On Writing – Death To Flash

The post that follows may mark me as a purist, a snob, or a grumpy old writer.

So be it.

It’s not my intention to be any of the above. I’m just not a fan of the term “flash fiction”. I don’t like any of its sibling terms either. Not “micro” or “sudden” or “quick” or even “short-short”. I would banish them all. They are unnecessary and only serve to divide and diminish those of us who write short fiction.

I’m not concerned about outraged flash fiction mobs showing up at my door because I’m certain that you all noted that I only want to banish the terms. If you have seen any of my work, either here, or in my first collection “Shorts”, you know that I regularly write in the word range associated with the category. As a general rule, I think word count is a false idol. A writer shouldn’t put the word count anywhere near the top of the list of priorities when writing. As I’ve said more than once here, the priority should always and only be about storytelling. Use whatever quantity of words required to tell the story. Your story should determine your word count. Story and only story.

So what’s my issue then? The term “short story” or “short fiction” is the all-encompassing term for works below 7,500 words. That’s not a hard and fast rule. I found one online answer that put the upper limit at 30,000 words! That’s crazy to me. A short story can be defined as a story with a fully developed theme that is shorter than novel length. Whatever that is (novel word counts begin around 40,000 words and expand from there!) I return to my stance that word count is a hollow goal. It becomes a method to segregate the “real” writing from the “other”. I have no use for that. It’s all short fiction. The only worthwhile discussion for me is – “How good is the storytelling?”

Given the wide range of word count parameters (I’ve seen flash fiction range from fewer than 100 words up to 1,000 words) I’m not sure I see the advantage or need for other terms. Publications or competitions can simply define the individual parameters, rather than use terminologies that may be trendy but are meaningless.

Creating a story in under 100 words requires skill. That skill set is different from the one needed to write a novel. We should focus on the skills and storytelling rather than “stunt writing” to an artificial word count.

Once we do that, we barely need “short story”, “novella”, or “novel”, let alone a string of ill-defined terms that focus on the least important part of the story.

I’d love to hear from writers, especially those writing very short works, on the topic.

Peace

JP