Week 4            Sound, vision and (re)vision.

Flash fiction as the bridge between poetry and fiction; what writing poetry can teach us about compression and imagery in prose. Discuss how repetition of words, phrases, and even sounds can serve as a story’s emotional anchor, making it affecting and memorable. Read excerpt from Stuart Dybek’s “We Didn’t” and the poem that inspired it, Yehuda Amachai’s “We Did It.” (Link to a transcript of a talk by Stuart Dybek here, with the poem and the story and a description of his process.)

Writing Exercise: Pick a word, a phrase, and a sentence from the word bags. Write one or two paragraphs that use these (they need not connect) and share them.  Try to keep to a 150-word maximum for each. (15 minutes)

Revision exercise #1: Read the Steve Almond story/poem from Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (p 105-108).

1.               Convert one or both of the paragraphs into a poem by inserting line breaks. Cut extraneous words as needed.

2.               Convert the poem(s) back into a flash fiction/prose poem form by eliminating the line breaks.

Discuss: how does each revision change the piece; what is lost, what is gained? (How) do you know when you’ve ‘cut enough’? When is a flash story a story, as opposed to a sketch, a prose poem, or an unfinished draft?

Read: the halving exercise (cutting a story in half, then in half again) from Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (p. 125-128), using the story “Exercise” (Bruce Taylor) from Vestal Review.

Revision Exercise 2: Write a story that’s around 200 words. Cut it in half. Cut it in half again. Which version feels right?

Homework: Submit your story to either 100 Word Story or annual the 55Fiction contest.

Continue reading, writing, revising; reading, writing, revising! 

Week 3 Reading and Writing Prompts

Week 3        Who knows where or when? Creating past, present, and (sometimes) future.

Read “I Am Holding Your Hand,” (Myfanwy Collins, from The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction), “Almost Over: Separate Bedrooms,” (Lydia Davis, from Collected Stories), and “Reunification” (Steve Almond, from Vestal Review). (The Lydia Davis story is quoted, in full, in the article about her that the link points to, and it has some interesting background about the author. She likes fruit smoothies. And cows.) 

Discuss: How does time define, pressure, thwart, or support story? If a flash fiction story takes place in a single moment (as many do), how do we give characters the weight of a fully lived past? Can flash support flashbacks? What other techniques can writers use to reveal background? How do we choose the right tense for a micro story?

Exercise: On a sheet of paper, write the following phrases:

The first thing he(she) remembered was __________.

Years before he was born, his mother(father) had __________.

Once, he knew, this had happened.

It was not until ____________ that he understood ___________.

Now, when he remembers his father(mother), he sees him(her) _________.

Years from now, he will be __________.

Use these to generate ideas for a new character, or to fill out an existing character. Change tense, gender, and person as needed. Set the timer for 15 minutes and write a story or scene that takes place within a finite, measured amount of time—as long as it takes to bake a cake, say, or escape from a burning building. While your story should have a “ticking clock” element that drives the motion forward, these phrases can provide the back story.

Take-home read: “Cicadas” (Lynda Barry), from One! Hundred! Demons! (Best seen in color; borrow the book or read online at Salon.com.)

Homework: Continue the piece you began in class or start a new story in which, as in the Lynda Barry piece, a “now” and a “then” story exist side by side. The ongoing action should be somehow informed by what came before. Use a concrete physical image as the bridge between the two timelines.