"How in the heck do you write good fiction in fifty words?" one may ask. Well for the answer to that question I read an interview in which Dr. Arnzen explained "Flash Fiction". The basic idea is that Flash Fiction is a short story written in 50 worlds or less. I myself couldn't believe that it was possible to do so until I read some of this 50 word prose.
Flash (or Sudden) Fiction seems to me more like poetry than anything else. I agree with Dr. Arnzen when he said that it was more like a haiku than anything else. A haiku poem is really a short poem, and Sudden Fiction is a shorter form of a short story. Haiku and poetry is more of what I like to write. I can't say whether or not I would do well writing this type of genre. It seems incredibly difficult to fit in everything I want to say in less than 50 words. I mean come on now, those of you that know me know I am long winded in everything that I say.
It was also said in Dr. Arnzen's interview that Sudden Fiction is an excellent form of fiction for the internet and here again I agree with him. I know for a fact that there are people in my dorm that highly dislike it when a professor gives them a long article they need to read from the internet for their next class. No one likes to just sit at a computer and read. Not myself of couse. I am a HUGE fan of reading fan fiction for some of my favorite tv shows, but then again I am an English major.
See my problem with sudden fiction is the fact that you have to read into it to understand what the author is trying to portray. For instance, this sudden fiction appeared on the tangets web site for fifty word fiction:
The artist adopts a paving stone, perhaps on his street. On a regular basis he uses this site as a canvas or page to write, inscribe, act upon or use as a place to abandon some object upon. He fulfils this contract but is eventually arrested as a suspected terrorist.
© Simon Persighetti 2001
What is the author trying to say? Is he saying that the artist was drawing or writing things that would make police suspect him for a terrorist?
For me there is too much to be left for the imagination.
I would love to hear what the rest of you think on this subject.
Tiffany
All artists are terrorists! ;-) Good post. Thanks for referencing my interview...these things ARE like haiku!
Posted by: Mike Arnzen at January 30, 2004 11:16 AMGlad you liked the post. I still don't know what I think about Flash Fiction. Everything I write seems to end up like a poem! I'm just getting frustrated with the whole process!
Tiffany
Posted by: Tiffany at January 30, 2004 1:47 PM