Flash Fiction

I've tried writing fiction and I simply can't do it. Well, that isn't quite true. I can write a very small vignette or an extremely short story. But I can't flesh out the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey might say.

It's very difficult to create a whole character who behaves consistently across time. It is also difficult to put that character into a story that makes sense, introduces the character, permits or even demands the character to expand to fill the tale, and make the whole thing work.

I can, I find, write flash fiction. There isn't much to the character development. There is only a brief flash of a portion of a story that might work. I don't really know if I am any good at it, but I can do it. I'm sure that with practice I will get better.

Someone over at MWC came up with a brilliant plan. There is a mythical place called The Station where fictional characters go. They may be wisps of characterization, they may be stories started and not finished, they may be stories that were completely written and didn't sell, or they may be established characters whose author, aka The Boss, is now working on other projects.

This idea is so wonderful for me. I know that I'm not capable of fleshing out an entire character. But I can create a smaller version of someone who might have been if the Boss were a better writer. I can tell a small tale because I don't have the skill to tell a large tale.

I sit alone in my house and converse with other talented people, varying degrees of both time and talent to be sure, and put out a small story and see what comes back. Tangentially connected, completely stand alone, or using characters from someone else's creative mind. I find the stories compelling for a variety of reasons.

The stories are interesting in and of themselves. But they also show the frustration felt by other story tellers who have a character that just isn't making it. None of my characters make it, which is why I write non-fiction. I don't have to create anybody, just tell a small portion of their story and call it my own work.

I've met some wonderful people with great senses of humor. The word connection threads show the oblique way people who love words can play with the damn things. But more than that, they are permitting me to see a side of writing that I was unaware of. I read voraciously. But that means that I read what is finally published. I don't see the work before the publication. What an eye opener.

So, I'm off to MWC again and peeking at the writers, some published and some not, as they play with words. Something I've always loved to do. And now I have an entire playground.