Spotlight: Spark and Sizzle: Crafting Flash Fiction        

Happy writing! 

Marcia & Angela 

classroom@wow-womenonwriting.com 

 

 

5 Tips for Crafting Fierce Flash Characters 

 

By Melanie Faith 

 

  

1. Include a flaw or two. We all have them and they have a fantastic way of bungling up our best intentions. Whether greed or ignorance, lust or despair, complicate your character's life with a fatal flaw (s)he needs to overcome through the course of the story's action. Even if your character has one or two "perfect" attributes--a loving husband, a fulfilling career, an athletic build--make sure to offset these strengths with more believable challenges--arguing stepchildren, an impossible to please boss, impatience. The real energy of a story, as in life, takes place where hope and reality intersect in challenge. Nobody believes a character whose life is perfect, inside and out.  


2. Consider quirky attributes for your protagonist. Since flash storylines are often slightly surrealistic or fantastical, consider including odd hobbies or collections, special abilities, and otherworldly notions associated with your character. A flash might be the perfect place for your character who is obsessed with the kazoo or the character who, ever since getting struck with lightning, paints like Picasso in his Blue Period.  


3. Keep physical descriptions to a minimum. Unlike in longer pieces, where you might have several paragraphs to luxuriate in visceral personal details and backstory, in flash fiction physical descriptions must immediately contribute to the underlying plot or conflict. Michael Wilson, in his text Flash Writing: How to Write, Revise, and Publish Stories Less Than 1,000 Words Long, advises: "What physical attributes or imperfections make this character stand out? Try to limit this to no more than three details, and show these through action or dialogue within the story itself."  


4. Set those skeletons rattling. Who doesn't have a past disaster or two we'd rather forget? So, too, should your characters. Perhaps this is the day when an ex will appear on the doorstep. Maybe, while housecleaning, a photo of a once-bestie now-nemesis falls to the floor. Indicators of the past give readers powerful insight not only into the character's former problems and motivations but to those same areas where they seek growth now. Consider physical as well as psychological implications for your characters. Drop a mistake into your character's past. How does that affect her actions today?  


5. Incentives, incentives, incentives. A great way to add tension with a few words is to craft a character who wants some goal passionately and yet, obstacles keep littering the way. When all else fails, consider: what is this character working towards (or avoiding) in his/her life? Perhaps your character will choose an option to avoid a past outcome--only to become embroiled in a worse situation. Or maybe, while pursuing his goal, he will fall into the same trap twice--this time with either tragic or comic results.
   
    

    

Spark and Sizzle: Crafting Flash Fiction          

Visit the Classroom Page for a complete listing and what you'll be learning week by week.   

About the Instructor: Melanie Faith is a poet, essayist, and photographer who holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, NC. Her writing most recently was published in Mason's Road (Winter 2012 issue) and Origami Poems Project. Her photos were published in Foliate Oak (May 2011), Epiphany Magazine (October 2011), Up The Staircase (Fall 2011), and Ray's Road Review (December 2011). Her poetry was a semi-finalist for the 2011 James Applewhite Poetry Prize, and an essay about editing poetry appeared in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Writers' Journal. In 2011, her poetry and essays was featured in Referential Magazine (July and June 2011), Tapestry (Delta State U., Spring 2011), and Front Range Review (U. of Montana, Spring 2011). She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work won the 2009 Anne E. Sucher Poetry Prize for the Iguana Review. She has been a small town journalist, an ESL classroom teacher for international students, and (currently) a literature and writing tutor at a private college prep high school, and a freelance editor. She has enjoyed teaching writing classes for WOW! for three years. In addition to writing two novels seeking representation, her instructional articles about creative writing techniques have appeared in The Writer (Nov. '09) and Writers' Journal, among others.  

Upcoming Classes & Workshops

Click here to see all of our upcoming workshops