FlashFiction.Net

For almost three years, wherever he went, Victor Stabin brought a dictionary along. Combing through over 8,000 pages of a variety of dictionaries, he came up with the alliterations that inhabit this work. (continue reading)

My plan was to write a sort of structured mini-essay, carefully laid out. But I chanced upon a few matter-full paragraphs written by Flannery O’Connor. (continue reading)

Clearly, a much more helpful and serious approach is needed, and I believe I have one—workshops should focus on only a few concrete suggestions that will truly affect the piece, and everyone involved should know what will be discussed ahead of time. (continue reading)

A member of the editorial staff for Matter Press’s Journal of Compressed Creative Arts discusses what he’s looking for in a submission. (continue reading)

Matter Press is providing compression statements from flash fiction writers. (continue reading)

I will break these categories down in the hopes that prospective MFA students know what to expect and experienced students will be more judgmental of the “help” they give. (continue reading)

Our word story comes from the Greek muthos, myth. Throughout the centuries storytelling has continuously changed. A new form of muthos has emerged: Facebook. (continue reading)

I know that desire makes a story. I’ve tried creating characters who want nothing, and while these experiments produce language, on occasion, they never end in a recognizable story. Just about any desire will do, but there has to be enough of it. (continue reading)

But, in our time, the extremely short flash has an invisible reality, and a more indeterminate one. (continue reading)

A link to David Aichenbaum’s post at the blog of Matter Press,a press focused on supporting emerging and established authors working with condensed forms of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and visual arts. (continue reading)

Part 2 in a series from Matter Press that looks at the various definitions of “matter” and how each might apply to compressed creative arts. Here, what begins with the physical ends with the Belly of the the Whale, Star Wars, and the spiritual. (continue reading)

FlashFiction.Net introduces its new ventures: Matter Press, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and The Matter Press blog. (continue reading)

Stefanie Freele explores the layers of “modern endings” in contemporary writing & raises the idea that perhaps short story endings are muted. Part 1 of 3. (continue reading)

Carol Guess explores questions about representing “real” people in fiction and provides an exercise to invent a “lie life.” (continue reading)

A link to a group read of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field. (continue reading)

Carol Guess, the author of six books of poetry and prose, provides practical and “knowing” tips for selecting and arranging the pieces for a flash fiction or prose poetry collection. (continue reading)

A reprint and “reading” of Sam Nam’s “I Use Commas Like Ninja Stars” from SmokeLong Quarterly. (continue reading)

Anne Willkomm reviews Mary Tabor’s blog-begun flash memoir (RE) MAKING LOVE: A SEX AFTER SIXTY STORY (continue reading)

Another look at Roman Colombo’s talk with Ron Carlson, an interview that includes a reprint of Carlson’s “I Am Bigfoot.” (continue reading)

A link to a recap and summary of a 2010 AWP Denver Conference Panel Recap - F138 The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers & Writers in the Field. (continue reading)

A reprint from July 2009. Christopher James gives us a few ideas about what he thinks might make a better flash. (continue reading)

I’m a sucker for that tingly feeling I get when inspiration hits, but in the old days, I didn’t act on the fragile ones, the ones too slender to develop for 3000-4000 words. Didn’t have enough time or ability to do them justice. Then I got hooked on flash. (continue reading)

That idea of a reader’s need for purpose—for the reader to get an answer to “Why am I being told this now?”—is something featured (a lot) in Gerald Graff’s and Cathy Birkenstein’s “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. (continue reading)

The question I’m most asked is, “What is flash fiction?” It is often, according to Google Insights for Search, one of the top searches associated with flash. (continue reading)

In a recent blog entry at Three Guys One Book, Jason Chambers, Jason Rice, Dennis Haritou, and Jonathan Evison, inspired by a NYT article on 100 tips for restaurant service, began their own list of dont’s for writers. Haritou begins with this introduction to his list of ten. (continue reading)

Sherrie Flick’s I Call This Flirting, a 46-page chapbook of flash fiction , is an intimate collection detailing grief, abandonment, memory, love, and longing. She chose to construct her stories in predominately very close first person, often the “I” speaking directly to “you” the reader. This close perspective will pull you into the fictional worlds Flick has created, and it speaks to the book’s title. And while I enjoyed many of the stories in this collection, it is the intimate voice found in Flick’s writing that I found most appealing. (continue reading)

Yesterday, I came across Laura Ellen Scott’s VIPs on vsf, a blog devoted to “collecting very short thoughts about very short fiction” from some very important people, including (to date) Robert Swartwood (Norton Hint Anthology Editor), Roxanne Gay (PANK), Sean Lovelace (Rose Metal Press Chapbook Winner), Scott Garson (wigleaf ), Ellen Parker (FRiGG), and numerous other luminaries. (continue reading)

FoxSexpert (I want that title!) Yvonne K. Fulbright in discussing “The Art of the Quickie” writes, “What takes less time than brewing a pot of coffee, or sitting through Super Bowl commercials, or filling up your gas tank? Sex-on-the-run, that is! In today’s busy world, the quickie is catching on. People are not only turned on to the time efficiency and minimal efforts involved in such ‘sexcapades,’ but all of the great things sex on the fly can do for your relationship.” Just plug in flash fiction for “sex-on-the run,” “quickie” “sexcapes” and “sex on the fly”—and there’s the yearning of readers. (continue reading)

Why would any reader look to writers (of all people) for the realizations of life that will save them? (continue reading)

I first encountered Chad Prevost’s work at a reading during the Meacham Writers’ Workshop. He began with the piece below. (continue reading)

The founder of PostSecret designed a project, originally an art exhibition, for people to create a postcard to portray a secret they had never previously revealed to anyone. This secret must be truthful and not previously shared with anyone. Some of the secrets are frightening, some embarrassing, some hopeful. I was introduced to the book a few years bac (continue reading)

Also unique to the structure of this novel are the short, individually complete, chapters – rarely more than a thousand words. (continue reading)

John Edgar Wideman is the writer who has been the most significant influence on my own work. So, as I work through the challenge of writing my own flash pieces, I was struck to come across this piece. Wideman is not known as a “flash” writer, but a novelist, short story writer, and essayi (continue reading)

It’s happened. Reading flash fiction reminds me of why I love writing poetry. As I am struggling to accomplish my check list of conflict, plot, language, a strong ending, resolution, whenever I write a flash piece, the poet in me keeps me honest. Poetics is weaved into each story. Sherrie Flick, in particular, uses a poetic style that devours me. Each sentence is electric. Her chapbook “I Call This Flirting” is filled with deeply captivating stories that are awesome, in the actual meaning awe-inspiring. Poetic. (continue reading)

I was first introduced to Ron Carlson’s writing I an introduction to writing class during the early years of my undergrad. The professor used his stories “Bigfoot Stole My Wife” and “I am Bigfoot” as examples for the frame narrative technique and for the monologue story. She never mentioned “I am Bigfoot” as a Flash Fiction piece, but it sure fits. The short, hilarious, defense Bigfoot gives captivated the class and led to one question we never thought we’d have to ask ourselves: Can we trust Bigfoot? (continue reading)

A selection of some recent great flash fiction online (continue reading)

For the second time in the history of FlashFiction.Net, Writer (Meg Pokrass) interviews a Reader (Tim Jones-Yelvington) about a flash, in this case Meg’s “California Fruit” from SmokeLong Quarterly Issue #21. It appears below with the generous permission of its author. (continue reading)

Lydia Davis can do it all—write devastating short fiction (see Break it Down), write a killer novel (see End of the Story), translate Proust. (continue reading)

And I’d like to say, right here and now, there’s not a damn thing wrong with a standard incandescent light bulb, or its energy distribution (90% heat, 10% light). We glow how we can, Sara. And like you, your compact and silvery flickering soul, the new efficient fluorescent bulbs contain a toxic and deadly core—mercury! (continue reading)

Frankly, I stumbled into flash fiction and staggered around for a time. Despite writing many short stories and a couple of novel manuscripts over the past several years, it was only some ten months ago that I really came on the online publishing scene, placing short stories with Prick Of The Spindle, Identity Theory, and Miranda Literary Magazine. Next came “Iron For The Soul” published in Word Riot. Through Word Riot I became familiar with the works of such immensely talented flash writers as Elaine Chiew, Tai Dong Huai, Bonnie ZoBell, and many more, all publishing in the magazine around the same time as I. (continue reading)

One of the reasons I am as prolific as I am, which really isn’t to say I’m prolific whatsoever, but to say that I truly do write, is because my little son takes long naps during which I force myself to write. I can’t do housework. Not only do I detest doing dishes and get no enjoyment in scouring ovens whatsoever—but do like a clean house I must clarify—I can’t clean, because he might wake, so I write. My work must be at least tangentially connected to writing for it to be considered work. Otherwise, what I am doing is wasting time. (continue reading)

The issue of misunderstanding and then trying to make sense of what is misunderstood may well be the dominant theme of modern literary fiction. Lucky us, to live in such an age, to take for granted the good fortune of having our needs so amply provided. Free from the dreary and exhausting and often icky tasks necessary for survival, released from worries of crop-swarming locusts and man-eating bears, our bellies sated and then some, we turn our attention inward. (continue reading)

Here’s what Campbell did. Beginning around 1930, he broke his day into four four-hour periods, of which in three of the four-hour periods, he would be reading stories from all cultures and times. He studied Sanskrit, French, German, Japanese, Old French, Carl Jung, James Joyce, myths, and rites of passage. But mainly he read, hundreds and hundreds of stories, from ancient to modern. In the 1940’s, when he began to write about his decades of reading, you’d think he’d release “Campbell’s 101 Ways to Write a Story.” But he doesn’t. Instead he discovers the Monomyth. The Single Myth. The Lone Way. The One. (continue reading)

Lauren had such a great idea last Monday, I decided to confess, too. But which sins? Which categories? I’m shoving a piece of toast heavy with butter into my mouth right now, (I can always pop an extra Lipitor). That’s two sins, the butter and the Lipitor. I just felt a psychic poke from Randall—Stick to Flash. (continue reading)