This week’s newsletter explores Flash Fiction and invites you to share your own piece in the Comments section. Do you love Flash and have some insights or publishing opportunities to share? Are you Flash-curious but haven’t tried it yet? Would you like to read my first foray into Flash? If yes, read on: this week’s newsletter is for you.
I want to talk about Flash Fiction this week. Partly because it’s a literary form that’s growing in popularity (perhaps because of our ever-shrinking attention spans), and partly because I’ve enjoyed some flash-related ‘wins’ recently that have energised me no end while I toil away in the longer game of novel writing. So I thought I’d share my foray into Flash here on Substack and take the opportunity to recommend the form to any writers who haven’t yet tried it for themselves.
Firstly, what is Flash Fiction?
I’m very new to Flash Fiction, but as I understand it, Flash pieces can be anywhere between around six and 1000 words long. Some sources say 1500 is the upper limit, but to me this feels too long, considering the lightning metaphor at play in the name.
Most storytelling elements found in longer-form fiction are also crucial in Flash, which is one of the reasons it’s such a useful form to explore as a writer. Even if you prefer to write fuller short stories, novellas or novels, Flash can help you to hone such essential craft elements as sensory writing, specificity, metaphor, voice, depth of meaning, and brevity. (Remember Strunk & White’s advice in The Elements of Style to ‘omit needless words’? You can practise that to the max in Flash.) Also, aside from being an excellent way to practise your craft, Flash is a fun and inspiring form in and of itself. Not to mention the satisfaction of completing an edited, polished work relatively quickly.
Other storytelling elements like characterisation and narrative arc can be more difficult within the micro word count of Flash, particularly on the shorter end of the spectrum, because there isn’t much room for progression, transformation or closure. Some argue that Flash isn’t truly Flash unless it achieves these things, but others are more flexible, extending the definition to include brief, arc-less illuminations of moments, memories, feelings, relationships or ideas. This is where the line between Flash and Prose Poetry can be quite blurred. (In Prose Poetry, poetic techniques are deployed without the constraints of lines, rhymes or metre. Meaningful moments or feelings are lyrically evoked without regard to either a narrative arc or a poetic structure.)
Recent Flash ‘wins’:
My 750-word story, ‘Myfanwy’, was recently accepted for publication in WA’s brand new literary journal, the little journal. With its first edition due for release next month (June 2024), the little journal is a collaboration between our state’s peak writing body
and local publisher Night Parrot Press, whose latest anthology Ourselves features the micro-memoirs of 100 writers. (100! Another example of why Western Australia has such an awesome writing climate at the moment.)My tiniest-ever story, Tough Love, was long-listed in Writing WA’s Love to Read Local Fictional Flashbacks Competition earlier this month, alongside 29 other pieces. Run by Writing WA in partnership with Raine Square, this year’s competition invited submissions of 100 words or fewer, inspired by a memorable object. Tough Love didn’t make the shortlist, but you can read the wonderfully deft pieces that did, and vote for your favourite in the People’s Choice Award here. It’s not easy, but if I can pick one, so can you! (Have your say before this Sunday, 19th May.)
So, to celebrate, I thought I’d share Tough Love here today, along with a picture of the beloved print that inspired it.
Tough Love
As a girl, I had a block-mounted print of Alice in a forest wonderland, intricately rendered in earthy green on sepia. Caterpillar sat smug on his toadstool, sucking on his hookah, watching Alice with narrow-eyed disinterest. She looked up at him with excellent posture, eager for his approval. Later, they hung in the flat I shared with friends, co-dependent at parties, unmoved by transgressions. Later still, watching over my sons, they persisted with their questionable dynamic until the velcro fasteners gave out and they fell behind the TV unit. I left them there a while, to think about their choices.
If you’re a writer, or you want to be, I highly recommend having a go at Flash. Let me know how you go, and feel free to share your work below in the comments, particularly if it’s less than 200 words. I’d love to read it!
If you’re still not convinced, it may inspire you to know that such luminaries as
and have been known to dabble (and then some) in the discipline of Flash.Further reading and publishing opportunities:
Sydney-based indie-publisher Aniko Press runs a biannual Flash competition and features winners and runners-up on their website. Elaine Chennatt from Aniko has also compiled a list of Flash collections here.
Flash Fiction Online is a digital magazine devoted to the form.
Perth publisher Night Parrot Press specialises in flash and other non-traditional literary forms.
Friday Flash Fiction is a regular, long-standing flash competition.
Writers’ forum NYC Midnight shares some great how-to insights.
This Literary Hub article by Grant Faulkner is excellent.
Other ‘news’, in pictures:
That’s all from me, until next time.
Joanna
Thanks for reading ‘Thursdays After Lunch with Joanna Morrison’! Subscribe free of charge to receive new posts and support my work.
My name is Joanna Morrison. In my debut novel, ‘The Ghost of Gracie Flynn’, three university friends are divided by a tragic death. Eighteen years on, they’re reunited, but when another body is found, the ghost of Gracie Flynn has a story to tell about the night that changed their lives forever.
I think Alice is waiting to be invited to join him....? Maybe slightly projecting though.... I love the story though.
Thanks Madeline! So glad you liked it. Do let me know if you decide to dabble in some flash ⚡️ It took me a long time to try it too, and it is challenging for those of us who don’t like to be contained 😅 But it’s a fun challenge!