Class

Fiction in a Flash: Writing the Short, Short Story

Is flash fiction, like Dippin' Dots, the future of fiction? Undoubtedly, yes, with much more staying power. Flash fiction has exploded in popularity within the past decade, as it lends itself well to online literary magazines (not to mention our waning attention spans). Are you slogging through a longer story, often find yourself without time for creative projects, or just want to learn how to write lean, electric sentences?

Flash fiction is your remedy. In this writing-intensive workshop, we will study the power of brevity. Flash is a genre that can veer between prose poetry and traditional narrative, depending on your literary inclinations. At the same time, the tenets of flash—compression, strong imagery, vibrant prose—are the tenets of any good writing, and the skills learned in this session can be applied to all types of fiction.

Students in this class can expect generative prompts, personalized feedback from the teaching artist, and to end up with a refined flash piece, ready for submission. We will also discuss several flash fiction stories from established authors, using them as a launching point to examine the form of flash and how to experiment within word-count confinements.

This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book; we encourage participants to be fully vaccinated and masked in the interest of everyone’s safety. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.