Since I love to read flash fiction, I thought I'd try it. I trimmed "The Painting" yesterday. At 1200 words, it seemed short to this writer who loves to indulge in a good, long chapter. But an interesting thing happened when I was trimming: I had to weigh every sentence against the major dramatic question. Yep, back to the basics.
I wrote "The Painting" from a contest prompt, so my first step was to eliminate the prompt but retain the story. It's amazing what happens when you get caught up in following a prompt. My next step was to dissect every sentence for the following:
- Usefulness in moving the story forward
- Mood
- Aesthetics (how the words look, visually, on the page, and how it sounds to my ear)
- Characterization. To me, a story is nothing without a strong character to pull me in.
Now I'm ready for the ultimate test: run it by a few brutally honest friends.
6 comments:
You have more gumption than I do. I tried doing a flash once and it was hard - we only had 250 words to tell a complete story and that is extremely difficult. One page - nothing more - no time to develop characters or anything - but I did it and think I could expand the story out if need be but haven't thought of it in a while -
Good luck with the story - E :)
One of the execises on the creative writing course I've just completed was to write a 'story' in three sentences. It was great fun, especially as most of the 'stories' were humorous. You can't get much more flash than that!!
Hemingway was once challenged to write a complete story in six words. The result: "For sale: baby shoes, never used." Rumor has it he considered it his finest work.
My story "Blood and Ashes" is close to 500 words. My lost work, "Andy's Shoes" was around 500 too. Unfortunately, that one is gone forever, somewhere in the ether of computer land, and I can't bring myself to rewrite it because I know that I will never write it as well as the other version. I think that having such a small space to work in makes you really focus in on things, and can make for a very emotional story, one that cuts to the core. I've also read scary flashes that were very disturbing.
--mel
Three sentences! I suppose that would be a bit like a Haiku. I'd love to read yours, Clive.
I'm not sure I could tell a complete story in 250 words, Elysabeth, let alone 3 sentences or Hemingway's 6 words. Wow!
Mel, I would love to read Andy's Ashes if you ever got the urge to write it again. Blood and Ashes, if I remember correctly, was an emotional, moving story. You ought to look for a place to submit it. Maybe Lunch Hour Stories?
Now, I must go sharpen my pencil. I love a good challenge. First, I'll work on my 500 word story. Then maybe I'll try Clive's 3 sentence exercise!
Hey Janelle, thanks for swinging by to comment on my "Fiction on the Short scale" post.
As for flash fiction, I've done it in under 1000 words, and it was a hoot. Creepy/disturbing, like what Melanie mentioned, but it's possible.
I do it once in a while because it's such a great exercise to weigh every word against the whole.
LOL I'd love to submit Blood and Ashes somewhere else....but a certain Canadian journal has it in their clutches and won't let go. I don't get it. I've even written to them, saying, "What's up, eh?" but no response...I'm going to give them until christmas and then I'm severing them.
--mel
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