Intro to Flash Writing - WEEK ONE
Wednesdays April 10, April 24 and May 1st from 1:00 to 3:00 Selkirk College Room 116
WELCOME TO WEEK ONE, HAPPY SPRING!
On this web page I will post all of the handouts for our Intro. to Flash Writing Workshop. Also I will continue to update the ever evolving bibliography for this class. Here's to experiencing enthusiasm and joy in writing!
"What you will find is that the only thing you really want from life is to feel enthusiasm, joy and love."
Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul
From 750 word essays to six word stories, let's play with this provocative genre of literary expression. Using examples, prompts and dialogue we will explore this perfect medium for short pieces of memoir and quick flights of fancy. In In Short Bernard Cooper suggests that short nonfiction requires "an alertness to detail, a quickening of the senses, a focusing of the literary lens...until one has magnified some small aspect of what it means to be human." Welcoming all levels of experience, this class focuses on the pleasure of writing and positive support in a non-judgemental, humorous atmosphere.
Lindy's first poem was published in The Rocky Fork Enterprise (Gahanna, Ohio weekly) when she was 8 yrs. old and she's been scribbling ever since. Lindy's passion for Flash was ignited by Rayya Liebich's classes at Oxygen Art and with neighbor Rayya's blessing, Lindy looks forward to sharing this form with you. She received an MA in Transformative Art from JFKU in Berkeley, CA and has taught art (and computers) to folks of all ages in a strange variety of venues.
Ever Evolving BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FLASH WRITING
6000+ Poetry Words
Prompts - an every growing collection
E. A. Deverll One Page Stories OK just check out her website all things writing…
13 Tips for Writing Flash Fiction (would work for memoir also)
Creative Nonfiction Prompts by John Matthew Fox
Journal Prompts - [Mari L. McCarthy has remarkable story also]
52 Memoir Prompts by Jeri Walker
Picturing the Hybrid Form by Rebecca Fish Ewan
This will be a growing list of links and resources, ideas and hopefully inspiration for myself and other writers. I suggest you check out the online journals first.
Websites of Flash Writing
Brevity Magazine http://brevitymag.com/ The premier flash online.
Riverteeth Journal http://www.riverteethjournal.com/
Narrative https://www.narrativemagazine.com/
Hobart http://www.hobartpulp.com/
Shenandoah https://shenandoahliterary.org/
Flash Fiction Online http://flashfictiononline.com/main/
100 Word Story http://www.100wordstory.org/ Has a great list of other online journals on right
Everyday Fiction https://everydayfiction.com/
Electric Literature https://electricliterature.com/ Meg Pokrass story
Creative Non-fiction Online http://www.creativenonfiction.org/
The Arcanist - Writing and Flash https://thearcanist.io/fiction/home
The Moth - True stories, told live
https://www.themoth.org/ https://themoth.org/stories/journey-into-another-dimension
Poetic Devices and definitions (try using one and write a story) https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/251961
What is Flash Fiction https://www.tckpublishing.com/what-is-flash-fiction/
Books On Writing
Moore, Dinty W. The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction: Advice and Essential Exercises from Respected Writers, Editors, and Teachers. Rose Metal Press, 2012.
Goldberg, Natalie. Old Friend from Far Away: the Practice of Writing Memoir. Atria Paperback, 2017.
Badonsky, Jill Baldwin. The Muse Is in: an Owner's Manual to Your Creativity. Running Press, 2013.
Linden, Kaye. 35 Tips for Writing a Brilliant Flash Story: a Manual for Writing Flash Fiction and Nonfiction. Self, 2015.
Ueland, Brenda, If You Want to Write. Graywolf, 1987.
Browdy, Jennifer. The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir: a Writer's Companion. Green Fire Press, 2017.
Fox, John. Poetic Medicine: the Healing Art of Poem-Making. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1997.
McClanahan, Rebecca. Word Painting: a Guide to Writing More Descriptively. Writer's Digest, 1999.
How to Write Flash Fiction. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/14/how-to-write-flash-fiction
Books and Journals of Flash Writing
Kitchen, Judith, and Mary Paumier Jones. In Short: a Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction. Norton, 1996. Judith Kitchen has edited 3 books of shorts, In Brief, (1999) and Short Takes (2005).
WEEK TWO
From E. A. Deverell - Creative Writing Blog
Editing Advice - to help with "homework"
WEEK THREE - “Perhapsing"
On Miniatures...
More on what flash needs...
Week 4 How did the editing (up or down) go?
This week we read from our edited pieces., long, medium, short, and discussed the process of editing further.
Assignment for Week 5 - Peruse as many online journals as possible and find a story or two you would like to share in class.
Point of View
How does point of view work in flash? There is memoir, creative non-fiction and fiction flash writing. Are all memoirs first person? This link takes you to a wonderful article with examples of pov from well know books.
Recommended Online Journals
University of Chester Flash Fiction Links
Jellyfish Review https://jellyfishreview.wordpress.com/
3: AM Magazine https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/
Full Grown People http://fullgrownpeople.com/
100 Word Story http://www.100wordstory.org/
Riverteeth Journal http://www.riverteethjournal.com/
Brevity Magazine http://brevitymag.com/
Narrative https://www.narrativemagazine.com/
Flash Fiction Online http://flashfictiononline.com/main/
Assignment for Week 4, November 21, 2018
FUN WITH EDITING...
OK maybe that is embellishing it a bit. Find a piece of your flash writing that still has juice for you, energy, some seduction, draw. Type it up and get your word count. Google docs or any of the office software will assist you with that. If it is a long piece to start with, 750-1000 words, begin editing down. You might actually find that you have to alter it up, add words, dialog, "perhapsing" to create a piece that is that long. Then cut it down to approximately 500 words. Then down some more to between 300 and 100 words. Save your favorite version of each length of the same piece so that you bring to class a printed copy of all three. These can be on the same document or separate, your choice. Please double space your work, have your title, name and date at the top. (If you find that the pieces have a different names that is OK too.)
Online Articles Highlighted Nov. 14, 2018
Rebecca Fish Ewan's craft essay on creating a drawing and memoir hybrid form in her new book, By the Forces of Gravity.
The Thrill of Narrative Incompleteness
Review of Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy with photos and non related text from Black River Falls, Wisconsin, shows an average town for the time, from 1890 to 1910. A "a cult favorite, it is an example of hybrid nonfiction narrative about more than an era and its people in Black River Falls."
How Writers Map Their Imaginary Worlds
And one we didn't get to that I found fascinating being an old fantasy and sci-fi aficionado.
Ever Evolving BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FLASH WRITING
This will be a growing list of links and resources, ideas and hopefully inspiration for myself and other writers. I suggest you check out the online journals first.
Websites of Flash Writing
Brevity Magazine http://brevitymag.com/ The premier flash online.
Riverteeth Journal http://www.riverteethjournal.com/
Narrative https://www.narrativemagazine.com/
Hobart http://www.hobartpulp.com/
Shenandoah https://shenandoahliterary.org/
Flash Fiction Online http://flashfictiononline.com/main/
100 Word Story http://www.100wordstory.org/ Has a great list of other online journals on right
FULL BIBLIOGRAPHY IS AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Week 5 - Letters and Postcards
This week we talked further about writing letters and post cards as flash writing prompts, and also as a way to access the 2nd person voice.
Assignment for Week 6 - Write a 100 word story and a 25 word story. Extra treats for an original six word story.
Let's Make A Chapbook
Flash Writers - you will be sent a link to a Google drive folder. A document with your name is in there, laid out in two column style, 10 pt font. Your mission if you choose to accept: Find one piece that you wrote for this class, spiff it up a bit, and type (or copy/paste) it on that google document. Gdrive will automatically save it for us. It would be ideal if your piece just filled up one side of the page - probably 400 words or less. Please No More than one full page - two columns. This will make a chapbook that we can print out landscape wise and fold in half.
Hopefully by next week everyone will have had time to post one story there. If you need help typing up your piece I'd be glad to do that for you. XOX Lindy
