Honing the Power of Suggestion With Flash Fiction
Writer’s Digest|May - June 2023
Tips for making the biggest impact with the fewest words.
GRANT FAULKNER
Honing the Power of Suggestion With Flash Fiction

When I’m writing a story, I think often of Roland Barthes’ question in The Pleasure of the Text: “Is not the most erotic portion of the body where the garment gapes?”

I don’t write romance, and I don’t write many sex scenes in my stories, but it’s the perfect writing metaphor for me, especially when I’m writing flash fiction, because tiny stories flow from tantalizing glimpses that lure the reader forward. As much as a writer might want to tell the whole story, a good miniature is created around hints and fleeting appearances. The story moves through the power of suggestion; it lives in the bliss of its mystery.

Before I wrote flash fiction, which is defined as a story less than 1,000 words, I’d trained myself as a novelist, and I thought writing vividly meant to write with a density of telling details, with words that grounded a reader and illustrated the world around them almost as if the author held a movie camera. That can be the case, certainly, but the more I wrote flash fiction (and particularly 100-word stories), the more I learned that there are other tools a writer can use to immerse the reader in the story: the art of excision, the art of compression, the art of omission, the art of writing with spaces and gaps and breaths, the art of less.

I recently wrote a book, The Art of Brevity, to better understand the craft of writing less. Here is how writing flash fiction taught me to write with the power of suggestion.

The Unexpected Benefits of Constraints

The word constraints tends to have a negative connotation. It speaks of restrictions and limits, and in writing, as in life, we tend to want as much freedom and space as we can get. But constraints can nourish your creativity.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May - June 2023 من Writer’s Digest.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May - June 2023 من Writer’s Digest.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من WRITER’S DIGEST مشاهدة الكل
Writing for a Warming World - Imagining the overwhelming, the ubiquitous, the world-shattering.
Writer’s Digest

Writing for a Warming World - Imagining the overwhelming, the ubiquitous, the world-shattering.

Climate change is one of those topics that can throw novelists—and everyone else—into a fearful and cowering silence. When the earth is losing its familiar shapes and consolations, changing drastically and in unpredictable ways beneath our feet, how can we summon our creative resources to engage in the imaginative world-building required to write a novel that takes on these threats in compelling ways? And how to avoid writing fiction that addresses irreversible climate change without letting our prose get too preachy, overly prescriptive, saturated with despair?

time-read
8 mins  |
July - August 2024
Kids' Author Meg Medina Inspires Readers
Writer’s Digest

Kids' Author Meg Medina Inspires Readers

WD chats with the National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature.

time-read
6 mins  |
September - October 2024
The Horrors of Grief
Writer’s Digest

The Horrors of Grief

Whether hot off the presses or on the shelves for years, a good book is worth talking about.

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2024
The Mystery of Growing Up
Writer’s Digest

The Mystery of Growing Up

New York Times-bestselling author Jasmine Warga tackles a new genre with her signature blend of empathy for her readers, agency for her characters, and the belief that art is the great connector.

time-read
5 mins  |
September - October 2024
Education
Writer’s Digest

Education

Even if it's not your thing, you're probably familiar with the term dark academia.

time-read
4 mins  |
September - October 2024
A Do-Over Romance
Writer’s Digest

A Do-Over Romance

Karin Patton, the first-place winner of the 24th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Awards, shares a funny story about secondchance love and a brief Q&A.

time-read
7 mins  |
September - October 2024
Everyday Wonder
Writer’s Digest

Everyday Wonder

How to mine awe from the mundane

time-read
8 mins  |
September - October 2024
From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Writer’s Digest

From Ordinary to Extraordinary

Unveil the hidden beauty in the facts and transform your nonfiction with the power of wonder.

time-read
6 mins  |
September - October 2024
Childhood: Our Touchstone for Wonder
Writer’s Digest

Childhood: Our Touchstone for Wonder

How to get in touch with Little You and create big new work for today.

time-read
8 mins  |
September - October 2024
Agent Roundup
Writer’s Digest

Agent Roundup

22 agents share details, about what kind of writing will pique their interest and offer tips for querying writers...

time-read
6 mins  |
September - October 2024