I talked with Writing Center tutor Nic J. about their favorite genre of writing: Flash Fiction and Flash Non-fiction! Nic is a graduate student in DePaul University’s Creative Writing and Publishing program. They have lots of great tips for writers and tutors alike when it comes to this exciting genre!
*Please note that the terms Flash Non-fiction and Flash Memoir are often used interchangeably.
What is your favorite genre of writing?
My favorite genre to write is Flash, either Flash Fiction or Flash Non-fiction. It’s so fun because it’s so concise and every single word matters so much. And I love the challenge of that. Something I struggle with in longer form is there’s so much to encompass. With Flash, it’s essentially like a snow globe moment, you know, there’s only so much you can fit. I really, really, really enjoy doing that, and I also really enjoy how it is a snow globe, like, the walls are glass, the reader can peer into this world, and the world can peer out of it, too. There’s all these illusions within these short stories; I just really love it.
What are some examples of this kind of writing?
I suggest SmokeLong Quarterly, which is an online journal that publishes mostly Flash Fiction. I think they started publishing a little bit of Flash Memoir as well. Another example is Brevity, which is another online journal, and it publishes Flash Non-fiction. And it was the first online journal ever! The inception of Brevity was also the creation of the genre of Flash Non-fiction.
I also suggest Flash Fiction International edited by James Thomas, Robert Shapard, and Christopher Merrill. I’ve read it 10 times. This is the book that got me into flash. 10 out of 10 would recommend.
Are there any major differences between Flash Fiction and Flash Non-fiction? And what is your favorite to write, between the two?
There’s not really any major differences, which is another way that Flash is kind of unique compared to essay writing and short stories. The craft of it is is very different.
More people now are experimenting with combining those two things now [Fiction and Non-fiction] but they’re traditionally very, very, separate things. Whereas in Flash, most people don’t even really indicate whether it’s Memoir or Fiction. Because craft wise, they’re so incredibly similar that it doesn’t really matter.
Flash is the only genre determined by length rather than content. Because for instance, let’s say you have a novel. The novel can be a memoir, a fantasy novel. You know, the novel is not the genre, the novel is the length. Flash is the genre. So that’s my little fun fact.
I started out writing Flash Fiction, and now I mostly write Flash Non-fiction. I like writing both. I tend a little bit more toward non fiction, but I do write both. But sometimes it’s a toss up.
What’s your favorite piece that you’ve produced in this genre?
Oh, that’s so hard. I’m really proud of the one that I’m currently submitting. It hasn’t been published yet. It’s Flash Fiction and it’s titled “Summer.” It’s about lesbians in Virginia.
I am also really proud of my piece “Santa Cruz” published in Club Plum. “Dissolution” is one of my more recent ones that I’ve written. It’s my most recent piece of Non-fiction that’s gotten published. That one’s in DefunctMag, which I think is the biggest of the magazines I’ve been published in.
What are three things to consider when writing in this genre?
The biggest one is something I already said, which is that every word matters. This is not a longer form story where the broader sentence matters and the gist matters. Every single “the,” “and,” “in,” has to be just as vital as much as the SAT words in there.
Everything has to be of equal importance. I just had a written feedback appointment for a piece of Flash; I was so excited. One of the writer’s concerns was “how do I make this sound like Flash?” The two things that I focused on were sensory details and precision, because part of every word having to matter and the extreme conciseness is precision. If you’re saying something three different ways to try to get the point across, you’re not being precise enough.
You have to be precise enough that it only gets said one way. Unless you’re using repetition as a tool. If you’re using repetition as a tool, it’s all that much more powerful because there’s so little space to do it in. Repetition in Flash is like blaring neon signs. Because there’s so little space that you’re working with that if you use that space to say something more than once it becomes the main point.
What do you wish people knew about writing Flash Fiction and Flash Memoir?
It’s hard. People tend to assume it’s easy because it’s short. They’re like, oh, I can sit down and write a thousand words. Like, it’s not a 60, 000 word novel. Yes, it’s not a 60, 000 word novel and it takes me two weeks to develop a Flash Fiction piece. But the amount of revision that goes into a piece of Flash Fiction is insane. The pieces I’m more proud of have seen 30 or 40 drafts. And it’s because every single word has to matter. Every single word has to matter so much. It’s so easy to think you have a moment when really you have a moment that’s tied to other moments and therefore it’s a longer story.
There’s a quote, actually, in Flash Fiction International from Blaise Pascal. “The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter.” That is Flash Fiction in a nutshell.
How do you approach tutoring appointments in this genre?
With a kind of judicious recognition of the fact that we’re not going to have time to make it as short as it needs to be. Whether or not the writer wants to focus on precision, that has to be an agenda point.
It’s not Flash without precision! Part of collaboratively setting the agenda would be taking their concerns into account, setting a couple of agenda points based on those, and then saying, “I’m also going to tell you something that you should consider with Flash is precision, and so let’s focus on that as well.”
I can make this sentence shorter. I can make any sentence shorter. But does it need to be shorter? Does it serve the piece to have one sentence be kind of long winded if every word and the way it’s structured, actually serves the snow globe? So it’s taking that more kind of holistic view of it and then not sticking to certain rules. “Oh, this is a run-on sentence, or this is a fragment.” Throw it out the window. Most good Flash is built on fragments and run-on sentences and incomplete clauses. It’s the abstract art of creative writing.