Waiting for my laptop

[cleolinda]

So I came up with another short story idea yesterday while watching TV--it didn't fall on my head quite as fully formed as the one the other day, so I think it could use more time rolling around in my head. The ending's a pretty basic, common twist, so the point of the story--the So What of it, as my first English professor used to say--has got to be what leads up to it. It's got to be the kind of ending that enriches what came before, rather than just (try to) give you a DUN DUN DUNNNN moment. So. I think that's going to take a while to develop.

It's all good, though, because the hardest thing for me is coming up with concepts. I'm much more interested in and work better with character, and could write shorter one-offs about established characters, but when you're writing just a stand-alone short story, you don't really have enough room to get really, really deep into that, so it's more the theme, the So What, that takes precedence. The idea, really. And that's hard for me, to come up with stand-alone concepts. I don't know.

*obligatory whine about cleaning*

Comments

[pennylane1942.livejournal.com]

Are you acquainted with flash fiction? It's very useful if you're really into a character or an idea but you don't think you can stretch it to short story length. You know how short stories are sort of like super-concentrated novels? Well flash fiction is sort of like a super-concentrated short story. And there are virtually no rules apart from the idea that it should be very short, so you can just do what you want, whatever works. Sometimes messing with flash pieces helps me filter my ideas and leads to a short story anyway, but there is a market for flash, if you're interested.

[editornia.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you know about Flash Fiction? I always have trouble figuring that out... is it just very short fiction? Are there any specific rules or guidelines? I'd love to write Flash Fiction, but it confuses me terribly.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Actually, yeah--when I was in college, I had a professor who was really into that (and actually, this would have been about ten years ago, now that I think of it). We printed up some of ours and left them on the cafeteria tables as a project (we were so weird). I've written a few stories that are only a paragraph, or a page. I wrote a one-paragraph story about Mata Hari that I really liked--I was actually able to line-break it into a poem as an alternate version, which is kind of how you have to think of it at that short a length.

(Who's publishing flash at the moment?)

Oh God, what was my favorite one ever--it was a six-word story of Neil Gaiman's:

"I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?"

(Strangely, I had remembered it as "I'm dead. Back now. Kiss me.")

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/short-short-shorts.html

[greedyskunk.livejournal.com]

Oooh, my favorite flash from Gaiman is "Nicholas Was..." It's a very creepy take on Santa Claus and is only 100 words long, title included.