Writing Genre Flash Fiction The Minimalist Way by Michael A. Kechula--sample only

WRITING GENRE FLASH FICTION

THE MINIMALIST WAY

A SELF-STUDY BOOK

(This is a free sample only. The entire book may be purchased from BooksForABuck.com or our distributors)

Writing Genre Flash Fiction the Minimalist Way by Michael A. Kechula

Michael A. Kechula

BooksForABuck.com

2011

No portion of this work may be duplicated, transmitted, or stored in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

BooksForABuck.com

January 2011

ISBN: 978-1-60215-138-3

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MICHAEL A. KECHULA

...Mike Kechula's the real deal, a great writer who can actually teach writing. With the precision of a technical writer (which he is) he's analyzed and cracked the code of readable--and publishable--flash and micro fiction, and has been very generous sharing the secrets. I've learned more about writing from Mike than any of a dozen paid courses I've taken over the last five years, and have recommended him to several fledgling flash writers. If you want not only the basics of readable genre flash, but also a good model of how to analyze a market and master it, Mike can show you. (Valerie Kravette, USA)
...Michael Kechula is a mentor to me. He took me under his wing and showed me the real way to write flash fiction. Ever since then I have been published in several magazines. I wouldn't have ever thought I'd get published until I met him. (Calvin Seen, USA)
...Your understanding of flash fiction taught me a tremendous amount in a very short time. Your examples and guidance will influence all my writing no matter the genre. Your detailed analysis and suggestions are invaluable. We are so fortunate to have someone of your caliber, knowledge, and patience to mentor us. (John Brooke, Mexico)
...Under the guidance of Michael Kechula, who is the god of flash fiction writing, I developed my skills and found success in getting my stories published. (Nancy Cavanaugh, USA)

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Welcome. The purpose of this book is to teach you how to develop genre flash fiction the minimalist way. The contents are based on what we taught dozens of novelists and short story authors when we transformed them into genre flash writers.

In a few moments, we'll define flash fiction, genre fiction, and the minimalist approach to developing flash. Before we do, here's how we'll proceed with the lessons. First, we'll tell you something and show some examples. Then we'll ask you questions. All questions begin with Q followed by a number. Many involve word reduction writing exercises.

Have a pencil and plenty of paper on hand to answer the questions and complete the exercises. Answers to all questions and exercises appear in the Answer Pages at the back of the book.

Also included is a 50 question Word Reduction Exercise to give you more practice in writing tighter sentences. Answers for these questions appear in the Word Reduction Answer Pages, which appear at the back of the book.

The book contains 10 lessons. We suggest you review Lesson-1 and Lesson-2 first. Then you may review the rest in any sequence. The lesson names and page numbers are listed in the menu on the next page.

To save space from this point forward, we'll use the abbreviation FF to mean flash fiction.

This concludes the introduction. The next page shows the lesson Menu.

MENU

LESSON......................... TITLE

1: INTRODUCTION TO GENRE FLASH FICTON

2: GENRE FF DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

3: WRITING OPENING SENTENCES THE MINIMALIST WAY

4: WRITING DIALOG THE MINIMALIST WAY

5: WORD-WASTERS IN DIALOG

6: WORD-WASTERS IN NARRATIVE PART-1

7: WORD-WASTERS IN NARRATIVE PART-2

8: WORD-WASTERS IN NARRATIVE PART-3

9: WORD-WASTERS IN NARRATIVE PART-4

10: WORD-WASTERS IN NARRATIVE PART-5

WORD REDUCTION EXERCISE

ANSWER PAGES FOR LESSONS

ANSWER PAGES FOR WORD REDUCTION EXERCISES

LESSON-1: INTRODUCTION TO GENRE FLASH FICTION

This lesson covers the following:

Definition of FF
Characteristics of the ideal genre FF tale
Definition of genre fiction
Genre names
Objectives of the minimalist way of writing FF
Key minimalist authoring techniques
Definition of word-wasters
List of word-wasters

DEFINITION OF FLASH FICTION: a complete story told in 1,000 words or less.

Notice we said a complete story and that it must be told in 1,000 words or less.

The severe word count limitation of flash contrasts sharply with short stories that consist of 1,000 to 10,000 words, and even more so with novels that range from 40,000 upward. But there's another and greater difference that impacts authors: flash is not developed using the same techniques for writing short stories and novels. That means authors will have to learn and apply new ones. Some flash techniques will even conflict with those authors use to develop novels and short stories. Here's an example: when writing FF from the minimalist approach, we omit similes. These figures of speech are never vital to the plot in FF stories, plus they burn up precious word count. Further, some are so poorly conceived they draw attention to themselves and throw us out of the story. This has happened hundreds of times while we were analyzing and critiquing more than 6,000 FF stories.

If you're an author of short stories or novels, we ask you to suspend any preconceived notions you have about developing genre FF. If you can do this, your transformation into a FF writer will be much easier.

Q01: What's the maximum number of words allowable in a FF tale?

Q02: How does the word count available in flash compare to that of short stories and novels? Short Stories____ Novels____

Q03: When developing flash, we said you should omit ____

Q04: Give one reason for doing that?

Q05: What did we say about similes and how they affect the plot of a flash tale?

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IDEAL GENRE FF STORY

The ideal genre FF tale has the following characteristics:

It should tell a complete story that can be read in 5 minutes or less.
It should have an opener that pulls readers into the story.
It should be plot-driven.
It should emphasize telling over showing.
It should be a fast read.
It should always move forward at a brisk pace.
It should be free of inflated prose.
It should be free of trivial details.
It should be free of distractions that can throw readers out of the story.
It should contain dialog.
It should contain a maximum of 4 characters.
It should contain a maximum of 4 scenes.
It should end in a way that makes it complete.

Q06: List at least 6 characteristics of the ideal genre flash fiction story.

DEFINITION OF GENRE FICTION

Here's a dictionary description of genre, when applied to fiction: a category of fiction characterized by a particular style, form or content.

Here's a partial list of genre names:

Crime
Mystery
Romance
Speculative
Thriller
War
Western

To see more genre names, access Google and enter: fiction genres

Each of the genres listed above are further divided into subgenres. For example, two subgenres of fantasy are magical realism and urban fantasy. To obtain a full list of, say, fantasy subgenres, Google on: fantasy subgenres.

Q07: Genre fiction is characterized by a particular style, form, or ...

Q08: List 3 of the genre names.

The FF format works for any genre. However, the genre in greatest demand by publishers is speculative fiction. Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, as well as their dozens of subgenres.

The most compelling genre fiction tales have a protagonist with a quest, and one or more antagonists who do all they can to prevent him from attaining the object of the quest. Crime tales are a good example. Romance tales can also have these elements of genre fiction. Same with adventure, fantasy, and even humorous stories. The trick is to make all this happen in 1,000 words or less.

Here's a summary of what we covered so far:

Definition of FF
Definition of genre fiction
Characteristics of the ideal genre FF tale
Genre fiction names

Let's move on to the objectives of the minimalist way of developing genre FF fiction....

OBJECTIVES OF THE MINIMALIST WAY

The objectives of the minimalist approach to writing genre FF are: to tell as much story as possible, in as few words as possible, without sacrificing a smooth read.

These objectives will affect how you'll begin your story, how you'll develop narrative and dialog, and how you'll edit the results before submitting to magazines, anthologies, or contests.

Q09: What are the objectives of the minimalist approach to developing FF?

Let's look more closely at the implications of these objectives. We're already constrained by a rule that says we only have 1,000 words to tell a story. That's difficult enough for any author. Now it might seem as if we're making things even tougher by asking you be stingy with words. What we're asking you to do is adapt 4 minimalist techniques to meet the objectives, which are:

Write tight sentences.
Tell, not show.
Make stories plot-driven.
Omit word-wasters.

Let's look more closely at these techniques...

This concludes the free sample of WRITING GENRE FLASH FICTION THE MINIMALIST WAY by Michael A. Kechula. You may purchase the entire self study guide, in multiple electronic formats (HTML, PDF, ePub, Kindle/Mobi, eReader and zipped Microsoft Reader), for the price of only $9.99 by clicking the Buy Now button below (processed by PayPal for your safety).