The strength of flash fiction is its brevity. Maintaining the wholeness of a story within the brief word count in flash, however, is difficult to pull off. In 1000 words or fewer, a flash fiction writer is expected to produce a story with a complete plot – a compelling beginning, an engaging middle, and an impressive ending. This class will teach you the power of word economy. You will learn how to compress language into its most distilled form so that each word, each sentence, can convey more information than its size, aiding you to produce a vibrant flash fiction piece that will stay with readers long after they have read it.
For the duration of the course, you will study the works of other writers who excelled at writing flash. The techniques used in their stories will be unpacked and incorporated into your work. The class is open to writers in all stages, and it will be taught by the award-winning writer Olubunmi Familoni, author of the collection of stories Smithereens of Death.
For this class, there will be required readings. Writing exercises will also be given, which you will be expected to complete and review with your peers. At the end of the class, you will be equipped with the writing skills necessary for creating condensed and powerful flash fiction stories.