How writing short stories can improve your writing by Leanne Dyck

(What is housed in this tent? And why is it good news for my writing?
For the answer, stroll down to the very end of this post.)

'An ordinary day--but with a suitcase it in. -Arleen Pare (Leaving Now)

'There is a story always ahead of you.' -Michael Ondaatje (The Cat's Table)

'They would always go home; they belonged to the place they came from. Other people were destined to keep leaving, over and over again.' -Alix Ohlin (Inside)

'She swung the thick, strong rope of her voice round the words, coming down hard on them, cinching them together. Then she flung the notes bold up in the air, high and hornlike.' -Esi Edugyan (Half Blood Blues)

'It was a wisp of a dream, like trying to catch wind in your hand.' -Will Ferguson (419)

'It was like walking into joy.' -Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery)

How do you learn to write like this?

Perhaps by learning how to pick the right word.

And how do you do that?

By chiseling away at your writing so that plot; character development--nothing matters but the words. By writing flash fiction... 

Flash fiction:  a self-contained short story (meaning the story has a beginning, middle, end) with a limited word count (usually under 1,000 words).

As you can imagine, such a reduced word count is extremely limiting. You are limited to one moment in time. Such writing relies on the author's ability to choose the correct word. You don't have the luxury of padding. It's challenging but very enjoyable. And many authors find it to be the perfect counterbalance for working on longer work.

'The challenge of flash fiction is to tell a complete story in which every word is absolutely essential.' -Jason Gurley

For sale:  baby shoes, never worn.
This six word story by Ernest Hemingway's is an extreme example of flash fiction.
More about this story

Here is one of my attempts at extreme flash fiction...

One sunny day a worm went for a wiggle. He meets a robin.

1,500...1,000...500...20...6? How low will you go?

More tips...

Stories in your pocket:  how to write flash fiction



Sharing my author journey...

What do you feed a writer?
Good books, of course.
Where do you get good books at a price a writer who is establishing 

Book Review: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje (adventure)

Published by McClelland & Stewart

What attracted me to this book?  
I read The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje while I was writing a nineteen year old who goes on a life-changing journey. I read The Cat's Table because I wanted to see how a master handles some of the same elements I was exploring.

What I found...
As I began to read, I was surprised at loud the author's voice was. Show don't tell, I kept thinking. Then when the narrator finally takes over, he truly takes over and no one else is heard. 
Why?
I wondered if the author had worried that the adult voices would overwhelm the boy's voice. Or is it because the author wants the reader to test out what it is like to see everything, experience everything from a distance? The boy's view point is skillfully conveyed. And throughout the book, despite or perhaps because the adult characters are so jarring, I sought out the narrator's voice--like a calming port in the storm.

Quotes that charmed me...
'[T]hree of us were smoking twigs broken off from a cane chair that we lit and sucked at... Cassius was eager that we should try to smoke the whole chair before the end of our journey.' (p. 19)

'There is a story always ahead of you.' (p. 181)

'[H]e was saying the line with a syrup of scorn all over it.' (p. 195)

Questions...
Did page 93 prompt you to laugh?

The narrator wonders:  'Had she become the adult she was because of what had happened on that journey?' The voyage was only 21 days long and yet it had a profound and lasting effect on the characters' lives.

What short period of time had a profound effect on your life? Wedding? Pregnancy? Trip? University? Or...