Writers' goup Gran Prix, lap two: Flash! workshop at writing center

Upcoming Workshops at CWC:

• The Power of Brevity:  Writing Flash Fiction and Flash Factual
• The Art of Listening:  Personal Interviews, Personal Narratives
• Tasteful Narratives:  Food Writing
• Ease up:  Writing Through Stress
• Time for Change:  Writing Resumes and Cover Letters
• Beat the Blank Page:  Getting Started and Overcoming Writer's Block
• Talking About Writing:  Playwriting
• Strength in Brevity:  Writing Clearly and Concisely
• Want Fry Sauce With That?  The Utah Field Guide
• The Digital Movement:  Blogging for Change
• Young Minds:  Writing for Children and Young Adult Audiences
• The Beat of Your Own Drum:  Creative Writing for Teens
• Writing as a Rolling Stone:  Travel Writing
• Be Involved: Volunteer Training for Coaching and Mentoring
   
  

  "In 'The Philosophy of Composition,' Edgar Allan Poe described the length of a short story to be 'the limit of one sitting...if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is at once destroyed." 

   

CWC Writing Assistant Specialist Jeremy Remy was the workshop facilitator for The Power of Brevity: Writing Flash Fiction and Flash Factual. He's been at the center longer than almost anyone, and really loves helping people explore new avenues and processes of writing. He is a compendium of such information.

"The term 'flash fiction' originated in the anthology Flash Fiction (1992), edited by James Thomas, Denise Thomas and Tom Hazuka. When creating the book, the editors looked for stories that would fit on one or two digest magazine - sized pages—making the stories 250 to 750 words in length. These stories contained all the elements of a traditional short story—character, plot, setting, etc.—but were distinctly shorter..."

FF has become a catch-all term, as well as a category of its own. Under that heading, several types of FF have arisen and evolved over the years since it became popular:

• "Baby Shoe:" six words

• "Postcard/Thumbnail:" ten words or less

• "Nanofiction/Fifty-fiver:" exactly 55 words in length

• "Sixty-niner:" exactly 69 words

• "Microfiction:" ten to 250 words

• "Drabble" 100 words

• "Flash:" 250 to 750 words

• "Sudden fiction:" 750 to 1250 words

• "Short-short story:" 1,250 to 3,000 words.

 

The more traditional fiction forms have their assigned typical word ranges as well, with the Short story weighing in at 3,000 to 17,500 words, the novella, a hefty 17,500 to 40,000, and the reigning heavyweight champion, the novel, sporting 40,000 words or more (whew).

The first thing Jeremy asked us to do was write a "baby shoe"  (see above). We had some good examples from a handout that J. provided to model our form after:

"For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."—Ernest Hemingway (#)

"Failed SAT. Lost Scholarship. Invented rocket"—William Shatner(*)

"Yes, singing rocks, but money calls."—Jonathan Cogswell(+)

"Tick tock tick tock tick tick.—Neal Stephenson(*)

(*Examples and Shatner photo from: Wired; +example from Not Quite What I was Planning... bySmith Magazine.)

I'm afraid mine wasn't as clever as any of these.  Whether it contains all the elements of fiction (character, plot, etc.) is quite questionable. It wasn't the first that came into my head, either, but I did create something:

"I'm capitalistically challenged because I write ."

" Truer words I could never have spoken, nor have I ever written a more concise description of my life. I assure you, my fellows' "shoes" were a much better fit.

Next, Jeremy asked us to write haiku. I loathe haikui. A friend of mine is a total haiku freak, spouts them at will. But in the spirit of sportsmanship, I participated thusly: 

" Hiked high mountain ridge;

cougar tastes scent of my sweat.

Wild beast stalks raw fear."

We also touched upon several other forms of Japanese poetry. Jeremy also guided us through the differences between Flash, Vignettes, and Prose poetry. I needn't go into the subtle nuances here. I just want to give you an idea of the content of this workshop. By this time I'm thinking, This flash fiction might be the way to go. Less words to think of; less typing. But not all flash fiction is so brief. Also, I can testify that it is a lot harder to express precisely what you want to say under the constraints of so few lines, words, or syllables. The added rules don't make it any easier. I'd like to remind everyone that there are only two rules I believe in when writing:

"There are no rules!

There is no fear!"

I think Jeremy sort of agrees with me on that, because he kept emphasizing that his information and examples applied to the "traditional" forms. As we learned from "Fiddler on the Roof," tradition isn't always necessarily a good thing.

Our last writing exercise was to create what is called Haibun. This is basically two paragraphs of autobiographical prose, with haiku inserted at the end of both paragraphs. What was even more fun, is that Jeremy told us to write the prose, then pass our papers to the left. The person seated to the left of us would then write the haiku. You can view  my two paragraphs, with the ghost-written haiku  here.

The workshop was educational, informal, and entertaining. The other three participants and I enjoyed experimenting with a few challenging forms of flash fiction, as well as other brief incarnations of prose and poetry. I hope I made this workshop sound worthwhile, because it was all that, and more. Do not feel bad because you missed it. You have another chance! This is a two-part workshop, and the second part is this coming Thursday, May 14th, at 6:00 pm at the Community Writing Center, which is here:>>>>

(NORTH)

Now there are a few things you'll need to do to prepare for the 2nd part of the workshop:

1. Think of someone to whom you'd like to send a story.
2. Bring a postcard. (You will be provided with a postcard if you can't find one.)
3. Bring a favorite piece of piece of flash fiction you've found. (You can just search "flash fiction" online or click here.)
4. Write a "55er."

To do this properly, start with a ten-word line, then each word has one less word, ending with a single word line:

My mother insists it was a marble I had found

and placed in my mouth, mistaking the swirled glass

for a gumball. I distinctly remember that day,

however, me four years old, the day

I pinched a star from the

sky to taste its glossy

hot smoothness and broke

my back tooth

on the

sun.

(by Tyler Enfield; edited from its original form.)

Not too difficult, eh? Jeremy will also cover the drabble, postcard/thumbnail, and 69er (wow) forms of flash fiction. Hope to see you there. For any further information, contact the CWDC at:

I'll be there, so you'll have an opportunity to meet the person behind these articles. Most of all you'll be exposed to a non-judgemental, accepting, enriching environment in which to explore your powers of creativity.

If you attend any of the events, or contact any of the people or organizations you find in my articles, please mention that you heard about it from me.

Thanks—JW

All Information and permissions thanks to Tiffany Rousculp( Director,Community Writing Center), Jeremy Remy, Salt Lake Community College, and Community Writing Center.

# Special thanks to the estate of Ernest Hemingway

To have your literary organization profiled, linked to or listed on this page, e-mail me at riograndereport@live.com

Subject line: Examiner