May's Workshop | Smash Your Flash - The Craft of Short (Short) Fiction
Lessons available now! This workshop runs from May 6 - May 30, join us whenever you like. Click this post to learn more.
This workshop has begun! The curriculum is self-paced so hop in anytime. You can find the lessons published thus far linked below. Jo will release new lessons every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from May 6 - May 30. As always, half of the lessons will be free to all subscribers.
Hey there, story-seekers.
I’m Jo Gatford, and I’m here to deliver your next course—Smash Your Flash: The Craft of Short (Short) Fiction. During this workshop we’ll be covering a range of different approaches and exploring the elements of flash fiction, including:
How to get started: borrowed structures
Mining for subtext and identifying the ‘turn’
Manipulating time and space
Interweaving story threads
Experimentation and magical realism
Difficult subjects: how to write around them
Developing and editing your flash drafts
It will be a smorgasbord of techniques for you to build a flash with. The trick is finding the right structure, voice, and style to suit your story idea, which is exactly what we’re going to learn!
→ Lessons published thus far: (Click to begin)
So what is flash fiction and why should you write it?
Flash is one of the shortest forms of fiction, generally categorized as a story of 1,000 words or fewer, although this definition is hotly contested across the internet, and every lit mag you submit to seems to have its own word limit. Sometimes it’s under 500 words. Sometimes 300, or 100… The point is, flash is a very short form. So it has to pack a punch, and do so very quickly.
Writing flash fiction is, in my opinion, one of the very best ways to hone and develop your writing skills. It demands clarity, precision, depth, detail, heart and truthfulness. It teaches you how to edit ruthlessly and sensitively. It encourages you to explore and experiment with form. And the best part—it can take you from idea to first draft in no time at all.
I’ve been writing flash and teaching creative writing for over a decade. I’ve written prize-winning flash fiction and been published in over 60 journals and anthologies, and I’m still learning—every time I read a lit mag, and every time I sit down to draft a piece—which is the real beauty of flash. It’s such an eclectic and genre-defying medium, you will always find something new and exciting to read and write.
What to expect over the next four weeks of flash fiction immersion
Delving into flash can feel daunting, so I’m going to give you some easy entry points and a comprehensive breakdown of common flash structures and techniques.
There are three lessons each week (12 in total), focusing on generating new ideas, creating shapes with our stories, and incorporating different stylistic elements to develop them.
The first week is completely free, to give you a sense of how you can put the exercises, examples and theory to work. Thereafter, the first lesson of each week will be free to view (including a writing prompt to get you creating!).
Subscribe to access the full course, with deep-dives into each of these techniques, detailed writing exercises, further reading and resources.
Looking forward to this - flash and micro fiction (with a preference for SF) are what I write 🙂
Big fan of flash, have been playing with it for several months and look forward to the course. Thank you!