thoughts on flash fiction
I think I finally figured out why I’m only able to write flash fiction (under 1000 words… perhaps even less). This is my theory: whenever I set out to write something, I always think of the end first. This has happened in every piece, fiction or poetry, I’ve written in the past five years. I get a little thrill out of that emotional kick of the last line.
Because I know how it ends, I’m impatient to get there. At best, the words are economical, at worst, they’re rushed. Almost every piece I’ve written can be defined by it’s last line. If you reminded me of a piece I had written (Case in point “O,” “Soulmates,” “Anna,” etc.) I can tell you verbatim what the last line was.
What I realized in roleplaying, however, was that sometimes you don’t know how it ends. Anna’s story is largely unfinished, which is why I feel compelled to keep writing it. I dug her backstory out of one impulsive scene (she climbed through the window offering the notorious rake a job), but it was only backstory–I don’t know what happens to her.
My question is, have you ever experienced this? Do you think this is a set-back, or just a feature of one’s writing? And if you have experienced this, how do you get past it?