Flash Craft: More Questions Than Answers
by Barbara Westwood Diehl
Are there rules? No. Sorry. But there are many questions you can ask yourself while writing flash fiction and during your revision process.
There are aspects of craft you can consider when reading the flash fiction stories of other writers, too. There is a joy in deciphering their mysteries, in figuring out what makes them take up residence inside you.
I hope these (way too many) questions and suggestions help you to think about your flash craft.
Read it out loud. Or in your head, imagining yourself at a podium.
Consider your own emotional response to the story and what you want your reader to experience. T.S. Eliot said in an essay: “The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion . . .” Have you provided the objects/situation/chain of events that will evoke this emotional response? Do you enable the reader to feel? (Note that readers will not always respond the same way to your set, and that’s fine—we all bring the accumulation of our pasts to what we read—and there’s certainly not one formula to use for a particular response. I think the idea is sort of to furnish your story room and allow your reader to respond to it.
Is any part of your story summarized that could be written as a scene? Maybe there’s not much room in your flash piece for more than one scene. Or is it better suited to a less traditional approach?
If you’re using a nontraditional form, ask yourself if it truly serves the purpose of the story. Does it feel like a gimmick? An experiment? Or is it the best possible vehicle for the story?
Can you sense an arc in your short short story? A turning point where something important is revealed or expectations are upended in an unsettling way? A surprise or revelation? A feeling of having a new understanding or an empathetic response? Is the ending earned? Do the weights of the story parts feel properly distributed? Not front heavy or sagging in the middle?
Is every character essential? Are characters given appropriate weight? Too much time and attention given to insignificant characters? Does your character want something? Does your character have some defining characteristic that sets him or her or them apart from others? If your character is more a symbol than the complex character of a longer story, is this clear? Will the reader still get a sense of depth beyond the story surface and have an emotional response? Are you using the best point-of-view for this story? (Try other options if you have any doubts, or simply to see what effect a change has on the story.) Do you use that POV consistently? Any accidental shifts?
If you use dialogue in your flash fiction: Does it reveal character and/or move the story forward? If not, cut it. Does it feel believable, natural? A little bit of dialect goes a long way. Do not use dialogue to deliver chunks of information. Minimal use of tags. Often not needed if speech accompanies some action. Tags should be unobtrusive. “Said” is fine. Toss the ellipses; they’re usually not necessary. Use a dash to indicate an interruption.
Does your short short story get off to a running start? Did you start with a sentence that will get your reader’s attention? A sentence that will raise questions?
Test the strength of each sentence. Does the story suffer if it’s removed.
Test the strength of each word. Does the story suffer if it’s removed? Are there adjectives and adverbs you can delete? Are your nouns and verbs precise? If you’re not sure that you’re using a word correctly, look it up or use another one.
Is there a logical flow from sentence to sentence? A sense that each sentence snaps into place like Lego pieces?
Are the sentences an easy-to-read length (without losing breath or the logical thread)? A long sentence may be grammatically correct but may feel tedious to a reader. Do the sentences feel choppy? Do you vary sentence length and structure so that it sounds natural and has a pleasing rhythm? Does your syntax feel unnatural, a little off? Rearrange the words or find another way to write the sentence.
Generally best to stick with active voice and simple present and past tense verb forms. Avoid piling on negatives. The reader shouldn’t need a map, compass, and flashlight to decipher sentences and see where you’re heading.
Cut: Any story parts that don’t serve a purpose. Unless the weather is essential somehow, we don’t need to know about it. Unnecessary descriptions, background information, subplots, tangents. Purple prose. Obscure allusions and words that few readers would understand or typically use (although many readers enjoy learning something new from time to time, as long as they don’t spend more time Googling than reading your work). Abstraction when something concrete can be used. Passive sentence constructions. Weak words like “it”—but if you use “it,” be clear what “it” refers to. Redundant words, phrases, sentences. Flabby constructions like “on account of the fact that” when “because” will suffice.
After cutting: If you need to add words for clarity, or to fill in any gaps left by excising weak or unnecessary words and sentences, or to give a better sense of story—do so.
Have you dumped a truckload of information on your reader that could be delivered in small packages? Or possibly cut because all that interesting information is better suited to a longer story form?
Are there interesting visual details, at least a central image, to engage the senses? An indelible image? Are these details relevant—essential—to the story? Can the image work on multiple levels?
Is your last line one that readers will remember? Do you end with an action, an image, something surprising (but something that makes sense in the context of the story)? If you puttered on a bit after coming to a powerful end, go back and cut.
The nitpicky stuff: Check your grammar, spelling, and punctuation. There are better ways to be creative. If you deviate from standard practices, have a good reason to do so. Use U.S. style spelling and punctuation, unless you have a good reason to do otherwise. So commas and periods inside the quotation marks. Use one space after periods, not two or three, so that editors won’t have to do a search-and-replace to delete all the extra spaces. If you read a lot of books, most of this will come naturally. Incorrect punctuation will look weird to you. Be familiar with style and usage guides and other craft books and online resources. They may not be riveting, but they can help you with the nuts and bolts so that you’re a better communicator. Read in and out of your usual genres of interest. Read a lot. As a reader and as a writer. Reading excellent stories—poems, too—may be especially comforting right now. They may help you make sense of the world.
If you use track changes in Word, accept all changes, delete comments, and save the file when you’re done. Editors should not be privy to your editing process or see comments from others who have reviewed your work when they open your story in Submittable.
Feeling confident? Submit your work to several journals that would be a good fit. Then start a new story. There are so many stories to tell. We want—we need—to hear them.