This week was again mostly about Flash Fiction. I enjoyed most of the readings quite a bit, especially the ones from Indiana review. The experience of writing them has also been interesting. Looking over some of what I've turned it, I'm not sure if I've made the transition completely yet from poetry (everything so far has still been very disconnected, and seems to play out very similarly to a poem, which is what I'm going to be focusing on for my next few assignments).
One of the interesting parts of flash fiction is learning how to establish, in just one or two lines, with broad strokes, both a setting and characters--and more importantly, make them work well, and have the kind of impact they should. This is never something I've been good at, as usually I stretch this stuff out over a much longer period of time; nothing 18th century style, but the condensed frame of action common in flash fiction is completely new to me. I'm either writing a poem, or part of a longer story... not flash, so it's nice to have the chance to work on these skills.
After this I'm going to be doing my homework for Monday (the smart surprise, assignment) and if all goes well, I'll be able to keep what I said in this post fresh in my mind. For inspiration, over the last ten minutes or so, I ended up reading flash fiction by Borges and (for some reason, since it's a novel and not at all the same thing) short excerpts at random from Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch.
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