Why Saying Less is Saying More in Flash Fiction
Nudging the reader's foot without saying a word..
Trusting the reader is everything in flash fiction. It is also the very essence of telling a story effectively. It is both strange and wonderful to me how much NOT TELLING is actually telling. This is exactly why I love both writing and teaching this form. How in the world can one not become fascinated by flash fiction’s quirky magic?
Because of word-count constraint, flash fiction teaches us how to work directly and consciously with the art of what is not said. This practice involves trusting a reader to get it. We must engage our readers by popping in subtle, well-chosen sensory details and emotional clues, yet not ever hitting the nail on the head.
This is the fun of it. This is the HEART OF IT.
This is how we consciously seduce and beguile.
Oh, definitely! I recently wrote a 100 word story and folks in my workshop said it could be expanded and tell more. I added a bunch and don’t like it as much as the original so going back to that and just fine tuning it.
A) seduce and beguile is the name of my new band! :)
B) I feel this post so hard in my soul.
Applause! Huzzah!