M.I.C.E. and Flash Fictions

[crich70]

I have been thinking of Flash Fiction writing the last few days and I worked out what I think is a good way to make sure that the story is complete. I took the M.I.C.E. Quotent idea and adapted it. M.I.C.E is Milieu, Idea, character, Event. Which one ismostprominentdetermins the type of story.

A flash fiction using the M.I.C.E. has:
1) Setting
2) Idea
3) Characters
4) Resolution
at the minimum. I adapted the M.I.C.E. to it. I came up with my own M.I.C.E. questions.

M (ilieu) - Where does it happen?
I (ncident) - What happens?
C (haracters) - Who is involved?
E (nd) - How does it end?

If you don't have answers to those basic questions you don't have a story, flash or otherwise.

[Dr. Drib]

I'm a huge fan of flash fiction and have a few titles in calibre, in addition to a number of titles in trade paper (currently in storage).

I've written a number of pieces in this genre, to include prose poems.

If you know of any ebook titles, please post them here.

[crich70]

I can't think of any offhand right now though I know there are some that have been published over at Smashwords as collections (multiple authors) I think. I bought a book on writing it just yesterday evening. "The world in a flash" by Calum Kerr. He includes several of his own stories as examples and has links to some collections by himself and a few others.

[Dr. Drib]

I just picked up the "8 Fantasy Flashes," by Richard Kerr.

Thank you for the recommendation.

--- I'm going to start a thread over in the Recommendations Forum (after I get back from taking my child to school.)

[gmw]

I'm not a fan of flash-fiction, but then I'm not really a big fan of short stories either - but some can be quite wonderful. Here's my theory...

I think that most authors write best at a certain length, some shorter, others longer. Sometimes an author can still do well out of their comfort zone, but it's harder work and the result is less likely to be ideal. I also think that most stories have a sort of natural length, the length the story wants to be. When a story meets a compatible writer then a natural synergy occurs and the result can be great. If the two mismatch it can be a struggle even to be good*. And, of course, readers fit into this too, some finding certain lengths more comfortable.

You put all this together and you get a reader like me that can be content with a novel that is just "okay", but a short story has to be very good for me to think it is worth the effort, and flash fiction has to be extraordinary. Since extraordinary is rare at any length, I tend not to bother with flash fiction.

All of which goes some way to explaining why I think the acronym should be MICEZ. For me, flash fiction must have Zing! There must be something sharp and/or lively and/or fascinating and/or extraordinary in the story and/or in the phrasing. Don't just write me story that is a very short version of something longer, show me that this was how the story was meant to be told. Fail to do that I'll come away (as I do from most flash fiction) thinking the writer was just too lazy to write a proper story.


* A mismatch can, sometimes, still turn out well - even Stephen King managed to write a small handful of short stories that I thought were very good, but (for my tastes) most were pretty ordinary. I only ever persevered with this short story collections in the hope of the rare gem, and because I loved his novels.

[crich70]

Aristotle is still right though. A story needs a beginning, middle and end and must have characters. The zing ending is nice,but first you have to have a story worth writing.

[gmw]

Ah, but my point was that (for me) flash-fiction without zing isn't worth reading - whether it was worth writing is entirely up to the author.

Besides, all stories fit the "beginning, middle, end" model, it doesn't help you with any particular story form. Note, too, that I wasn't talking about a "zing ending", that might be nice, but for flash-fiction to work well (for me) it must have zing from start to finish. Short stories may have room to relax a bit, flash-fiction doesn't.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by gmw

Ah, but my point was that (for me) flash-fiction without zing isn't worth reading - whether it was worth writing is entirely up to the author.

Besides, all stories fit the "beginning, middle, end" model, it doesn't help you with any particular story form. Note, too, that I wasn't talking about a "zing ending", that might be nice, but for flash-fiction to work well (for me) it must have zing from start to finish. Short stories may have room to relax a bit, flash-fiction doesn't.

I think myself that Flash Fiction can have zing at the end (if well written). The story "at confession" for example. We don't expect the end that we get.

[crich70]

One thing I found out this evening is that this book Click over at Smashwords as it doesn't have DRM can have the prompts easily copied and pasted into an App like inkpad Click so you can then write a Flash Fiction based on the prompt.

[kennyc]

I've been focused on Flash for the past couple of years almost exclusively.
The Anthologies I recommend are:
Not Ebooks
Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories
Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories

Ebooks:
Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories from Around the World

Instructional with excellent articles, examples and exercises
The Rose Metal Press Guides to
Flash Fiction
Flash NonFiction
Prose Poetry

Single author collections:
Stuart Dybek The Coast of Chicago, Ecstatic Cahoots

Lydia Davis Collected Stories and Can't and Won't

Prose Poetry
David Shumate - Kimonos in the Closet, The Floating Bridge and High Water Mark