Flash fiction is a sexy, versatile form. It can lead the reader somewhere unexpected and leave her there to ponder the unknown. It can crack open a moment to reveal the magnificent eternal. From a writer’s point of view, flash fiction provides an opportunity to distill the elements of craft and focus on them as if under a microscope, without the distractions of a longer, more complicated story or novel.
In this class we will read and discuss several published short-shorts, flash fictions, and/or microfictions, each week. Each of the first five weeks will be dedicated to a specific element of craft—structure, setting, character, dialogue, and endings—and students will write their own short-short stories weekly in response to each lesson. The final class will function as a rapid-fire writing workshop, wherein we will critique and celebrate one another’s work. Revised short-shorts will be collected after the class, and “published” in a mini-chapbook manuscript collection of work by each student.