Make a Long Story Short: Writing Mini Fiction

image courtesy Gideon
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Taught by Example

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This course is for writers of all levels who are interested in seeing how using vivid imagery, precise detail, and a strong narrative voice can give more power and potency to their prose.

We’ll investigate the number of ways to answer questions such as: How short can a story be? Can a one-page story ‘work’? What about a single-paragraph story?

Using key elements of poetry (rhythm, imagery, diction) and prose (character, setting, dialogue), we’ll explore the imaginative and surprising ways of creating big effects in small packages.

We’ll look at stories from the anthologies Micro Fiction and Sudden Fiction along with work by Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, and Lydia Davis. In-class exercise will help strengthen the use of precision and economy in your prose.

By the end of the class, you will have innovative narrative techniques at your disposal, a sharper editorial eye, and new ideas for stories.

Please bring in a 6-word story to share with the class.

Some examples:

For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.
Girlfriend is pregnant, my husband said.
Many hands have kept me afloat.
The light that night was perfect.
Palindromantically: Eros saw I was sore.
Young, skinny, ridiculed. Old, skinny, envied.

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