What happens to our writing when we slow down our reading and think critically about the stories in front of us?
Great flash fiction leaves a very strong impression but the danger is we simply inhale it and move on.
How often do you bring your critical faculties to the reading experience, analysing
what the writer has done, in order to improve our own writing of flash stories?
Do you keep notes (a reading journal) about the flash that pops up daily on your screens? Ask yourself what draws you to a particular story and why?
Is it exciting language, playful or clever structure, metaphor and symbolism, character and story, or (usually) a mixture of these?
Often I find I’m hit by an emotional response and then I go back to see how the writer has achieved that in terms of craft, rather than topic.
In this class we will read a selection of flash with an analytical eye, looking under the hood if you like, in order to deepen our appreciation of the stories we’ve studied.
