I use twitter as the person next to me that’s available for a passing thought but isn’t there right now. I just tweeted: “Uh-oh. I’m beginning to be irked by “moments” that want to pass for flash fiction story.”
Flash fiction is usually at maximum 1000 words, usually less than 500. I’ve just started getting into it and was happy to see that my writing could compress into that form without losing story. I love the concise quick kill, the clean stage with a few obvious props of painted trees and a bench that signifies a park. It is a form that goes for the jugular, and it reaches it first try. It’s a heart-thumping, gut-wrenching, jaw-dropping scene that envelopes a lifetime in a moment. But it doesn’t always work just for its lack of verbiage.
In amongst the jewels I’m finding a lot of cut glass. The writing is superb, but frankly, the story isn’t there at all. 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.
A moment captured properly can indeed be the representation of a life story. Then again, it could just be an interesting moment and not a story at all. After all, I can look at you and say, “Hey!” and where’s the story in that? But if forced to make something of it because that’s all that’s been presented, you will. Am I angry at you? Did you do something wrong? Do I need help with something? Do I have a knife hidden somewhere?
More on this later. I like to keep it brief–but informative. 😉
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
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.
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.
I’m just here to make sure all is well with the parts of the ride I enjoy most.
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.
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.