We've read some flash fiction, or short-shorts. Now let's hear from some writers, and explore the limits of the genre.
Have fun, and I'll look forward to your responses in the Comments section of this post.
Mike
Going Long. Going Short. Opinion pieces by writers in NY Times.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/going-long-going-short/?_r=0
The Story Behind My Very, Very Short Stories.
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/the-story-behind-my-very-very-short-stories/
In 1987, when Jenny Ficker and I were in sixth grade, our goals were to have a double wedding at which we married the McMasterson twins, to trick my sister into drinking a glass of pee and to sneak in the middle of the night to Boland Square and put a bra on the Grecian-woman statue on top of the fountain. Weirdly enough, I did marry Andy McMasterson, but I lost touch with Jenny years ago; whenever I drive by the Boland Square statue, the bronze bosom still hangs there for everyone to see.
On my 21st birthday, my father revealed two facts about himself: that he was colorblind and that before I was born, he’d served four years for armed robbery. I suspect the colorblind disclosure was a test of my maturity, and if I’m right, I must have barely passed. After he told me, I became petulant and said, “I just think it’s really weird you hid that for my whole life.”
1) I think it's important that Grant Faulkner said that he was always taught to write more and add to his works, then he realized that the feedback he got could have been wrong. In class you tell us to find our own voice and writing more will help establish it. Grant was saying the same thing in is article. Sometimes people need to do something different to find what they are good at. I agree that flash fiction is good in this day and age because one can read it quickly. They are perfect to read in an elevator or walking down a hallway. It is an efficient way to reach readers and allow them to still read and not take too much of their time. Grant says "The memory of a scent, an illness, a random day at the beach, a slight, can be as piquant and poignant to me as any more dramatic, plot-worthy event" which is easy to read in a small amount of time, while still being important. The reader may even be able to relate to such a small work if it is a small but major event i a person's lie.
ReplyDelete2) I believe the short shorts are real stories. In the first one, there is back story and it ties into the future. The was marriage and humor too. In the second story there is back story and conflict. The conflict is why the father didn't tell the speaker he was colorblind before. That fact puzzled the speaker greatly though the reader is not sure how long he pondered it. There isn't much said in either story but I believe they are stories. I think they both had tone too with the first being more comical and the second being more annoyance. Humor, conflict, back story, and tone sounds like enough to be a story to me.
Katie, thanks for getting us started with these thoughtful comments. Have a great Spring break!
Delete1) What strikes you in the writer's essays as important? Do you agree or disagree that flash fiction is perfect for the busy, technological age? Explain. Use one quote from the articles somewhere in your response.
ReplyDeleteI think the acknowledgement of confusion is important. People often real first person narratives and assume they're a true story about the narrator, so it can make for some really awkward writing workshops. I don't think flash fiction is perfect for the busy, technological age: I think it's perfect for honing the skills of authors who haven't been taught the necessity of brevity. "I tried my hand at writing such tiny stories because I like to experiment, but I quickly became exasperated by my early attempts. I couldn’t come anywhere close to the 100-word mark. At best, I could chisel a story down to 150 words, but I was frustrated by the gobs of material I left out." More, more, too much! I've never heard the critique that there's too much information in my writing workshop. I've given it before, but I've never heard it. I've heard "This is a big chunk of exposition, try to make it in scene," I've heard "Don't you think that's a little heavy-handed?" but not that there is too much. There is something to be said for being concise. It helps the art of subtlety.
2) Are these two examples of very very short stories really stories? Why or why not? Argue for, against, or both?!
They are stories. They entertain, they amuse, and they have conflict. That's really all a story needs to do.
They made me laugh, which is more than I can say for the entirety of Atlas Shrugged. In that sense, they're way better stories than it.
1) I think it is interesting in Grant Faulkner's article that he describes always being told to add more and more to his stories. I think this is true from my experience in previous classes. In fact, this class is what first introduced me to short-short fiction. Faulkner says "This forms speaks to the singularity of stray moments by calling attention to the spectral blank spaces around them." To me, this means telling the story of a small memory you have, a "stray moment" from your life that you still hold on to, even if it didn't really happen in your life. I agree that this type of fiction is great for today. I think the busyness of everyday life gets in the way of people today reading something novel length, I know it does for me. But short-shorts are perfect to read at anytime, at work or in between classes. They give your mind a break without drawing away all of your attention.
ReplyDelete2) These short-shorts are absolutely stories. A clear story is being told in both of them, even though they do not go into much detail or tell much back story. You still understand what is happening and we could still make a list of true things for these stories, even though there is room for personal speculation.