Flash Fiction: Applying the MICE Model

I mentioned previously that I’ve been watching Brandon Sanderson’s lectures on writing Science Fiction and Fantasy at BYU. Lecture #7 features a guest lecturer, Mary Robinette Kowal. In the lecture, she covers the MICE quotient and has the class apply it to a piece of flash fiction. This struck me as a perfect writing exercise to add to my own practice, even though I have little practice or experience writing flash fiction. Let’s take a look at what she shares.

MICE

The MICE quotient is shorthand for the types of story, story-arc, and conflict you can have in a story.

M is for Milieu. In Milieu stories, your character enters a new space at the beginning of the tale and exits the space at the conclusion. The conflict of the story revolves around figuring out a way out of the space.

I is for Inquiry. Inquiry stories start with a question or a mystery to be solved and end when the question is answered. Conflict is the process of trying to find those answers, with no luck.

C is for Character. In the simplest form, character stories start when a character is unhappy with themselves or their lot in life, and end when they have new understanding of themselves or their situation. Conflict comes from the things that keep them in their starting situation. Character stories are inherently inward focused with internal conflict.

E is for Event. Event stories are action. They start with a status quo and end when a new status quo is reached. Conflict comes through the efforts and set-backs that prevent the character from reaching the new status quo. Event stories are focused on the external conflict.

Most stories are made up of multiple threads from the MICE quotient. Nonetheless, it is important that the threads be concluded in a logical manner to be satisfying to the reader. This “nesting” of concerns implies that if you open with an Inquiry element, then open a Milieu element, that you resolve the Milieu element before you conclude the Inquiry item. (Jump to the 7:55 mark of the lecture to see and hear a great explanation on this.)

The Challenge

After explaining the concepts of MICE and how to apply them to stories, she takes the class through an exercise to write a 250-word flash fiction story. Her example makes a great writing exercise you should consider.

The Opening: The first three sentences of the story must orient the reader and establish the “who”, “where”, and genre of the piece. This will be an Action-driven Opening. For her in-class exercise, she provides the class the genre (Science Fiction), the “who” (a jockey), and the “where” (a coaster). She guides them to include a sensory detail in the location description, and an adjective to define the attitude of the character. Finally, the opening sentence for the character will include the action they are doing. For the genre sentence, she asks them to include a genre specific detail that is unique. She allows them three minutes to write three sentences and challenges them to use fewer sentences while still delivering the elements of who, where, and what.

The Conflict: The next part of the story is the conflict. She states that the next sentence should introduce the conflict; what is the goal and why to set up the try-fail cycle. And then, once we know what they are trying to do, what is stopping them? This sets up the character’s try-fail cycle. She gives them two minutes to write these next two sentences.

Try-Fail: Trying something and failing takes on two general forms; “Yes, but” / “No, and”. “Yes, but” implies they tried something, did not reach their goal, but made some progress toward it (two steps forward, one-step back) while “No, and” implies they failed, and had an additional set-back. Multiple try-fail cycles build tension in the story and help readers care more about the conflict and character. She gives the class five sentences and five minutes to write several try-fail cycles in the story.

The closing mode: At this point, we’re about two-thirds into the story. We have five sentences setting up the situation and five sentences illustrating the conflicts using try-fail cycles. We are now ready to start resolving some of the conflict. This takes the form of “Yes, and” narratives along with “No, but”. These structures allow progress toward the goal and conflict resolution. In short, this is the shift from try-fail to try-succeed. She allows five sentences and five minutes to write the solution to the problem.

The wrap: solving the problem likely does not provide a complete resolution to the story; it needs to wrap up the final MICE nested element, and bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. The class is allowed three sentences to wrap the story, mirroring their opening.

One point that is made during the lecture is that the MICE quotient scales. It can be used for flash fiction as well as epic fantasy. Obviously, the number of threads and depth of nesting will be different for various formats, but it is an interesting observation. Maybe a chapter is really four flash-fiction stories weaved and nested together. Maybe a novel is fifty such threads. Using the structured thought approach shared in the lecture means you have tools to write long or short fiction.

Again, I encourage you to watch the video lecture and think about how you can apply the lessons there to anything you are writing.

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