The Flash Form

[kaasirpent]

Flash! (AAH-aaaaaahhh!)

Last night on Second Life The Quillians had our weekly meeting and read everyone’s submissions for the July challenge. We each selected two favorites.

I came in first, with Ge3x and Mira tying for second. The hilarious thing about it is, of the five entries, all of them were dark. With all of music to choose from, all five of us picked “downer” songs.

I can reveal now that the title of my piece was “Nothing Lasts Forever” and it was inspired by “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas. It’s my favorite song of all time.

I didn’t even know most of the songs by the others, so there was no hope of winning the extra prize money. Ah, well. I had guesses. Oddly enough, all my guesses were kind of cheerful. I guess I’m warped that way.

What I’m learning from these monthly challenges is that I kind of like the flash form. Less than 1000 words—our challenges run way less than 1000, usually from 250 to 350—makes you really think about what you want to say, and eliminate needless words and extraneous ideas.

At my Tuesday night writers group (The Forum Writers), we have new writers join us all the time. Some stay, some come and go. But whenever we have a newbie, we make them introduce themselves, tell us what they write, and what they want out of our group. Then we all introduce ourselves in turn, explaining what we write. I usually say some variation of this:

My name is Gary, and I’m currently working on an urban fantasy novel. It’s set in modern Atlanta where magic works, but there are no sexy vampires or werewolves. <insert pause for expected ‘yay’ reaction> I also write science fiction, epic fantasy, dark fiction, and a little horror. I used to do short stories, but my short stuff seems to have developed a pituitary problem.

What can I say? It usually elicits at least a smile. :)

That last part about the pituitary problem, though…I may have to change that. The more I try this extremely short form, the more I like the sense of freedom it gives me. Write 350 words and tell a whole story…then move to the next one. Be done with something instead of incessantly writing it or thinking about it night and day (and night) for months.

Maybe it’s an escapist thing. <shrug> Whatever. I just know that I an enjoying the instant gratification.

As an aside…am I the only person who always adds the “AAH-aaaaaahhh!” in my head every time I hear or see the word “flash” (AAH-aaaaaahhh!)? Surely not. Surely not.

Originally published at WriteWright. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[joeylemur.livejournal.com]

Gordon's ALIVE!

[rarelytame.livejournal.com]

I used to think I was no good at short works, but the first thing I ever sold was a twitter-length story. Then I worked on drabbles for a while (100 words. Nothing is sold, because nothing was submitted.) If you're interested in short fiction, consider starting shorter and working your way up to greater length? It's helped me, for sure.

And yes, absolutely there is instant gratification with short stories. And speaking only from my own experience (obviously), when you sell one, the drive toward that instant gratification grows exponentially.

[kaasirpent]

Terra, if you scroll down a bit to a post called "When Ideas Attack!" you'll see what my idea is for NaNoWriMo. I'm hoping to get back in the swing of shorter works. :)

[kiteflier98.livejournal.com]

No, you are definitely not the only person who has Flash Gordon thoughts. I do it with a lot of "-ash" sounding words, also "-ush" (especially teaching the kids to Flush! Aaaahhh!), and any other words that have "-sh" at the end and look like they could use emphasis.

I rather like how you introduce your entries with the thought and picture. That really draws me in and reminds me a bit of my own thought process.

[kaasirpent]

Part of the fun for me with my WordPress site is finding just the right Creative Commons image to use with each post. :)