring effect. In a way, flash fiction is closer to poetry than it is to other prose forms, because of the exacting precision of each single word choice, and because the brief nature of flash lends itself well to lyrical writing. Poets and lyricists often write very good flash fiction.

Flash fiction isn’t only about the word count, though; it tells a complete story. A short piece isn’t automatically flash – it might be a vignette or a prose poem, a character sketch or a free-form stream-of-consciousness ramble. The defining characteristic of flash, beyond the number of words, is that it has a plot structure, with an introductory situation, rising action or tension, a climax, and a resolution. Because of the word-count constraint, some parts of the structure are often implied, hinted at, or sketched in, but the reader should be able to make a guess at the whole story arc.

The hook to grab the reader is the third part of flash fiction’s puzzle. With a novel, or even a longer short story, one is generally prepared to give a few paragraphs’ worth the benefit of the doubt – standing in a bookstore, I’ll read a page or two before deciding whether or not to buy – but with very short fiction, the expectation is different. The first few words have to snare the reader in, and convince him or her that this story, not the next or another, is the one to spend those precious ten minutes on. This is especially true of online reading, so particularly suitable to flash fiction, where a potential reader might scan the page for only seconds before browsing away to some other site if his fickle interest isn’t piqued.

To do all of this, and further still evoke emotion or provoke thought in the reader, is a substantial challenge. The best flash does it with apparent effortlessness, as in ballet – the muscles and training and sore feet hidden away, so it looks just like dancing.

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The idea of very short fiction has been around as long as stories have been told, but its recent rise in popularity and many of its most appealing facets are inextricably linked to online reading.

Fiction used to come only from bookstores and newsstands, and the shorter forms of it were hard to market, except for snippets here and there in a magazine devoted to a wider purpose. But readers are spending more and more time on computers, wireless connections are everywhere, and we’re getting ever more comfortable with reading from a screen rather than the printed page. The advent of web publishing, with its comparatively minimal costs and wide-reaching audience, has broken down cost and delivery barriers and provides an ideal place for flash fiction. Since many online magazines are advertising-supported and free to subscribers, the reading experience tends to be inclusive rather than exclusive – it’s there for everyone.

Genre boundaries are also being broken down for flash readers. Like sample tastes of different ice cream flavours, flash fiction lets readers venture outside their reading comfort areas without commitment. Most flash fiction magazines publish a mix of genres, with the result that regular readers are exposed to tastes of science fiction, humour, romance, fantasy, horror, and surrealism alongside the more traditional literary pieces. Preconceived notions about various genres tend to dissolve when faced with the evidence that all good fiction can be held to the same standards.

Flash fiction offers a sampling of fresh voices. As a market rich in exposure and promotional opportunity but without much lucrative potential, flash attracts emerging writers more often than established ones – which gives readers an early chance to discover new favourites from the next wave of writers. When editorial decisions aren’t tied to the commercial value of saleable names, the work stands only on its merit, and the reader sees an end product where risks are taken and as-yet-unheard voices are welcomed.

Perhaps more than any other boundary being broken, geographical barriers have shrunk or disappeared in the face of online connectedness. The web publishing world is truly global, often with the only limitation being the language of the publication. With an electronic capability to comment on stories, international readers can also enter the dialogue.

Writers all over the world are speaking through flash fiction, and readers everywhere are hearing them.

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It continues to amaze me that this tiny jewel-like form of fiction has reached so widely and with such profound effect.