The tale of mice on a roller coaster…
This week I experimented with writing flash fiction. Thankfully dear readers this has nothing to do with the more, erm, niche subgenres of adult fiction. Instead I had stumbled across a writing lecture by Mary Robinette Cowal on Brandon Sanderson's YouTube channel. The participants were invited to explore narrative structure in a teeny tiny micro story. Mary explained that the art of writing short stories lies in the MICE quotient. This is the degree to which the writer selects and deploys elements of Miliue, Inquiry, Character and Event in their structure. She gave her students a 250 word limit and a starter of a character (jockey), genre (science fiction) and place (a coaster). I was hooked and picked up my pen to write along.
Over the next 40 minutes I wrote the tale of Billy (a time jockey) who was all that stood between earth and the fabric of time being turned into quantum spaghetti. In the course of 22 sentences and 278 words (to be precise!). Billy rode the coaster along the same section over and over in a frantic struggle to realign the clocks and keep the time stream flowing. He battled valiantly. He failed dismally. Then, in a moment of sheer frustration he thumped the flipping thing and saved the day. Phew!
Having only played with the character and event elements of MICE I wanted to try my hand at flash fiction with a different quotient. This time I penned the uncanny tale of a little girl with an imaginary friend called Rose. The story focused on the unsettling events taking place one summer through the eyes of our 6 year old (and somewhat unreliable) narrator. Writing with the voice and from the point of view of such a young protagonist was a real challenge but the tropes of the genre and miliue were a return to my comfort zone. This piece has provided the spark for another story in the series I am working on and I'm excited to write it.
At the moment my focus is on developing my style, craft and voice. Part of that is trying new things and exploring different ways of telling stories so flash fiction has been a perfect vehicle. I intend to do more of this because it is such a fun way to experiment with different genres, forms and structures.
To compliment my writing I am reading as many short stories as I can. The ghostly tales of Edgar Allan Poe, May Sinclair and Stephen King are absolutely perfect for spooky season as long as I read in daylight and sleep with one eye open. This process is bringing me a great deal of joy which, at the end of the day, is what really matters.
