Flash: the fastest fiction around.

I’ve been writing a lot of flash fiction lately (or “short shorts” for those of you who define flash as 500 words or less–my stories mostly weigh in between 500 and 1000). I started writing these super-short pieces because I was feeling a little bit ADD as far as fiction was concerned; I didn’t have the stamina to push through anything longer. I kept writing beginnings, but I never wanted to finish them. So I decided to try flash fiction instead.

Whenever I talk to people about flash fiction, there’s always a lot of confusion about what it actually is. We can argue about word count, sure, but there’s also the question of what flash fiction needs to do. Most pieces of flash feel incomplete or unsatisfying. Many feel cliche or predictable. Many seem to have punch lines. How do you write a complete story that will resonate with readers in 1000 words or less? Read more »

I have a knot in my stomach.  I’ve just been to conversationalreading.com, after Googling one of my favorite authors, Lorrie Moore. I read a conversation entitled, “Lorrie Moore’s Sad Decline.”  It might have been months ago that this conversational thread occurred, but it’s new to me, and I have to say, it scares me.  Not that people are critical of Moore’s work.  Not that they are snarky.  Not that they might be right.  What scares me is the possibility–maybe inevitability–of an artist’s decline, and the implication of where decline might start.

You see, the most cutting comment in this conversation (in my opinion) was not really aimed at Moore’s writing, but at her life:

I’ve written elsewhere that the early landing of a tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin has led to a dearth of experience in a life that was uneventful to begin with.

This implies that to write well, or interestingly, one has to lead an interesting life.  Or at least, it might help.  This more than implies that a professorship cuts off life’s potential.  One might infer that any steady job, any career that interferes with writing time and lacks creative spark might sap away a young writer’s potential. Read more »