by Randall Brown
For certain, almost always, rarely never, flash fiction demands a word count, not the outdated kind once done by counting words per line of type and multiplying by the number of lines, but the precise count of technology. 100 exactly. Not a word more than 750. At some point (500 or less?) it's microfiction, a few words more it's sudden fiction, then flash. Or maybe it's flash then sudden? At a 1000+ word count, it's most likely, but not always, going to the short story editor. Go figure.
In writing of the one-line poem, Michael McFee argues that it "is not a longer poem condensed, a larger block of text whittled down." It is, he asserts, "a product of deliberate pressure, not a casual or accidental creation." The author must "conceive of his material that way, must write it that way, and must mean for the audience to hear and/or read it that way." The word count requirement of flash fiction misleads authors into thinking of flash as a short story told with fewer words. It might be that. It might be other things, too.
The best flash writers perhaps set out to write flash fiction. They don't end up with a flash piece because something longer failed. Maybe sometimes they do. I'd like to think they begin with the idea of brevity, a very tiny space, think of how largely they might fill it.
It's a cop-out, in the current world of postmodern sensibilities, to say that nothing can be defined. In such a world, boundaries don't exist, but what is more bounded than flash fiction, confined by that continual count of word after word. Flash fiction ticks, like bombs and clocks, aware of its end before its birth. What is flash fiction?
It's this. And more. And less.
Fifty Words on Fifty Definitions of Flash
(definitions from Dictionary.com)
1. a brief, sudden burst of bright light: a flash of lightning.
Out of nothing, first struck and burning out simultaneously, into the middle of things, when the ho-hum turns extraordinary, gone "ere one can say it lightens." Brief, sudden, bursting, and bright. Crackling with energy. The story expends itself--and the world returns as it appeared that brief, unblinding moment before.
2. a sudden, brief outburst or display of joy, wit, etc.
In flash, the writer has little time for consolidation. The flash releases something pent up--and that thing beats its way toward the nearest exist. Flash might the thing itself instead of its representation. It might be the very thing you wish you hadn't said. But there it is, beating.
3. a very brief moment; instant: I'll be back in a flash.
In life, the "in a flash" always ends up being longer than promised. In writing, flash keeps its promise of brevity and instance. It's back before you have time to miss it, unlike the lover whom you're waiting for, still, as the movie begins and jujubes stick to your enamel.
4. Informal. flashlight.
Some prefer what the light emits; others what it omits. There's always an elephant in the room, though, and the light of flash might not be able to shine upon all of its parts. The tusks might be too obvious for some; the toenail, too obscure. The tail, just right.
5. superficial, meretricious, or vulgar showiness; ostentatious display.
Every flash risks superficiality, a display of how little it takes to be a writer, how easy it is to get something down. Prompts go up, hours later flash after flash on display. If they are brilliant, they are as newly minted coins, at least as shiny, worth sometimes more.
6. Also called news flash. Journalism. a brief dispatch sent by a wire service.
Again, "brief" becomes defining, a brief bit of news, written in a rush, then dispatched, sent off to far-off places. And what news might flash transmit? Something urgent perhaps. Not like Gas Prices Skyrocket! More like "Lonely!" And the rest follows, before anyone has the time to say, "So what?"
7. Photography. a. bright artificial light thrown briefly upon a subject during an exposure. b. flash lamp. c. flashbulb. d. flashtube.
Exposure! Unlike "Girls Gone Wild" but instead, a sharp light revealing the tiniest imperfections. As Gulliver perceived, a tiny thing in a land of giants, unable to bear the sights. Or a flash going off during a performance. Why now? What does it desire? What does it hope to capture?
8. the sudden flame or intense heat produced by a bomb or other explosive device.
Hitchcock said to show the audience the bomb right away, but some flash writers prefer the thing to go off unannounced. It's not always a bomb that appears to give flash a twist. Guns, accidents, ghosts, even aliens pop up in endings. I say, "Show da bomb; be da bomb."
9. a sudden thought, insight, inspiration, or vision.
The myth of epiphanies, that they must be found in the world, incited by instability, earned through action. What of the insight found in stillness and absence? The vision of peace pipes? The thought emerging from watching birches bent by winter? Can flash capture that and still engage a reader?
10. Slang. rush.
Writers, not flashes, rush to the end, the end of the anxiety of uncertainty, of wondering in all tenses, "Is it good? Was it good? Will it be good?" And thus we rush on, knowing it all must end soon, and that maybe, just maybe, we can last 'til then.
And now it's your turn. Email your fifty-word responses (rbrown@smokelong.com) to one of these remaining definitions and, lo and behold, here it might end up. Just like that. (And don't forget to mention which number--#11 through #50--you are defining.)
11. Metallurgy. a. a ridge of metal left on a casting by a seam between parts of the mold. b. a ridge formed at the edge of a forging or weld where excess metal has been squeezed out.
White hot language, oozing from foundries of thought, malleable now--rigid then, solidifying on the edge of an idea. Pound it out and fold it like a katana. Plunge it into a pool of pith, extract steam and noise and haze. Polish and test it on someone sharp. These words cut. -- Roseanne Griffeth
12. Poker. a hand containing all five suits in a game played with a five-suit pack.
The fifth suit was teeth...from deuces, treys: tiniest milk-teeth, to bigger incisors, eye-teeth, the royal suites, jack, queens, kings of molars--finally, aces: wisdom-teeth. Old Gingivitis smiled. Another legendary game, he'd created an unbeatable hand--the near-impossible quint of aces, laid out on the table, next to his dentures.... -- Ivan Rehorek
13. a device, as a lock or sluice, for confining and releasing water to send a boat down a shallow stream.
Does it matter what the water thinks when it's confined? Do its molecules long to race in joy past stolid banks? To mingle with others of its kind, to dance, swirl and sing? Then released, it finds itself only a domesticated torrent, a staid carrier. How does it feel then? -- Jerry Schatz
14. the rush of water thus produced.
Flash floods. Torrential words. Shallow depths. Swirls, eddies, drowning pools. Readers immersed, sometimes drown. Flash writers all wet! -- Gerard C. Smith
15. hot flash.
Heat glows in your gut, spreading, relentless, until your entire body ignites, a red flush spreading into your arms, your legs, your face. Sweat glistens. Unbearable. Intense. Can you survive? Then, it vanishes. -- Sue Babcock
16. Obsolete. the cant or jargon of thieves, vagabonds, etc.
We don't want no hip hop, rap, beat box, rhyming or spitting. Keep the grief on the street. We're just goin to sit here and read Shakespeare:
"But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin--shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark."
-- Bill West
17. to break forth into sudden flame or light, esp. transiently or intermittently.
Blast. Sear. Implode. Demolish. Destroy the illusions. Bare it all. Be relentless. Don't stop to let the reader jump off the train. Ever. Unless you. Dangle them over the tracks. Slowly. Or maybe. Sneak up. Creep up. Slither up. Like a Sneaky Snake. Manipulate them. Distract them. Then whack them. -- Beverly Joy Taylor
18. to gleam.
Flash Fiction stories are flawless brilliant-cut diamonds. Their fire comes from the exact relationship of each of the facets to the whole. The fictional angles must be perfect; any deviation and the fire dims or dies completely. The only choice for the writer is to keep or discard the point. -- John Ritchie
19. to burst suddenly into view or perception: The answer flashed into his mind.
Three years ago, much as it pained me, I came to a firm irrevocable decision at last: to break up. With the blinding light of sudden revelation it hit me last night as I slid into my side of the bed: I haven't. -- Martin Heavisides
20. to move like a flash.
21. to speak or behave with sudden anger, outrage, or the like (often fol. by out): to flash out at a stupid remark.
22. to break into sudden action.
23. Slang. to open one's clothes and expose the genitals suddenly, and usually briefly, in public.
24. Slang. to experience the intense effects of a narcotic or stimulant drug.
25. to dash or splash, as the sea or waves.
26. Archaic. to make a flash or sudden display.
27. to emit or send forth (fire or light) in sudden flashes.
28. to cause to flash, as powder by ignition or a sword by waving.
29. to send forth like a flash.
30. to communicate instantaneously, as by radio or telegraph.
Flash Fiction is the literary equivalent of Minimalism. Like Picasso's Bull's head, made from the saddle and handlebars of a bicycle, or ManRay's double bass created from a woman's back, it is a concept so perfectly defined it fills its space precisely, nothing more is needed, nothing less will do. -- John Ritchie
31. to make an ostentatious display of: He's forever flashing a large roll of bills.
32. to display suddenly and briefly: She flashed her ID card at the guard.
33. to change (water) instantly into steam by pouring or directing onto a hot surface.
34. to increase the flow of water in (a river, channel, etc.).
35. Glassmaking and Ceramics. a. to coat (plain glass or a glass or ceramic object) with a layer of colored, opalescent, or white glass. b. to apply (such a layer). c. to color or make (glass) opaque by reheating.
The vessel must be sound, the edge ring true when struck. The glaze is wasted else; the pot splits, contents spill. But to the perfect form the colour draws the eye, The potter's unseen work makes inspiration's flash incarnate in the clay, completed, fused and whole; the glaze not coat, but skin. -- Elizabeth Creith
36. Building Trades. to protect from leakage with flashing.
37. Cards. to expose (a card) in the process of dealing.
38. Archaic. to dash or splash (water).
39. sudden and brief.
A Flash fiction story is short--easy to read, hard to write. Three forms; Prose Poetry, Essay or Traditional short story elements: conflict, crisis, resolution. A Flash involves the reader by implication and inference. As in short poetry, the story should have a beginning, middle and end. Some attempts don't. -- Ramon Collins
40. showy or ostentatious.
41. caused by or used as protection against flash: flash injuries; flash clothing.
42. counterfeit or sham.
43. belonging to or connected with thieves, vagabonds, etc., or their cant or jargon.
Flash posh and codgeminnow innit? Think you can lower the sheep on my peepers? Think again chummy. I got your number and mine's ahead by a city mile. Keep clear o' my streets, keep clear o' my cadgecrew or you'll be pickin' pieces o' shiv out your knickers. --Martin Heavisides
44. of or pertaining to followers of boxing, racing, etc.
45. flash in the pan, a. a brief, intense effort that produces no really significant result. b. a person who makes such an effort; one who enjoys short-lived success.
46. flash on, Slang. a. to have a sudden thought, insight, or inspiration about. b. to have a sudden, vivid memory or mental picture of: I just flashed on that day we spent at the lake. c. to feel an instantaneous understanding and appreciation of.
47. [Origin: 1350-1400; ME flasshen to sprinkle, splash, earlier flask(i) en; prob. phonesthemic in orig. ; cf. similar expressive words with fl- and -sh]
48. To flash is to send forth light with a sudden, transient brilliancy
A spark of life; the guts of every story from zygote to dust, each pain from light to terror of the dark, and in between relentless needs that motivate the imagination, galvanizing all actions of the body and seekings of the soul. In the vast universe, we are a flash. -- Oonah V. Joslin
49. flashy, gaudy, tawdry; pretentious, superficial.
The shitty stuff of rhinestone writers looking to bedazzle, to set our brains afire. Much that's flashy is tres tawdry, crappy pretense on paper or in cyberspace. Superficial schlock . Arc shorted out. Neither rhyme nor reason. Story absent. No moral told. No candy for the eye or ear. Flashless flash. -- Gerard C. Smith
50. false, fake.
Illusion. The techniques of deceit; or Literary Trompe L'oeil. l. Words that turn a trick to magic pulp fiction characters cut from meat to puppet thin dramas. Imitation, shadow without substance, form without content, emotion without motive. Vagabonds of the aimless plot peddling the world in an egg-cup. -- Bill West
