This post is part of a series of readings and activities that I am using
in a Creative Writing camp for middle school and high school students.
We're examining Flash Fiction, what makes it work, and how to write
them.
We're going to start by reading and examining "long" flash fiction.
Stories of 1000-1500 words, and as the week goes on, we're going to get
shorter and shorter, until by day 4 we are looking at 6 word stories and
Twitter Tales.
To start day two, we'll review the concept that removing words does not always mean removing content. It can even mean adding content.
Day Two Opening Activity:
For each of the scenes below, try to re-write them in shorter words without sacrificing detail/content.
A) The dog was very large and very shaggy, and it was panting heavily with its mouth hanging open and drool dripping from both sides of it mouth. (27 words)
B) The boy looked sadly down at his mint chocolate chip ice cream cone which was sitting upside down at his feet. The girl in the pink headband laughed in a rude way, but she stopped when she saw the tears slowly dripping down his face. She put her arm around him and offered him a taste of her chocolate ice cream cone. (62 words)
Update: The students were able to get scene A down to 8-13 words without losing any content. Scene B we discovered we could cut nearly in half without losing content, and could even lessen the word count and add more detail. However, we found that any word count below 25 started to remove detail.
Here is an example of B with less words but more content:
Ker-splat. The boy's mint chocolate ice cream cone hit the ground upside down. He stared at it sadly. The girl snickered violently, knocking her pink headband out of place. Then she saw the tears dripping from his chin. Gently, she put her arm around him, offering up her chocolate cone.
Time to Read:
On day one we looked at stories that were 600 - 1500 words long. Today the focus will be on stories that around 500 words long, give or take. We may see a range of anywhere from 300 - 750.
The 500 word story needs to be even tighter than a 1000 word story, and while they can include full story arcs, many start with a climax and has only enough of a resolution for the readers to digest the change. Back story may be less important or less obvious. Or, you may see condensed stories that are more fairytale like in their narration.
Another technique of flash fiction this short is to use an interesting point of view or to focus on an a different way of telling something. Think of fiction that uses 2nd person, like Jamaca Kincaid's "Girl" (In the 700 word range). These stories may also appear as letters or text message stories.
The shorter the story gets, the more it can walk the line between prose poem and story, so with shorter stories you will also see a shift in focus to descriptive language and detail. However, the same rules from Day One apply if you truly want to write flash fiction and not prose poetry.
500 words is kind of a magic number in flash fiction, and so you'll see many journals and contests that request this number specifically or use it as a maximum.
Here are students who have submitted flash fiction around this length and earned Scholastic Writing Awards. Stay on the first page. If you navigate away, you'll also see art awards.
It can be difficult to get a flash fiction just right. This link leads to Figment, which held a contest based on The New York Times "Lives" column. They got about 163 entries, which you can read. The posted entries receive critiques from readers. Not all of these stories work yet, but sometimes examining what almost works is a good practice as well. When you see what doesn't quite work in action, it easier to recognize it in your own work, avoid, or fix it. Having said that, there is a lot of good going on in these very short student stories as well.
"After the Hysterectomy" by Ira Sukrunguang: This story is actually a little over 600 but dives into the heart and mind of a man who married without children. While the topic is not one many in your age group are concerned about, there is some beautiful word choice going on here and it shows how examining an internal conflict can be a good frame for flash fiction. It is also nonfiction. To see more flash nonfiction from Brevity go here: brevitymag.com
Day Two Activity:
Time to try your hand at a 500 word story. Remember what you liked or didn't like about the stories above. Choose one of the two prompts below.
Prompt A: Re-tell a classic tale (a fairy-tale, a important moment in history, a common story like Romeo & Juliet) in only 500 words.
Prompt B: Tell a story in 500 words that is framed as advice that is being given. Something like "Girl" posted above or "An Emotional Wreck's Guide to Recovery" from the Scholastic Award site.
Tip: When you're about 200 words from your limit, stop and look at what you have. Can you end the story in 200 words? Do you need to start over? Or maybe, you just need to cut from the beginning. Sometime we give unnecessary or repetitive detail in the beginning of the story because we ourselves getting to know the setting and characters, but some of that detail could be injected in the middle and/or in more concise ways, or may not be necessary at all.
Day Two Challenge:
Take the short version of "The Timekeeper" that you wrote yesterday and make it shorter. Can you get it down to 500 words and still tell the story?
Update for Day Two:
We had fun getting more concise with our words, and realized that with flash fiction, you can leave your readers wanting to know more, but you should never leave them needing to know more.
Ready for Day Three?
To start day two, we'll review the concept that removing words does not always mean removing content. It can even mean adding content.
Day Two Opening Activity:
For each of the scenes below, try to re-write them in shorter words without sacrificing detail/content.
A) The dog was very large and very shaggy, and it was panting heavily with its mouth hanging open and drool dripping from both sides of it mouth. (27 words)
B) The boy looked sadly down at his mint chocolate chip ice cream cone which was sitting upside down at his feet. The girl in the pink headband laughed in a rude way, but she stopped when she saw the tears slowly dripping down his face. She put her arm around him and offered him a taste of her chocolate ice cream cone. (62 words)
Update: The students were able to get scene A down to 8-13 words without losing any content. Scene B we discovered we could cut nearly in half without losing content, and could even lessen the word count and add more detail. However, we found that any word count below 25 started to remove detail.
Here is an example of B with less words but more content:
Ker-splat. The boy's mint chocolate ice cream cone hit the ground upside down. He stared at it sadly. The girl snickered violently, knocking her pink headband out of place. Then she saw the tears dripping from his chin. Gently, she put her arm around him, offering up her chocolate cone.
Time to Read:
On day one we looked at stories that were 600 - 1500 words long. Today the focus will be on stories that around 500 words long, give or take. We may see a range of anywhere from 300 - 750.
The 500 word story needs to be even tighter than a 1000 word story, and while they can include full story arcs, many start with a climax and has only enough of a resolution for the readers to digest the change. Back story may be less important or less obvious. Or, you may see condensed stories that are more fairytale like in their narration.
 |
| Borrowed from wikis.engrade.com |
The shorter the story gets, the more it can walk the line between prose poem and story, so with shorter stories you will also see a shift in focus to descriptive language and detail. However, the same rules from Day One apply if you truly want to write flash fiction and not prose poetry.
500 words is kind of a magic number in flash fiction, and so you'll see many journals and contests that request this number specifically or use it as a maximum.
Here are students who have submitted flash fiction around this length and earned Scholastic Writing Awards. Stay on the first page. If you navigate away, you'll also see art awards.
It can be difficult to get a flash fiction just right. This link leads to Figment, which held a contest based on The New York Times "Lives" column. They got about 163 entries, which you can read. The posted entries receive critiques from readers. Not all of these stories work yet, but sometimes examining what almost works is a good practice as well. When you see what doesn't quite work in action, it easier to recognize it in your own work, avoid, or fix it. Having said that, there is a lot of good going on in these very short student stories as well.
"After the Hysterectomy" by Ira Sukrunguang: This story is actually a little over 600 but dives into the heart and mind of a man who married without children. While the topic is not one many in your age group are concerned about, there is some beautiful word choice going on here and it shows how examining an internal conflict can be a good frame for flash fiction. It is also nonfiction. To see more flash nonfiction from Brevity go here: brevitymag.com
Day Two Activity:
Time to try your hand at a 500 word story. Remember what you liked or didn't like about the stories above. Choose one of the two prompts below.
Prompt A: Re-tell a classic tale (a fairy-tale, a important moment in history, a common story like Romeo & Juliet) in only 500 words.
Prompt B: Tell a story in 500 words that is framed as advice that is being given. Something like "Girl" posted above or "An Emotional Wreck's Guide to Recovery" from the Scholastic Award site.
Tip: When you're about 200 words from your limit, stop and look at what you have. Can you end the story in 200 words? Do you need to start over? Or maybe, you just need to cut from the beginning. Sometime we give unnecessary or repetitive detail in the beginning of the story because we ourselves getting to know the setting and characters, but some of that detail could be injected in the middle and/or in more concise ways, or may not be necessary at all.
Day Two Challenge:
Take the short version of "The Timekeeper" that you wrote yesterday and make it shorter. Can you get it down to 500 words and still tell the story?
Update for Day Two:
We had fun getting more concise with our words, and realized that with flash fiction, you can leave your readers wanting to know more, but you should never leave them needing to know more.
Ready for Day Three?
Comments
Post a Comment