Comments on: WRITING: Flash Fiction

By: susan

susan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:43:06 +0000

No, Juhi, this isn’t what I meant by comments to your story versus what I’m reading elsewhere. What I’m referring to here is a story left dangling, or a snapshot of an event and characters that goes nowhere and shows nothing. Your stories are fully rounded and complete, they are read to be understood as parables so they are basically a metaphor in themselves. What I suggested to you was to make the story world more inviting to the reader (not all readers use their imagination) by some reference to what the setting looks like or what the characters are seeing. As an example, you can write that the lady wore a purple hat with red feathers, and that gives us an idea of what kind of woman she is–she probably wouldn’t wear gray or navy blue and clunky shoes. She probably doesn’t dust her house every other day. She likes chocolate ice cream better than vanilla, I’ll bet, and her favorite’s probably pistachio. At the same time, if I asked you to draw the lady, complete with hat and feathers, your picture still would look nothing like mine. That’s where you leave things to the reader, to fill in the millions of other details.

By: Juhi Kalra

Juhi Kalra — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:38:56 +0000

While leaving much to the imagination of the reader is fine, leaving the reader to write the whole story is (Barthes be damned) presumptive and ridiculous if one still wants to use the self-designation of story writer.

After reading this, I wondered if the 2 stories I sent to you fell in this category.

I’m spending the day reading you, and following your links to where they may lead me.

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:43:44 +0000

I’m just here to make sure all is well with the parts of the ride I enjoy most.

By: susan

susan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:49:55 +0000

Thanks, Roberta. I’m learning that contemporary flash fiction may leave much to the reader to finish, but if it’s done well, it should have the reader questioning himself rather than the story. There still are an awful lot of head-scratchers out there and I think it’s just new writers trying to understand the flash form without really getting it.

By: Roberta Smith

Roberta Smith — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:00:06 +0000

Susan, this is interesting and I’m looking forward to the next post. One of my favorite subjects to read about is “Writing”.

Your thoughts here reminded me how in the late sixties a new style of story emerged in school textbooks that a)left out so many details including the ‘bench’ so you didn’t know ‘it was a park’, and b) left the reader in the end so high and dry they had to write their own conclusion. I hated those stories and still do. When Hub and I see a movie without an ending, we beat ourselves up for watching it and say, “That must be a CBC movie” — cause they are notorious for stories lacking intrigue and any kind of valid conclusion.

But in reading what you write, you certainly lay down your words in a fascinating way whether the writ be short or long – including this fascinating bit that I have just read right here and now.