"How Sweet it is: Writing Resonant Flash Prose"

My craft article was published as a spotlight today at Women on Writing. If you’re interested in writing more flash, check out my online class that starts on November 2nd. :) In a Flash

“How Sweet it Is: Writing Resonant Flash Prose”

By: Melanie Faith

 

            When I was a kid, my dad used to stop on the way home from work each night to get the newspaper for my mom and a candy treat for me and my sister. One of our favorite treats was wrapped in a long, thin piece of see-through cellophane. Inside, was a string of thick white floss that had elasticity, and strung along this floss were shiny, bright candies. These circular gems, in popping pastel shades of yellow, pink, orange, and blue, were vaguely-sweetened like fruit and floral flavors (the yellow was slightly tart yet banana-ish and the blue, I recall, tasted like a cross between raspberry and the way a rose smelled).

Each candy bead had the kind of brittle crunch that a child relishes—chomp-chomp!—but which would make my adult teeth weep. The hues of the candies melted with each chomp until the string was bare and vaguely pinkish-whitish-yellowish-blue-orange by the time the last candy was presto-change-oed. After just a few moments, the candy dye bled onto fingertips, tongue, and face, revealing opaque-white candies’ underbellies.  

            A vivid sense memory I repeat is the internal debate—holding the cellophane-wrapped treat, after a hug from my dad: should I rip into the cellophane immediately and wear the candy-pretty necklace (sometimes I doubled it around my wrist like a fancy lady’s bracelet)? Yet, there was the candy, so tantalizing, that who could resist just a tiny bite? On the other hand, once bitten into, the string was sticky and not really conducive to wearing—destroyed, in a sense, for displaying.

It was a catch-22, albeit one of the best kinds, and the tension between knowing when to hold onto something and when to begin was the kind of life lesson that doesn’t have a perfect answer and yet which gets repeated, unbeknownst to the child’s mind, again and again in life. Timing— whether strung on a string or not, whether involving choosing a major or a love interest or a house or a car or another job or having a child— is an infinite loop of weighing pros and cons and, eventually, just diving in. A lesson, as a Type A elder daughter, I struggled with endless times, weighing the sour against the sweet, second-guessing myself:  Was it too soon? But could there be a too late? Even after the satisfying crunch, the soggy, lone string.

           

            In the above flash nonfiction, I began with a simple note I’d jotted this morning in my writer’s notebook while still half-asleep and making my to-do list for the day. Idea: candy necklaces we ate as kids.  Hours of student correspondence, errands, lunch, and dishes passed before I sat down again, opened my notebook on my desk and commenced to write the above passages.

            Clocking in at just under 400 words, my creative process and this piece highlight some of the best facets of the flash genre. Let’s examine them:

·         Flash begins with—well, a flash! Ever used a writing prompt? Sure, most of us have encountered them in writing classes, writing groups, and in books. The genius of a prompt is that it revolves around one idea. Good flash starts with a kernel of a topic which the reader then writes into in discovery. In the case of my candy-necklace flash, my random memory (which popped into my head after seeing a necklace online of white beads) became the prompt I explored.

·         Flashes are focused. Notice above how I say “one idea?” In flash, there’s not room for asides or diversions. Any details about the rest of my childhood—the scented dolls I adored, the children’s jokes I loved to tell and invariably flubbed the punch lines of, have no place in this piece—they need to be moved to their own flashes. One is plenty in developing flash.

·         Flashes are about what they are about, and they are also about something bigger than their subject, too. In other words: readers learn about you and your characters but they also learn something resonant about humanity. Sure, this is a flash centered on a personal memory, but it also has a theme that readers can connect with their own experiences: timing. How do we know when it is the right, or the wrong, time to do anything? The reader should walk away asking and connect to circumstances in their own past or present.  Consider universal themes.

·         It’s all about the imagery, baby! Without hitting readers over the head by spelling out theme, how can we explore themes and other literary language? One of the easiest ways is to develop imagery. Just like in poetry, another condensed form, flash nonfiction and flash fiction often employ plenty of sensory images to get the job done (as does this flash with taste, smell, auditory/sound, and visual imagery).

·         Flashes include tension. Without the final paragraph of my flash, there wouldn’t be a lot of resonance or conflict in my piece. Most of the other paragraphs are a nice memory involving candy—perhaps interesting for my nieces to read or some other Gen Xer or Baby Boomer who remembers this type of candy, but not the stuff of literature per say. The final two paragraphs introduce the pressure of both leaning on one’s own internal judgment and the suggestion (without spelling it out) of external conflict/judgment over choosing something too soon or being too late to spoil the fun.

 

Try this exercise: Set a timer and write for fifteen minutes without stopping about a food associated with your own childhood. Incorporate at least three of the five elements of successful flash either as you write or when you return to edit your piece after writing.

Bookshop Interview :)

I had the great joy of participating in this Bookshop Interview at fellow author James H. Duncan’s website.

Check it out, along with James’s excellent books.

Goodwill Bookshelves, photos courtesy of Amanda McGrath

That Holding-First-Copies Feeling

Look what arrived, straight from my awesome publisher at Vine Leaves! I had to commemorate the moment with my new photo backdrop. ;)

I couldn’t be happier with the text and cover of my new craft book for poets, Poetry Power! One month and counting until publication day! #oct26thlaunch

More details at: Vine Leaves Press, Poetry Power . (The Amazon link for ordering in the States and abroad is at the site as well.)

What reviewers are saying: "Reading Poetry Power by Melanie Faith--chock-full of humour, personal asides, and sensible, doable suggestions to improve one's writing--I felt a continual urge to write and revise my poems. A perfect guide for the poet who wants a refresher course in the basics of this 'little genre' (and a few photography hints) from a new point of view and who needs a nudge to live more deliberately, Faith's book reminds me of an intimate conversation between two engaged introverts for whom layers of complicated interior depth--juxtaposed in the 'nooks and crannies' of dreams and fragments of memory--hold the key to discovery and development of a unique, artistic voice that rings with universality." Helen Losse, author of Every Tender Reed

"This is the definitive book on, for, and about poetry. Melanie more than delivers on the promise she made in the Introduction: This book is meant to reach you where you are and to withstand multiple readings as you explore your individual writer's path. Indeed! I find that no matter what funk I'm in, I open Poetry Power and I discover my next step on my poetry journey. I know my fellow poets will too!" Mari L. McCarthy, International Best-Selling Author of Journaling Power: How To Create The Happy, Healthy Life You Want To Live!

What reviewers are saying: "Melanie takes her readers by the hand and walks them through the whole process of writing, publishing, editing and loving poetry. Little personal vignettes scattered throughout Poetry Power made me feel like Melanie was a friend. It was as if we were in a writing group together and she was sharing her writing secrets. Each chapter ends with a Try this Prompt that are easy and exciting to try. They range from something that might take a few minutes, to others that were more involved. In my second, third, and so on readings of Poetry Power I will jump into the prompts with feet, hands and heart. I am already making a list of the people I will be purchasing a copy of Poetry Power for--and they include writers from all genres, not just poets. This is a book that all writers will benefit from reading." —Tricia L. McDonald, Writer and CEO Splattered Ink Press

Photography Publication, and It's a Peach ;)

The Sunlight Press just published another of my fine-art photos, “Ladder and Leftover Peach Triptych.”

They also featured a few paragraphs about the symbolism and the photo’s inspiration, among other things. Check it out.

Poetry Power: Update!

Hurry, fall! Next month, my poetry craft book will be released. 

Super excited to share this volume packed with prompts and real-world writing, editing, and publishing advice with poets, teachers, writing groups, classes, and more. 

My book birthday: October 26, 2018. You know you want one for you and the writing friends in your life.  

"Raising the Stakes in Flash Fiction" Published

The fine artistic folks at Nunum just published another of my craft articles! Check it out: "Raising the Stakes in Flash Fiction." 

They also feature great work & interviews with visual artists, such as Jon Fox, other articles about flash fiction (such as this one by Amie E. Reilly: "So What if You Don't Get Anywhere in a Flash"), as well as writing submission interviews (such as with literary luminaries Duotrope) answering the insightful questions: "How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you? and "If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?"

Image by: Andreas Fidler, www.unsplash.com

It's All about the Tropes, My Friends! My Craft Article Published

My craft article about creating artistic imagery using tropes appeared at Women on Writing today.  

Image by: Jose Alonso

www.unsplash.com

"Tropey-Dokey: Enhancing Imagery with Tropes" 

By: Melanie Faith

          12:30 in the afternoon was a sacrosanct time for my grandma and my mom. It was the starting time for their favorite soap. As in their “stories.” Month after month, year after year, from two houses a half-town apart both of which used rabbit-ear antennas so popular in the ’70s and ’80s, they tuned in five days a week. Eagerly, they followed the unfurling complications of characters both glam-tastic and down-on-their-luck in a fabled city that had the same name as a European city (which didn’t hurt the appeal).

Okay, so sometimes the plot lines were admittedly fantastical—amnesia and never-before-mentioned twin siblings, anyone? Still, the protagonists (and often the rascally antagonists, too) were likeable in their emotional conflicts and botched intentions.

          Soap operas— like most novels, visual storytelling such as photos and movies, and plays— are based on comforting tropes, you know: those recurring motifs and literary devices that we can often foresee but still wait around to watch how it all shakes down anyway.

Unlike learning calculus or molecular biology, we don’t have to strain to notice bits and pieces of what it’s like to struggle and to celebrate human foibles and small triumphs within the characters whose lives unfurl scene by scene, even if our own lives don’t involve heirs/heiresses, ballrooms, or jet-setting.

Lest you think soap operas are solely low-brow and cheesy escapism, think again: tropes can be traced as far back as the ancient world. In Classical Greece the term meant “turn,” and is still used in modern Deconstruction Theory. Aristotle, in Poetics, discusses common tropes in tragedies and epics.

The important part about tropes is that viewers, readers, and artists all relish patterns. Also, these recognizable patterns can lead to some wonderful extended narratives. I’ve seen many photo series based on developed tropes from fairy tales and other imaginative and recognizable patterns.

In short: tropes, my friends, are our friends.

It’s not rocket science, but that’s not usually what we need from the art we enjoy or the art we create-- art is the balance of tension between the familiar and the human need for escape from drudgery. Resonant art has elements of the recognizable as well as elements of transcendence.  Too much of one over the other leaves us cold, with no connection to the material. Too little of both, and it likely won’t catch much less hold our attention in the barrage of sights, sounds, and events flooding our days.

Tropes might seem a shortcut, but they provide a meaningful jumping off point for riffs on numerous human experiences.

Timeless recurring tropes explored in the visual and written arts include:

·        Misunderstood or conflicted protagonists, commonly in youth but occurring in other life stages, too

·        Changes of personal or group identity, mistaken identity

·        Changes of locale/geography, escape

·        Love gained, love in trouble, love lost, love regretted

·        Death and the dying process

·        The un-suppressible secret

·        The unexpected accident and its aftermath

·        Retribution/Payback (whether delivered person-to-person or on its own)

·        Changing seasons—both geographic and internal/metaphorical

·        Rescue—of others, of self

·        Reunions of individuals (former friends, former enemies) or groups

Try this Prompt! Pick three of the above tropes. Jot ideas for ten minutes, without stopping to censor yourself, for how you might express these common tropes using your own unique talents and photo-taking skills.

Also consider locations or backdrops and possible props or subjects you might incorporate into each of the three tropes.

Compare and contrast the notes you take on your chosen three tropes. Cross out the most-cliché or obvious description of the three, and pick one of the other two tropes to make into a photo session or a photo series. Go!

******

My "Photography for Writers" online class starts on September 21st. I'd love to get to work with more creative, inspired folks.

No previous training with a camera necessary (you can use a camera phone or any other types of cameras you might enjoy).

Guaranteed to inspire your Muse and enliven your written imagery as well.

More details about the four-week course: "Photography for Writers." 

 

Poems from My New "Self-Portrait of the Author as..." Series Published

Wonderful news. I have two poems from my new series appearing in two literary journals this summer.

"Self-Portrait of the Author as a Silent Movie" appears on page 28 of The Meadow's annual issue, and "Self-Portrait of the Author as a Paperclip" was published on page 69 of Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review (FLAR).

FLAR

The Meadow

Announcing-- Poetry Power: An Interactive Guide for Writing, Editing, Teaching, and Reflecting on the Life Poetic

SUPER excited to announce my Poetry Power: An Interactive Guide for Writing, Editing, Teaching, and Reflecting on the Life Poetic. Check out its awesome cover, and many thanks to Jessica Bell and Alexis Paige, my dream team at Vine Leaves Press. Can't wait for the October 26th release! 

My Craft Article Published at Fiction Southeast: An Online Journal Dedicated to Short Fiction

Curious about the impact of writing notebooks in the life of authors? Want some tips on how to keep a submission notebook? 

Take a gander at my craft article at Fiction Southeast: Writer in Progress: The Writer’s Idea Book, Submission Notebook, and You .