Minimalist Fiction (John Barth Quote)

It's interesting and informative to consider the various ways fiction can be viewed as minimalist that goes far beyond mere story length. 

 Snip from A Few Words About Minimalism by John Barth:

"Old or new, fiction can be minimalist in any or all of several ways. There are minimalisms of unit, form and scale: short words, short sentences and paragraphs, super-short stories, those three-eighth-inch thin novels aforementioned, and even minimal bibliographies (Borges' fiction adds up to a few modest, though powerfully influential, short-story collections). There are minimalisms of style: a stripped-down vocabulary; a stripped-down syntax that avoids periodic sentences, serial predications and complex subordinating constructions; a stripped-down rhetoric that may eschew figurative language altogether; a stripped-down, non-emotive tone. And there are minimalisms of material: minimal characters, minimal exposition ("all that David Copperfield kind of crap," says J.D. Salinger's catcher in the rye), minimal mises en scene, minimal action, minimal plot."

 

ANALYZING FLASH FICTION

I find that carefully analyzing outstanding flash fiction is a great way to learn more about the craft of writing.  In my online Flash Fiction Writing Workshop, every once in a while we do a group analysis of a particularly striking published story.  Here are links to three (of the many) that we've analyzed as a group.

Charles Baudelaire's intriguing "To Each His Own Chimera" at  http://www.piranesia.net/baudelaire/spleen/frame.html
(on the left side, click on story #6).

Last month we took a close look at Mary Robison's "Yours" and between us we discovered/ uncovered some outstanding writing techniques.  That story's at
http://recommendedreading.tumblr.com/post/45262026886/ben-greenman-recommends-yours-by-mary-Robison

(URL/Link must be unbroken so if you need to, cut and past it into your browser.)

This month we're taking a close look at Gordon Lish 's delightful and disturbing "The Merry Chase" at http://theeveningrednessinthewest.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/two-short-stories-from-gordon-lish/
(It's the second story on that page, so scroll down to get to it.)  I expect we'll have lots to talk about with this one. 

JOIN THE FLASH FICTION WORKSHOP
You're welcome to join us at the (free) Flash Fiction Writing Workshop.  It's been going strong for fifteen years.  We submit flash literature for critiquing, discuss writing theory, post markets, and occasionally do group story analyses and sometimes write to posted prompts.  We all use our real names and there's a participation requirement (a minimum of four critiques per month).  To join, send a blank subject header message to:

listserv@listserv.uta.edu

In the message section write only this:  Subscribe FlashFiction-W joejones@haha.net (your email address). 

If I get too many applicants I'll revive our waiting list (and will let you know).  Then when present members leave, I'll add in new members.  Right now we can accommodate at least twenty more members.  So if you're a serious flash literature writer, join us. 

(We also accept submissions of haibun, prose poetry-- but not regular poetry-- flash memoir, flash plays, short-short creative nonfiction-- all 1,000 words or fewer.)

FLASH FICTION FLASH NEWSLETTER
And don't forget, I also publish a free Flash Fiction Flash newsletter each month.  In that I list paying flash literature markets (markets that pay an honorarium, contributor copy, and/ or subscription, etc. And I include the writing contests I find.  (Do send me markets you're aware of, too.)

To subscribe send a blank subject header message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com (don't forget the hyphen-Subscribe)

ETGAR KERET's COLLECTION:
THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES

I have definitely become an admirer of Etgar Keret's writing.  I recently picked up his collection THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES (The Toby Press, 2004) and I find it outstanding.  It's as touching and funny as can be. 

I agree with the words on the back of this collection:  "Brief, intense, painfully funny, and shockingly honest.  Keret's stories are snapshots that illuminate with intelligence and wit the hidden truths of life." 

To sample Keret's work, here are some of his stories published online:

You can read "Crazy Glue" at http://www.laweekly.com/news/features/crazy-glue/4496/

See "Shut" at http://www.foyles.co.uk/etgar-keret

Read "The Magic and Childhood: Three Tales of Innocence From Israel" ("Hat Trick," "Shoes," "Hope They Die" from Prospect Magazine) http://www.booktrust.org.uk/usr/library/documents/short-stories/keret.pdf

And hear Keret reading "What Do We Have In Our Pockets?" at http://www.etgarkeret.com/stories/ (at this same site Leonard Nimoy reads one of Keret's stories too).

Read "Creative Writing" at http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2012/01/02/120102fi_fiction_keret

I will certainly be purchasing other Keret collections. 
-----
FLASH LITERATURE MARKET BLOG REMINDER: I recently started up a Flash Literature Market Blog where you can view all the markets I published in the January and February issues of Flash Fiction Flash.  That link is

http://flashfictionii.blogspot.com/

 

 

      

           W.S. MERWIN'S THE BOOK OF FABLES

Just last week I finally purchased W.S. Merwin's collection, The Book of Fables (Copper Canyon Press, 2007. ) I'd intended to pick up his The Miner's Pale Children for some time now but kept forgetting to do it.  It was nice to find that collection combined with his Houses and Travellers all in one large collection-- The Book of Fables.  I haven't been able to put it down nor able to forget so many of the strangely haunting pieces. 

I'd read a little of Merwin's work before, enough to realize what an outstanding writer he is (plus I'd head the same from others) and I am extremely pleased with the work in this collection.  This one's definitely a collection to keep and read over and over again.  If you like short and often beautifully enigmatic and surreal pieces, this is the collection for you too.  As Saturday Review says about the The Book of Fables, "The power of Merwin's prose must be experienced to be understood."  This collection is turning out to be one of my absolute favorites.    

It's obvious I've taken a long break from blogging and from publishing my monthly flash fiction newsletter. I definitely needed the break. But I'm back now and ready to resume the discussion and study of flash fiction.

FLASH FICTION FLASH NEWSLETTER
I'm releasing the latest issue of my newsletter today and if you don't subscribe, now's the time to do it. It's free and each month you receive it via email. This issue is loaded with markets and contests for flash.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Here's how to subscribe. Send a blank email message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com > That's all. I'll then "approve" you and you'll begin receiving Flash Fiction Flash on a regular basis. (I'd appreciate it if you'd also send me your recent flash literature publishing news and any flash literature markets you know of.)

JOIN FLASHFICTION-W This is a free online flash fiction workshop that's been going for fifteen years now. We have some openings and hope serious writers or students of flash fiction will join us. To join send a blank subject email message to mailto:listserv@listserv.uta.edu  and in the message section write only this: signup flashfiction-w jayjones@att.net (your email address). We all use real names in the workshop and no lurking is allowed (we have monthly participation requirements). (If the workshop gets too full, I'll put you on a waiting list and will add you as soon as there's an opening. Right now we have some openings so sign up soon.)

INTERESTING FLASH FICTION As a "let's get started again" gesture, here are some online flash fiction pieces that I view as outstanding. Hope you enjoy and learn from them too.

Octavio Paz's "The Blue Bouquet"
http://lisabloomfield.net/occ/193/weekly_html/bluebouquet.pdf
David Foster Wallace's "Incarnations of Burned Children" (this one made me cry!)
http://www.esquire.com/fiction/fiction/incarnations-burned-children-david-foster-wallace-0900
Heinrich Boll's "The Laugher"
(translated by Leila Vennewitz)
http://www.101bananas.com/library2/laugher2.html

All the best writing to you.

BIG DOUBLE WOW!!! GEOFF AND KARIN FULLER: BOTH WINNERS!!! Geoff Fuller, who co-wrote some feature-length articles with me that were published in Writer's Digest, received some great news! He is the First Place winner of the Crime category in Writer's Digest's Category Fiction Awards writing competitions. Not only that, but his wife, Karin Fuller, earned First Place in the Romance category of that same competition!!! That both of them won first places is a cause for using exclamation marks!!!! A big yay to Geoff and Karin!!! (See the May/June 2012 issue of Writer's Digest for more info. And/or go to http://writersdigest.com/June-12

ON GRAYWOLF PRESS'S THE ART OF SERIES

I've been reading books from Graywolf Press's "The Art Of" Series, edited by Charles Baxter. The three I've read so far are outstanding and from flipping through the others I have they also look really good.

The series was created in part to "restore the art of criticism while illuminating the art of writing" (quote from the back of Mark Doty's book). I am convined that attention to literary criticism is one of the best ways of improving in the art/ craft of writing.

The first series book I read is Charles Baxter's Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction. Definitely outstanding. Then I read Baxter's The Art of Subtext, also outstanding. I'll be re-reading these two. Last week I finished Mark Doty's The Art of Description: World into Word (2010). It, too, is outstanding and I'll likely be revisiting it as well.

Next I'll begin Robert Boswell's The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction (2008). Then I'll read The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song by Ellen Bryant Voigt (2009).

One day soon I hope to get other books in The Art Of series.

This particular project drafts an important author on the craft of writing and each book in the series examines a "singular, but often assumed or neglected, issue facing the contemporary writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry."

You might want to look into "The Art Of Series from Graywolf Press, too. I can always tell how much I've gained from any particular book by the number of underlines, stars, bent pages, and/ or highlighted passages I have in the book. I have many such reminder markings in this outstanding series. (The books I love have no resale value-- I mark them up too much.)

See more at about the books in the series at http://www.graywolfpress.org/ (Check under Creative Writing.)