UFG+Reflection+-+Jesser


 * UFG Project Reflection **

 When I first began the unfamiliar genre project, I was originally planning on doing short stories. However, with more research and guidance, it was easy to see that writing a ten page short story would be a difficult feat to accomplish. To be honest, when I started with flash fiction I thought this genre would be a little easier than short stories simply because it was shorter. It is now easy to say that I was wrong. I definitely overlooked the fact that just because flash fiction is short, doesn’t mean it is easy. When I started my first piece, “Reunion,” I started it with every intention to make it one of the short flash fiction pieces I’ve seen (about 55-100 words). That didn’t last long. I found it very difficult to try and come up with a cohesive story that will still make sense to the reader in less than 100 words!

 In my drafts (I had three, but the first was saved over) I realized how important it was to try and get the proper information in the writing so the story is understandable to the reader without using too many words. Through my three drafts I found myself adding more information about the main character. I thought that having an identifiable character would make the story more interesting to the reader. I also tried to keep some suspense to the writing – something I’m not sure I fully accomplished. I wanted the story to start off with one direction, but slowly move toward a different one to entice the reader.

 After I completed “Reunion,” I attempted some really short pieces again. For these pieces I drew from real experiences which I believe really helped because I already knew what the reader should know for it to make sense. I also think it became much easier because I had already written the first long piece, was starting fresh and had learned all the flash fiction concepts and how to incorporate them. And I must say, I really enjoyed writing the really short stories!

 Throughout this project, I discovered that dialogue is the most important element to flash fiction. Without it, I don’t think a short story like flash fiction would be possible while still staying interesting to the reader – especially with the pieces that are less than 100 words. In longer pieces, however, not only is dialogue important, but I think detailed description and a well-defined character is also important. The description really helps the reader see what is happening in such a short amount of time so it keeps the story moving and having a well-defined character will hopefully keep the reader interested as well as filling the reader in on some of the story without it being explicitly laid out for them. The combination of all three of these elements is what I believe to be the key to writing flash fiction, abusing one of these and using it more than the rest would throw off the balance. However, if one was abused, I believe dialogue would be the most common. Through dialogue we can relay more information to the reader with actually describing each and every event to them. Dialogue would be an easy way to make flash fiction much shorter.