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.

Bu hikaye Writer’s Digest dergisinin May - June 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye Writer’s Digest dergisinin May - June 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

WRITER’S DIGEST DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
What Is Your Story Question?
Writer’s Digest

What Is Your Story Question?

Revision and editing advice to take your first draft to the next level.

time-read
7 dak  |
January - February 2025
Writing for the People We Hope to Become
Writer’s Digest

Writing for the People We Hope to Become

Elisa Stone Leahy's new middle-grade novel, Mallory in Full Color, tackles the in-between moments of adolescence, when who we are and who we want to become collide.

time-read
5 dak  |
January - February 2025
Creating Community
Writer’s Digest

Creating Community

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

time-read
3 dak  |
January - February 2025
Pat Barker
Writer’s Digest

Pat Barker

The Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration shares the role characters play in developing novel ideas and explains what appeals to her about reimagining mythology.

time-read
10+ dak  |
January - February 2025
How to Write in Different Genres
Writer’s Digest

How to Write in Different Genres

Emiko Jean and Yulin Kuang share tips and strategies for how they successfully write in different genres and mediums.

time-read
8 dak  |
January - February 2025
The Shortest Distance Between Two Points
Writer’s Digest

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points

Ten tips for writing a novel with 100-word stories.

time-read
8 dak  |
January - February 2025
Mayfly Marketing
Writer’s Digest

Mayfly Marketing

How to sell your novel in a short-attention-span world.

time-read
9 dak  |
January - February 2025
"You'll be a great essay".
Writer’s Digest

"You'll be a great essay".

How to write six types of personal essays by finding the funny in your life.

time-read
9 dak  |
January - February 2025
The Idea Factory
Writer’s Digest

The Idea Factory

Tired of staring at an empty screen? Unlock your inner fiction generator with these surprising inspiration techniques.

time-read
9 dak  |
January - February 2025
Seinfeld Was Right: That's a Story
Writer’s Digest

Seinfeld Was Right: That's a Story

Use mundane moments from everyday life to create stories that pack a punch.

time-read
10 dak  |
January - February 2025