Following my previous blog about
choosing the right vehicle for an idea, and that if a short story has to become
a novel to do the idea justice then so be it, in this blog I am looking at the
counter-argument. Namely, that short fiction is the way to go for many writers (and
readers with busy lives and strictly limited time to read).
As a writer, I am interested
in the idea of flash fiction, both as a distinct genre and also for the way that
it can help writers specialising in other formats.
Flash fiction, as I am sure
you all know, is very short writing: some stories can be as short as six words,
even less.
I know that it is not for
everyone but I believe it does have applications if you are writing short
stories because of the way it concentrates the mind.
It might be that you are
tempted to spend two or three paragraphs describing a place or a person. That
could well be fine but how much better in a short story if you can do it in a
single line? Why much better? Because it leaves you those other paragraphs to
take your story on.
I am one of those writers with
split opinions about flash fiction. I like the idea of novels - after all, I
write them - in which writers have the time and space to develop their themes,
where you can devote half a page to describing something if the story requires
it, but I can also see the advantage of an economical way of writing as
promoted by the supporters of flash fiction.
Even though my novels run to
65-000-70,000 words, I have increasingly embraced the idea of economy, taking
out words, lines, paragraphs, sections, extraneous material, all in the
interest of creating a sense of pace and focus.
John Dean
No comments:
Post a Comment