In flash fiction, the whole is a part and the part is a whole. The form forces the writer to question each word, to reckon with Flaubert’s mot juste, and move a story by hints and implications. Flash stories are built through gaps as much as the connective tissue of words, so what’s left out of a story is often more important than what’s included. A single sentence can serve the function that a paragraph or even a chapter might in a longer work.
In this workshop, Grant Faulkner, co-founder of 100 Word Story and San Francisco’s Flash Fiction Collective—and the author of The Art of Brevity—will discuss how a different type of creativity emerges within a hard compositional limit, exploring the many different forms that short shorts can take.
Come prepared to write short pieces and explore the expansiveness of succinctness.
Masks are required for everyone over the age of 2 years old and must be worn at all times in the venue, and throughout the duration of the event.
About Grant Faulkner
Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story.
His book The Art of Brevity is forthcoming in February 2023. He has also published Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories; All the Comfort Sin Can Provide; and Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo.
His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, LitHub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer.
Find Grant online on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen to his podcast Write-minded and subscribe to his newsletter Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.