Articles about Sudden Fiction

Cath, great links. The last two link to the same article. But if you scroll down, there are links to a whole bunch of flash fiction that are unbelievably good. Don't read them all at once. Mavis Gallant said that short stories shouldnt be read like chapters in a book, one after the other, but read individually, savoured, digested, before moving on to the next story.

I would like to add something to the analysis of the Photograph. I have a degree in Lit and as a writer, it's really important to remember that most of those meanings that the reviewer finds were probably not originally intended by the author. As a writer, we have an idea and we think about it and we write it. Only after we have written it can we get a glimpse of what we might have intended. I hesitate to use the word theme, but all work, no matter how riproaring exciting has a theme.

Anyway, dont get all twisted in a knot trying to come up with imagery and meaning and stuff like that. It's often said that the worst person to ask about the meaning of his work is the creator of it. So write it, make it as tight as you can, have it say what you want it to say, and let the critic come up with clever stuff.

And dont think it's just Literature (no sneering please lol)that has this stuff. How many times havent you read an action story, or a horror one, and have argued with a friend about what it all meant?

http://www.fictionfactor.com/shortfiction.html

I especially like the one by G.W. Thomas.

Thanks for that link, Stijn. Some interesting articles. Gives me some food for thought.

these are great-ty!!

loved the idea of starting at the arc...