#FridayFlash – Interview with Jon Strother

Once upon a time, fiction was divided into the novel, and the short story. At some point in time, the novella was added, while serials became popular in magazines and ‘penny dreadfuls’. However, a new form of fiction has been recently added to the mix, a form known as “flash”. Traditionally, a flash fiction is defined as being less than 1000 words in length, and should be a self-contained narrative. Pieces that simply describe a scene or a point in time are sketches, or vignettes, whereas a flash fiction is a short short story. The story is contained within that 1000 word limit.

Why Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction has the advantage of forcing a writer to master brevity, as there is no room for extraneous detail or purple prose in a 1000 word limit, and being so much shorter, the flashes can be written in less time than a full story. If you’re a seasoned writer more used to short stories or novels, then flash fiction can give you the opportunity to flesh out a character or explore a locale (these flashes act as excellent ‘teasers’ to novels). They also give you the chance to dabble in different genres if you want a break from your usual work.

Where To Start

Countless websites run writing prompts to get you going, and there’s nothing quite like delving into your own life for episodes that might make the basis of a good flash. Of course, once you’ve written your flash, you want people to read it, don’t you? I find the best way is to join in with the Twitter hashtag, #FridayFlash.

The concept of Friday Flash is simple. Write your flash, post it on your blog, and then tweet a link to your story, tagged with the #FridayFlash hashtag. Even better, you can go and visit the Friday Flash Collector, run by Jon Strother. Posting your link there is great advertising for your work, and you can browse the collector to find some absolutely fantastic free fiction that’s just the right length for a coffee break!

I spoke to Jon recently, to ask him a few questions about the hashtag and the growing popularity of flash fiction.

ICY: Jon, what prompted you to start running the Friday Flash collector?

JON: Friday Flash predates the Collector by several months. Friday Flash started out small, there was just a handful of us, and I collated the list by hand, doing a Twitter search for the hashtag and then doing a series of copy-and-paste operations to collect the title, author, and link for the listing. That worked fine for the five or six of us at first. It got a little tedious by the time we grew to around twenty-or-so, and downright unworkable once we passed the thirty-plus mark. Sheer exhaustion moved me to ask my friend, Susan, if she could put together some sort of data collection system so I did not have to do so much manual labor. Voila – the Collector was born. Personally, I’m petitioning for her canonization!

ICY: In your opinion, what defines an “ideal” flash?

JON: If a piece of flash brings tears to my eyes, be they tears of sorrow, joy, or outrageous laughter, that’s a pretty fine piece of flash. Or if a piece leaves me truly moved, makes me think, question my preconceptions, it gets top marks in my book. I really like works that speak to the human condition.

ICY: Did you ever imagine the Collector would become as popular as it has?

JON: I hoped so. I started it as an experiment in crowd sourcing, knowing the potential was there to have it take off. I admit I was a bit disappointed at first. While I did get new readers on my blog, and the number of participants increased slightly every week, the growth rate was slower than I expected. Then Maria Schneider let me do a guest post on her popular blog, Editor Unleashed. It really took off after that. It’s a shame Editor Unleashed shut down. I owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude and miss it quite a bit.

ICY: In your experience, what are the three most popular genres for flash?

JON: Humor, Horror, and Slice of Life. That’s just my gut feeling. I haven’t done any stats on what is in the Collector. Also, I tend to blur the distinction between Slice of Life and Literary, so perhaps it should be Humor, Horror, and Literary.

ICY: How much do you think Twitter and the hashtag feature have helped to boost the popularity of Friday Flash?

JON: I think the #FridayFlash hashtag was instrumental in its initial growth, and remains important in its continuing success. For one thing it enables other means of discovery, such as WhatTheHashtag, RSS feeds, and TweetDeck-type applications. Still, I think one should use the hashtag judiciously and not over do it, lest they annoy their followers.

ICY: Which do you think is more useful to a writer – Facebook or Twitter?

JON: That is hard for me to judge since I am a much more regular user of Twitter than Facebook. I often forget to announce my stories on Facebook – it’s just not my natural home. That does not mean it is ineffective, only that I don’t use it as effectively as I could. I think there is more potential for doing some exciting things on Facebook than on Twitter and I will make it one of my New Year’s resolutions to be better about using them. The Friday Flash group, for example, has forum capabilities, which could be something worth pursuing.

ICY: You released a collection of flashes submitted to the collector as an ebook. What qualities were you looking for in the flashes you selected for the collection?

JOHN: I wanted a good cross section of stories to truly represent the nature of Friday Flash. I intentionally did not theme the collection, as Friday Flash itself is always a grab-bag of every genre imaginable. I also made a conscious effort to get a good mix of what I would categorize as dark vs. light stories, in terms of mood and tone. I love dark pieces, be they horror, slice of life, or literary, but unmitigated darkness can put off some readers. I tried to intermix the collection with lighter pieces to help sustain reader interest.

ICY: What advice would you give to writers who have never tried a flash before?

JON: Don’t be afraid to try. I used to say I could not write short. Everything I wrote was novel or novella length. I started writing shorter pieces as part of various challenges on writer forums, and quickly leaned how to achieve short. It’s not simply a matter of cutting the fat, long pieces are not necessarily full of fat, but a matter of distilling an idea to a single kernel that still makes for a complete story – a beginning, a middle, and an end. And don’t be afraid to share your work with someone – if not the world via Friday Flash, then with some beta readers. You need feedback, both to sustain the desire to write and to improve your craft. Develop a thick skin. Don’t take criticism personally – rather, try to evaluate it and determine if the suggestions actually have merit, and if so, incorporate them. Finally: Edit. Edit. Edit.

ICY: And finally, what advice would you give to seasoned ‘flashers’?

JON: Exactly the same as for new flashers, with one addition: Submit. Submit. Submit!

So there you go then. If you’ve never tried flash fiction, give it a go, and see how you get on. Come and join the rest of us Flashers on Friday!

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!