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. 

Week 2 Reading and Writing Prompts

Flash Fiction Workshop

Week 2                        Welcome to the dollhouse: building a world and peopling it.

Discuss: how does one create a character that generates empathy in the reader? Which details make a character ‘real?’ How can we reveal, in limited space, the inner life of a character?

Read 3 flash fiction pieces: “Doghouse Dreams,” (James Claffey, from Camroc Press Review), “Fire Island, 1977,” (Tara Masih, from Apollo’s Lyre) and  “Thirty-Nine” by Meg Pokrass (from Damn Sure Right; also in Salome).

Notice how each story features a narrator at a specific moment in life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood) and how this narrator’s innocence or experience is framed by what they know or learn about themselves, about other people, or both. Do we become closer to a character by “seeing” them (what this character looks like) or by seeing through them (the character’s perceptions of the world)?

Exercise: Write a story, scene or character sketch in which we see a character as if through a telescope, with the focus zooming in from distant to close, from external to internal.  For inspiration, try these prompt words:  The story must be no more than 750 words and include a minimum of THREE of the following: envelopes unopened, olive oil, hips rocking, Missouri in the rain, disposable razor, hardening nipples, unfiltered Camels, floating in the pool, crushed Dexedrine, Tupac Shakur, glow of tongue, gas station wine, nacho stands, stands of pines, vibrators, purple lips, hummingbirds, 4 a.m., symmetrical cleavage, diet whatever sodas, touch of rum, throwing smoke, handstands, scratchy wool, a dog’s howl, a dog’s black head, a dog’s way of thinking.  [This prompt is from Thumbnail Magazine's 2013 Flash Drive No-Fee Flash Fiction Competition, judged by Sean Lovelace, which will accept contest submissions until July 1, 2013. https://thumbnailmag.submittable.com/submit.]

Take-home read: “How Could a Mother?” (Bruce Holland Rogers, from What If?) Also at Vestal Review.

Homework: Choose a person you’ve heard about or seen but don’t know personally and try to live inside their head for twenty minutes. This character could be a tabloid celebrity or the mumbling homeless guy you pass on your way to the bus stop every day, but never talk to. It could be a dead relative you know through family stories, the defendant in a notorious court case, or a legendary figure like Helen of Troy or Lancelot. Put this person in a tense or uncomfortable fictional situation and write a first-person narrative in which he or she confronts difficult emotions. Don’t worry about making up details you don’t know; those are the details will bring your story to life.  

Variation:

Try this piece again, either with the same character or with a new persona. This time, instead of first-person narrative, write from a close third-person point of view, so that we are still privy to the person’s thoughts but have one layer of distance. Or write from a secondary character’s point of view, someone who observes or reports on the main character, but does not have access to their innermost thoughts. Notice which voice feels more natural, more truthful to you.

 Please bring 8 copies of one (or both) of your pieces to next week's workshop.

That's All She Wrote : Brief Encounters with Flash Fiction

What it is: A four-week exploration of flash fiction and the infinite possibilities of form, style, and subject that can be found in these shortest of short stories. We will read works by pioneering and contemporary flash fiction writers, generate new work through in-class exercises, share and revise new flash fiction pieces, and maybe even publish some of them.

Instructor: Kathryn Kulpa

Read me!

When it is: Wednesdays, 6:30-9pm from May 8 – 29th (4 weeks)

Where it is: Ada Books, 717 Westminster Street, Providence, RI

(Near White Electric Coffee)

Updates, readings, and exercises for this class will be posted on this blog. If you can't make a class meeting, you can follow along at home.
Feel free to share your own flash fiction writings here and to post comments, feedback, and general questions. If you have specific or time-sensitive questions, it's best to email me at kathrynka (at) yahoo.com.