Quote: ajblack4567, Thursday, 10 Nov 2011 14:08I'd always been curious about Flash Fiction, in the sense that it appealed to me but my instinct was it may not be that useful if you're hoping to write entire novels (no one trains for a marathon by running 100m sprints).
Recently, though, I've written quite a few Flash pieces merely because it fits well with the time I currently have to write. I would distill what I've discovered into two points, one positive and one negative (rather conveniently).
On the plus side, you can
literally "take your words out and look at them", as we say in Ireland. In a 500/1000 word piece you can actually do a word-by-word audit and assess the effectiveness/appropriateness of each and every word. Of course, this is often necessary to meet a prescribed word count, but even when it's not necessary, the volume of writing you've produced is such that it is possible, surely even advisable. For me, this has helped me to identify certain bad habits I've developed around sentence construction and the over use of pet words. It has also produced some very lean, spare pieces of writing that I would never have landed on if I had twice the word count at my disposal.
However, like all strengths, this is also a weakness. What is lost when I write in this way is my voice, the elusive "writer's voice" which we're so often told is the single most important feature of our writing. I've found it impossible to bring my voice through in these Flash pieces. Some of them actually read like reportage, they're so denuded of my personality and writing style.
I'd be interested to hear what more experienced Flash writers think, and if they believe - in the long run - whether Flash helps or hinders their writing of longer fiction. Also, have they mastered the skill of writing so succinctly but retaining their own voice? Indeed,
can it be done??
Like you I only moved into flash fiction due to available time to write (I was busy marketing my debut novel and wrote a new piece of flash each week as a promotion tool). One bonus was that having done it for every week for a year plus, suddenly I had an anthology - I culled 52 of 70 stories and put it out on Amazon kindle.
I agree with your strength of the genre. It allows for greater power within each word, greater lyricism and poetry if that's your leaning. Word choice is vital and as a writer you only have 1000 to hold in your head to reference when editing, which makes word choice so much easier to manage. No repetitions and some words can be chosen for their sound as much as their meaning.
As to your downside, I disagree. You fundamentally CAN get your unique voice across, but it does depend on what you're writing. I've met many flash writers online who tackle different genres each time and yet each is distinctively their voice coming through no matter the genre. I don't know what material you are writing about, but I suspect that may be the issue that leaves your voice like 'reportage'. You may just be limiting yourself and your creative imagination by the word count instead of using it to dispense with some of the literary touchstones such as description or plot. Character will, nay must come through the voice. You haven't time to ascribe traits to a character. And language, word choice yields character in flash.
While flash and novel are different crafts, they are not mutually exclusive. If you can master word usage in flash, it can only strengthen novel writing, even though the reader can't hold 75000 words in their memory, there can still be little word detonations of surprising word combinations within a phrase or sentence that leave the reader in no doubt that you are a vituoso of language.
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available
on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
FLASH FICTION
10 Nov 2011, 14:08
