Speaking of Flash . . .

Over at Flash Fiction Chronicles today I’ve posted about how flash fiction lets a writer really experiment with execution, especially when it comes to authorial voice. In The Many Voices of Flash I talk about how flash’s quick and somewhat disposable nature makes it a perfect vehicle for experimentation, but beyond that it is the constraint of flash with its hard word limit that means such experimental means are often the best way to squeeze every ounce of effectiveness out of so short a story.

In the case of voice, I think it is such a powerful way to create character and mood that to not use it when appropriate — to adopt instead a plain, unadorned, or straightforward style designed purely for clarity or ease of reading — is to throw away one of the best tricks we have available to us. And on the question of voice, I like to draw a distinction between the author’s natural style and that adopted for the story in question:

Instead of voice I like to think of many different voices, those tricks of style that are as different from story to story as the characters, themes, and settings of each piece. Different because they are integral, indivisible parts of the story itself, whether they are the actual words of a first person tale or the differences in cadence and inflection in a third person narrative, there is no excuse not to bring a conscious mind to the creation of these voices. Especially, as I’ve said, in flash fiction where to fail to do so is to write without one of the most powerful tools in the writer’s arsenal.

I love playing with voice, writing in dialect, changing style to fit a story, and I think, so far, I’ve done so with a lot of success. If that isn’t something you yourself have attempted, consider doing so in a few pieces of flash fiction, its the perfect medium to play around in.