What drew you to writing flash fiction?
I had tried writing something longer, but like most developing writers I kept disappearing down rabbit holes, and the manuscript became unwieldy and didn’t really follow a coherent path; but after attending a short writing course I found that the Flash Fiction/Short Story format suited my style. Its somewhat easier, you don’t have to fully develop characters, and if you add a splash of science into your story you don’t have to fully explain it, a two or three word description is enough. It’s not about being too lazy to write a novel; the short story still needs to be crafted to hold the reader’s attention, but its about being able to be concise and clear in your delivery.
What would you say is distinctive about the form?
You have to be crisp and concise in your story but ensure that there is a beginning, middle and end, but often the ending is a simple short sentence.
The format is ideal to give simple snapshots of life or imagined life.
I find it perfect for writing stories about time travel – you really really don’t have to explain the mechanisms of time travel – It Just Is, I mean we all accept Dr. Who’s TARDIS without worrying about how it works, so you can just add in some weird sounding particles maybe give them a bolt of radiation, and Hey Presto you have Time Travel!
It’s also great for writing stories about the how the old Greek and Scandinavian gods or Celestial Beings such as the Angels and Lucifer with his Demons deal with modern life. You don’t have to explain the whys and wherefores, simply put the old gods never really went away, and the Celestial Beings are always visiting Earth anyway!
You can also expand on any headline, a short news item or any strange stories you come across, there’s always something you can write about.
Essentially you can write anything about everything.
Do you write in other forms?
I write some short stories that are about a department of the secret service called the Committee of Awareness, Knowledge and Enlightenment (The Cake), which I’m combining into a book called “A Slice of Cake”. All the stories are about 2-3000 words long, but its not really a novel just a series of linked stories that provide snapshots of the Service over an 80 year period (from 1944 to 2024), obviously the central characters change but the overall theme is a constant.
Have you any advice for anyone who would like to write flash fiction?
Yes, go on a simple short story writing course to get an idea as to how to structure the story; and definitely join your local writers group or club. It’s always useful to have others to listen and critique your stories, and then submit.
Feedback is good so is criticism!
Of course there’ll be rejections – it’s a way of life! But persevere, and most of all have fun in your writing.
Tell us about some of the themes in this collection.
It starts with confusion in the Celestial Office as the Creation plans go awry and essentially ends with the Archangel Michael flying to meet his brother Gabriel at the end of days.
In between I explore the issues of immortality, and ask how did we not know that aliens had influenced warfare in medieval times, whilst asking questions about Time Travel, I mean whose future do we travel to?
Some of the stories were written during the Covid 19 lockdown when the streets were deserted and groceries were delivered, but how did the old gods get their groceries delivered if their postcode was outside the delivery zone?
Find a copy of Henry's flash fiction collection here
No comments:
Post a Comment