FLASH FICTION (also called drabble) is a fiction story that's very short. It can consist of a few sentences in total and it's usually under 1500 words. This type of a story will be much less complex than a novel for example, but it has to have a plot.
VIGNETTE is also a very short piece of fiction. It's less structured than flash fiction, and its purpose is often to evoke certain feelings. It's usually under 1000 words long.
When writing flash fiction, make sure to:
• make only one or two key characters
• deal with a single conflict
• choose a genre and stick to it
• start in the middle
• keep it quick and sharp
“Baby dolls”, Becky Robinson
My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born. Week before Halloween, office party. Not at the office, but at Richard Nixon’s basement apartment. She sipped on Shirley Temples while my jelly fists pummeled her beneath her denim thrift-store jumper. I hate grenadine, but how was Raggedy Ann supposed to know that? Her brain was stuffing, and my communication was limited to pathetic fetal boxing. The drunk guests rollicked in their altered states. When fluid dampened her striped stockings, everyone laughed. Because she was a doll, and also very young, my mother laughed, too.
A cat whose tail was longer than her skirt laid Raggedy Ann in the bathtub and closed the moldy curtain. Her limbs stayed limp while people pissed nearby, and the tangled nest of red yarn remained on her head, drenched with sweat, for Raggedy Ann is loyal and true. Only I was able to bring her to life, each shock of me making bone and blood of her soft body, carving chambers into her two-dimensional valentine heart.
When writing vignette, make sure to:
• use descriptive language
• describe a specific moment it time
• use symbols
• be poetic
• don't be restricted by structures or styles
Jack London, The Call of the Wild (1903):
“With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the Huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence.”
Six-word story
• type of a flash fiction, told in six words in total
Examples:
Thirteenth birthday, I laughed and cried.
We were, and then we weren't.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.
Life was boring, so they pretended.
I still make coffee for two.
Comments
Post a Comment