A Pocket Guide to Flash Fiction

by Randall Brown, Pamela Painter (Contributor), Quinn Dalton (Contributor)

Written by Matter Press's founder and managing editor Randall Brown, A Pocket Guide to Flash Fiction provides NOT the way to write flash fiction, but SOME ways to make your writing flash! Contents include
the is Flash
Flash Craft
Flash in a Single Scene
Flash in a Series of Scenes
Monomythic Flash
Episodic Flash
Counterpointed Flash
Defamiliarized Flash
Revision
Prose Poemy Flash
The Pocket Guide also includes articles and flashes from various writers including Pamela Painter, Quinn Dalton, Dan Holt, Pen Campbell, Brady Udall, Sean Lovelace, Myfanwy Collins, Kathy Fish, Carol Guess, and Jeff Landon.

Genres: Writing

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2012

About the author

Randall Brown is the author of the award winning collection MAD TO LIVE, his essay on (very) short fiction appears in THE ROSE METAL PRESS FIELD GUIDE TO WRITING FLASH FICTION, and he appears in BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2015, 2017, & 2019 and The Norton Anthologies FLASH FICTION: AMERICA, NEW MICRO: EXCEPTIONALLY SHORT FICTION & HINT FICITON; also, his essays appeared in Grey House's CRITICAL INSIGHTS: AMERICAN SHORT STORY & CRITICAL INSIGHTS: FLASH FICTION. He founded and directs FlashFiction.Net and has been published and anthologized widely, both online and in print. Recent book include the flash fiction collection THIS IS HOW HE LEARNED TO LOVE (Sonders Press 2019), the prose poetry collection I MIGHT NEVER LEARN (Finishing Line Press 2018) and the novella HOW LONG IS FOREVER (Running Wild Press 2018). He is also the founder and managing editor of Matter Press and its JOURNAL OF COMPRESSED CREATIVE ARTS. He received his MFA in Fiction from Vermont College.

Reviews

[K. G. Whitehurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not necessarily exciting reading, but necessary and important reading. Some of the examples of flash are brilliant. Also, it's a book a writer will dip into again and again, reading parts when they're needed.

[L. J. CAPORUSSO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life-changing.

[Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful guide to an important trend by an important writer. It's packed to the rafters, the gills and ceiling with good advice and great examples. My biggest complaint about this book is its format. There were too many required hops to appendices, too many damned double columns to read and follow. I guess I'm getting old and grumpy, but I'll have think twice about future "pocket guides".

[Al Kratz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for those studying flash writing. It covers several different styles of structure with extensive theory discussion and breakdown of example pieces.