Kinnell,+Marybeth+A.

The genre I would like to write in is the Vingette. I know nothing about it - I looked it up and it said a short impressionistic scene. I think it was used in victorian literature quite a bit. I'm used to writing poetry or analysis - I've never written stories, but I've always wanted to. This seems smaller than a short story?

Yes, this falls among a large category of short, short fiction-- anything in the range of 500-1,500 words. ﻿ There are vignettes, flash fiction, sudden fiction-- any of these forms are possible. Go for it!

Bill

__** Annotated Biblography **__
Hazuka, Tom, Denise Thomas, and James Thomas. Flash Fiction 72 Very Short Stories. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1992. Print. A compilation of 72 flash ficiton stories.

Popek, Joan. "Flashing Your Setting." S. Joan Popek Home Page. 2002. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. []. This website is by an author of flash fiction. This article gives advice for new writers and discusses the genre of flash fiction. Qi, Shouhua. The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories: Flash Fiction from Contemporary China. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge, 2008. Print A compliation of flash fiction from contemporary Chinese authors.

Smith, Steve, and Kathy Kachelries. "What Is Flash Fiction." 365 Tomorrows : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day. Mar.-Apr. 2008. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. []. This is a flash fiction website where authors submit their fiction. This article explains the form of flash fiction. Storer, K.L. "The Exercise of Writing Sudden Fiction." The WriteGallery Creative Writing Web Site. 4 Jan. 2000. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. [] This website is dedicated to creative writing. The site offers advice to writers and allows submissions. This article deals with the flash/or sudden Fiction. How to write it and the elements that make it part of this genre.

Thomas, James, and Robert Shapard. Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2006. Print. A compliation of flash fiction stories.

__** How to Write Flash Fiction **__
Flash Fiction, according to [|Wikipedia] is "a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity." So brief is Flash Fiction that the stories are only 300 to 1000 words in length.

Like its name implies, this genre of fiction hits the reader unexpectedly, like a flash bulb, leaving image trails in the readers mind long after the story is finished. In order to do this the writer must adhere to certain elements of the genre that give flash fiction its style. Let’s look at a few that will help you become a flash fiction writer.

The story, like most fiction, must have a beginning, middle, and an end – According to 365 Tomorrows, a website dedicated to flash fiction, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Unlike the vignette or the prose poem, flash fiction adheres to the same conventions as a short story or novel…flash fiction gives <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> readers a protagonist and a central conflict, and directs them to a resolution.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">But, it does this differently than a short story, K.L Storer says, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The compact, energized nature of sudden fiction forces the author to write with great care each and every word that <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> relates the story that appears on the page… The crucial element of sudden fiction is its economy. It's the magic mixture <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> of suggestion, innuendo, insinuation and fact, pact tightly into precise, concise word choice that is the great power of sudden fiction.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Flash fiction puts the reader into the event with no explanation of plot, setting, or character: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Suddenly you're in the event, it began before you got there and you've no choice but to get involved or move on. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Rarely is setting explained for you. It's there, part of the landscape of the work. You pick up on it or you don't. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Setting is actually often completely ignored by the prose (Storer).

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">It puts the reader at the point of rising action and ignores the set up.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Flash fiction leaves the reader to infer context from the little information that is given: consider Hemingway’s shortest story: “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” The reader is forced to create the context. Joan Popek, an author in the genre says, “In flash fiction, there is no room for extra adjectives or much description. We must rely upon the reader's perception of his or her world to fill in between the lines."

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">It is active and using an active voice and verbs to move the story along concisely and quickly, “ it slams into a readers mind and entertains immediately.” (Popek)

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Begin writing flash fiction by writing a short story, according to Jason Gurley, “Throw yourself into your writing and crank out a beautiful story, regardless of the length. Then, take a good, long look at it…Grab a red marker and slash out every adjective and adverb you can find,” reduce the story to its essential elements.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Using these guidelines will help you create a story that is true to its name and leaves your audience rubbing their eyes, wondering what happened.