As you may know, I love doing radio and audio interviews, so I always jump at the chance to do online interviews. I was especially pleased to be Richard G Lowe’s first ever guest on his new “Fiction Master Class” video podcast series earlier this summer.
Here’s a link to it on his blog so you can watch it if you’d like to:
I first met Richard as a fellow member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. I have a great deal of respect for him as a writer and entrepreneur – what’s known in the trade as an authorpreneur, ie making a great business out of his writing activities. He’s also very generous in sharing his knowledge and experience with other authors.
His Interviews with Other Fiction Authors
He’s since added a lot more episodes to his new podcast series, offering fascinating insights into the real lives of working indie authors such as my good friends David Penny and Clare Flynn. Follow his blog at http://www.fictionmasterclass.com, or subscribe to his YouTube channel to discover new and interesting authors. I know I want to catch them all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXBSjobmLR0
“Sorry for Tolstoy?” I hear you cry. Why should a little-known writer with zero published novels to her name pity the author of one of the world’s longest and greatest works of fiction?
Find our why I used to feel sorry for Tolstoy (and Dickens and Eliot and Hardy) – and why I’m over it now – by reading my guest post on the lovely Jessica Bell’s blog, alluring entitled The Alliterative Allomorph (yes, I had to look that last one up in the dictionary too).
Flash Gordon saves the universe, with a little help from his bearded friend (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This time last year, I chanced upon a phenomenon completely new to me: Flash Fiction, known simply as “Flash” to its fans.
Previously, if anyone had asked what I thought of “Flash”, I’d have assumed they were talking about classic sci-fi hero Flash Gordon (perhaps because he shares a name with my husband, Flash Young – no, only kidding, it’s Gordon, of course!) Still, there are worse associations that might have sprung to mind.
Little did I know on this first encounter that it was something I’d quickly come to love. (Again, just like my husband.)
Flash What?
I love this tiny book! (Photo by me)
“So what is Flash Fiction?” I hear you cry. Well, it’s a very, VERY short story, usually under 1,000 words but often much shorter – 500, 100, 50. (For comparison, this article contains 285 words.) I even know of one writer, Bart van Goethem, who’s managed a story of no words, simply by using the title “Memoirs of An Uninteresting Man”, with nothing beneath it.
Flash is perfect for anyone who thinks they have no time to read. Just a few seconds on the page will nourish your imagination for hours. It’s a form of fiction that lends itself well to the modern age, being easy to download and read on a smartphone or tablet. But technophobes won’t miss out – there is plenty available in book form too. I hope to be publishing one of my own soon.
This month brings the perfect opportunity to find out more: the second National Flash Fiction Day on 22nd June. Last year there were lots of free downloads available on the day. Free samples on my blog all year round, too.
(Fades to “Flash Gordon” theme music…)
This article was originally written for the June 2013 edition of Hawkesbury Parish News.
(A new post about my discovery of the micro short story form commonly known as flash fiction – a challenge for every writer, whether you’re a short story writer, a blogger, a novelist, an advertisting copywriter or any other kind of author.)
Flash fiction – taking the world by storm
Today I did something I’ve never done before: I flashed. Don’t be alarmed – that’s a shorthand that I think I’ve just invented for writing flash fiction.
What’s flash fiction? Think of it as the Pound Shop of story writing. (To my American readers: that’s the British equivalent of the Five and Dime Store.)
I don’t mean that disrespectfully – I LOVE pound shops, where you can track down all kinds of intriguing and useful items for the tiniest investment. The standard length of a short story is usually 2,000-3,000 words, but flash fiction applies the incredibly economical limit of around 100 words. Sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less (there are 99p shops too, after all). But you get the idea: in flash fiction, less is more.
As anyone who has commercial copywriting experience knows, writing the short version of a text can take much more time than the long version. Condensed thoughts don’t start out condensed. So don’t assume you can dash off a 100 word story in a moment. If you do, it won’t be much good. It takes hard work to craft an effective flast fiction story, complete with conflict and resolution, all within just a few sentences. Every word has to work hard and earn its keep, each one an essential brick in the structure of the story. When it’s done well, it has the lyrical quality of the perfect poem, the emotional punch of a novel and the beauty of a sculpture. Don’t underestimate this format just because it’s small. There’s no room for sizeism in short form fiction.
I discovered Flash Fiction on 16th May. I can be that precise about it because it was National Flash Fiction Day.
National Days on specific themes usually bring out the cynic in me. They are often transparent pitches to make you buy more of a particular commercial product. National Eat More Porridge Day, National Buy More Hairspray Day – I made those two up, but you get my drift: I don’t like days that exist to sell you stuff. (I’ll make an exception for National Wear A Tea Cosy On Your Head Day, which was apparently last Friday – I’m sorry I missed that one. I’m happy to comply with National Continence Week also.)
But Flash Fiction Day was quite the opposite. The organisers generously offered free, no-obligation downloads of flash fiction e-books. I got my Kindle on the case and imported a selection, thinking flash fiction would make the perfect speedy bedtime reading for people like me who always end up going to bed much later than they should do. A story a night for the next two and a half months – excellent.
That night I got stuck into 75×75 = Flash Fraction by Helena Mallett. This volume does what it says on the cover, offering 75 stories each honed from just 75 words. I was up till 2 in the morning, reading all 4125 words. I laughed, I cried, I admired. The book was masterful.
Ever since, I’ve been waiting for the inspiration to try it myself, though in awe that I could produce such perfect pieces. Then, flicking through Twitter earlier today, I came across 99Fiction, a flash fiction website with a free online competition for stories of 99 words or less. Its deadline is midnight tonight. Earlier in the day, I’d had an intriguing encounter with a stranger that I couldn’t stop thinking about. Those two bits of serendipity combined to trigger my pen. Numerous drafts and ponderous word-counts later, I emailed off my flash fiction story.
No, I can’t reproduce it here – yet – because if you read it in the next fortnight, I’d have to kill you. (Entries close at midnight, British time, but in the two weeks before they announce the winner, you’re not allowed to publish it elsewhere.) But I will in due course.
In the meantime, if you like writing, I’d encourage you to have a go. Whether you’re a blogger, a novelist, a commercial copywriter, a business report writer, or even just Angry of Tunbridge Wells who likes to fire off a punchy letter to The Times every so often, it’s a great exercise in the effective use of words. It will also remind you what a rich language we English-speakers are privileged to have.
By my reckoning, you’ve got just an hour and a quarter to harness your 99 words and send them off to fictioncomp@yahoo.com. That’s almost a minute per word. What are you waiting for?
Porridge oats (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
P.S I was wrong about Eat More Porridge Day. There is apparently a World Porridge Day. Scotsmen of the world, unite – you have nothing to lose but your constipation. It’s on 10th October. You have been warned.
P.P.S. Since first writing this post, I’ve penned another Flash Fiction story, which I’m using to launch the new Fiction section of this website. Click here to jump straight to it.
As you may know, I love doing radio and audio interviews, so I always jump at the chance to do online interviews. I was especially pleased to be Richard G Lowe’s first ever guest on his new “Fiction Master Class” video podcast series earlier this summer.
