1) I love snow days! And this is the second in a week. :)
2) I finally figured out how to post a profile picture on Blogger. To say the least I am not a techie person, so I am very proud of myself. :)
3) Frankly, I was astounded by the comments on The Act. I assumed I knew who read this blog... and I was very wrong. Thank you all so much for the encouragement! I'll post more later. Promise.
4) With all this free time on my hands, I read a brief article on flash fiction. And so now I am departing my abundant wisdom upon you. (Please note the sarcasm.)
Flash fiction is REALLY SHORT, like short stories. However, there is no real boundary between flash and just regular fiction. Novelettes, which are under 60,000 words (most of the time) (The Secret Second Life of Bree Tanner, for example) do not count. I think. Some said that flash is under 3000 words, but that would exclude the short stories I wrote that were published. So the division is very fuzzy.
I don't particularly enjoy writing short stories because I like character-driven plots, and most S.S.s are too short for any real character development. But I've also learned that they are very, very good practice for editing- I remember reviewing my first short story (The Prisoners) and having to cut about 700 words. It was hard, but what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?
(Flash fiction, I think, is some of the hardest fiction to write because of the pressing word count.)
Then there is the SUPER short stories. Under 1000 words. Maybe under 500.
And then there are the stories that are so short, you are left hanging, to answer the words that have triggered a thousand questions in your head. My favorite example?
For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
6-six-VI words. But don't you automatically find yourself creating a story about those shoes, and what happened to the parents, the baby? Word count doesn't define impact.
Read the short story "Teenage Wasteland"- http://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/Electronic%20Reserve%203400/Teenage%20Wasteland.pdf - it was the first short story I remember reading, and it is incredible.
So write a story, under 300 words. Post it in the comments, if you feel so inclined. I'm going to write one, maybe include it in my next post.
Until next time!
I wrote a story for my old school's literary magazine last year that I think was pretty close to being only 300 words, it may have been a little more. But, well it's short. I'll bring it tomorrow to show you (IF we have school, that is!)
ReplyDeleteP.S. Rachel, I adore your posts. So much. You have no idea.