Flash fiction workshop / Style workshop
Flash fiction workshop
Writers: Read it like you mean it -- because you do. This is a performance of your story, enacted by your voice, and your pacing, tone, etc.; it should reflect the story's dramatic needs.
Style workshop
You have a choice: Either revise your flash fiction story in light of your partner's suggestions, or revise your TV series pitch in light of our lesson in sentence-level style.
P.S. If you like the idea of listening to or performing literature live, then check to F-Bomb (fb) at the Merc, The Narrators (fb) at Buntport Theater, or The Moth (fb) at Swallow Hill! I'm not sure which of these is open now, during Covid times, but hopefully they'll all be reopening soon!
After you're done reading and it's time to get feedback from the class, just listen at first. Let your listener react and recommend in detail. After they're done, you can ask questions, but make sure the questions are aimed at helping you to revise.
Listeners: You've read enough flash fiction by now to convincingly play the part of a member of audience for this exercise: i.e., "Folks who regularly read journals of flash fiction. That group will be diverse in all sorts of ways, but they have at least one thing in common: a love for this very specific literary genre." So respond to the story in character, so to speak: What did the story mean to you? Did it have the shape of a complete story, with a beginning that captured your attention, a middle that built the tension, and an ending that reached a climax? Were the characters and their experience vivid, palpable, alive in your mind? How might the writer revise to make this piece even stronger?
Listeners: You've read enough flash fiction by now to convincingly play the part of a member of audience for this exercise: i.e., "Folks who regularly read journals of flash fiction. That group will be diverse in all sorts of ways, but they have at least one thing in common: a love for this very specific literary genre." So respond to the story in character, so to speak: What did the story mean to you? Did it have the shape of a complete story, with a beginning that captured your attention, a middle that built the tension, and an ending that reached a climax? Were the characters and their experience vivid, palpable, alive in your mind? How might the writer revise to make this piece even stronger?
Style workshop
Some Tips for Writing Stylish Sentences by writRHET on Scribd
Studio time
You have a choice: Either revise your flash fiction story in light of your partner's suggestions, or revise your TV series pitch in light of our lesson in sentence-level style.
P.S. If you like the idea of listening to or performing literature live, then check to F-Bomb (fb) at the Merc, The Narrators (fb) at Buntport Theater, or The Moth (fb) at Swallow Hill! I'm not sure which of these is open now, during Covid times, but hopefully they'll all be reopening soon!
