FLASHFICTION ALERT!!!!!

[xidrep]

OK! I want some flashfiction pieces for Prototype 1, please: As an incentive, you have until Midnight CET Sunday 12th March to get it to me (e-mail attachment) or tell me it's in the post via e-mail ([email protected]). No, that was the threat: the incentive is...er, a free Terry's Chocolate Orange for all printed contributions?

Don't say I'm not generous.

[A_Non_Ymous]

Since you asked, I'm hacking out 1 or 2. Now where did I put that literary chainsaw? Oh, yes. <WHIRRR>

Helpful LSN :lol:

[L'Etranger]

Messieurs - please enlighten us who are further East and much behind things:
What is FLASH-FICTION? Sounds great, but do help out with a definition or some examples.
It has nothing to do with running through pedestrians zones with no clothes on and quoting short stories, has it? Or prose that blinds you?

[A_Non_Ymous]

Ah, definitions!

I took a quick look on the web, and I found this:

http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/flash.shtml

To define by example, take a look at Baudelaire's Petits Poأ¨mes en Prose (also called Le spleen de Paris). That's one approach to flash fiction. I'd call it the "poetic" approach.

Eliot's "Hysteria" might be another, similar example.

In this forum, Etive posted an example, called "The Neurotic Dancer." See below.

Frederick Pohl's story "Pythias" might well qualify, too, although it's a bit on the longish side for flash fiction. (If you don't know this story, you should look it up.)

By the way, where IS Etive these days?

LSN

[DeeCrowSeer]

What is FLASH-FICTION?

I'm so very glad you asked that. I was hoping someone would...

I seem to recall writing 100-word stories at university, and rather enjoying it. Not sure where those have gone, but I should be able to come up with something... watch this space... well, not this space... some other space... I'm so tired... is there any chance we can make this forum less interesting now? I liked the idea at first, but there's just too much activity now.

[A_Non_Ymous]

I pulled down my copy of Baudelaire, and found an example: Le joueur gأ©nأ©reux. This story is only a little over 1,000 words, and it packs in as much development as a Balzac novel.

LSN

[Krimson]

I wanted to write a longer story, but it kept fizzling for me. So I saw this thread, and wrote a 78 word version instead. You should have it. I'll send you more if I can think of them. Meanwhile, I finally think I thought of a story to write.

[A_Non_Ymous]

I'm so tired... is there any chance we can make this forum less interesting now? I liked the idea at first, but there's just too much activity now.

I'm sorry. We're working to keep you so stimulated that people in Dorset shall start referring to you as, 'That hyperkinetic Crosier lad.' :lol:

Activity is good for you. It is my theory you need to get out more, even if it's just "virtual" getting out.

LSN

[xidrep]

Oops!

I'd define Flashfiction as any narrative piece stripped to the minimum either in terms of overall length or in terms of descriptive efficiency.

So, for our purposes, anything in the region of one to circa 1,000 words, as a self-contained narrative. We used to post flashfiction pieces on each others' doors at University in between vomiting and flinging hot crumpets at passing nurses' buttocks; we 'disciplined' ourselves by limiting the pieces to one side of a postcard, handwritten.

Ok, it was all total shite, but you see what I mean... :D

[Whiskers]

Failings

Here is a piece I'd like to submit, if it's any good. Rings in at 100 words.

Failings by Berry Sizemore

Stumbling on the tracks as the whistle wails, his intent is to end it all on the main line. Hindered by shoe strings caught on a rail spike, the opportunity to end it seems to loom too quickly on the horizon. The train roars by and he understands as in love his missed opportunities leave him behind to wonder why he does anything but sit on the couch. The trivial is unwound and he rises to face the rest of his life. The last thing to go through his mind is the Express coming for him in the opposite direction.

Feedback? Is this what flash fiction is supposed to be?

[PsychicWarVeteran]

Precisely what I'd call flash-fiction, Berry, and really good at that! Nicely done! Superb!

[xidrep]

Heh! Yeah! Vicious stuff, you pulled up the emotions, angst and pathos right from the start; the piece steamed up like a train itself!

Cracking! I'll write it down, by hand!!!

Do you want yer choccy orange now? :D

[Whiskers]

Yes please. Send it to my email account please. :-)

Do you want yer choccy orange now? :D

[Whiskers]

I dropped it down to 100 words by dropping the redundant "quickly". Please use the edited version.

[L'Etranger]

Thanks Gentlemen, now I know what you, and Baudelaire, are talking about. Some time next week I'll join in the flashing game.

Bon soir, me tired too ...!