The Heart of the Matter: Emotionally Charged Flash Fiction
with a slew of examples
“Writing is not psychology. We do not talk “about” feelings. Instead the writer feels and through her words awakens those feelings in the reader. The writer takes the reader’s hand and guides him through the valley of sorrow and joy without ever having to mention those words.” ~ Natalie Goldberg
Hi friends,
I have just wrapped up an incredible weekend intensive, teaching my course The Heart of the Matter to writers seeking to add more emotional depth to their flash fiction. As with any aspect of storytelling, the flash form has its inherent challenges. So over the course of the three days, we looked at deft ways in to creating that charged feeling that particularly powerful flash often has. More than once, I heard “I finally found my way in to telling this story!” which is always the aim of my workshops.
What we want to do, if at all possible, is more than simply tell an emotional story, but to evoke in the reader the emotion itself. What I call a “felt experience.”
I am always seeking good published examples, so I asked the writing community (here amongst you subscribers, and on Twitter) and got several good recommendations. Here are a few:
“Yours” by Mary Robison (which I recently wrote about HERE)
“Ewe” by Sara Hills in Cease Cows, anthologized in 2022 Best Small Fictions and featured in her marvelous collection, The Evolution of Birds (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021)
“What You Wouldn’t Do” by Sarah Freligh in Fractured Lit
“I Wanna Be Adored” by Melissa Goode in Cheap Pop
“I am the Painter’s Daughter” by Kit de Waal in Miramichi Flash
“Something Like Happy” by Emily Devane in Lost Balloon
“The Ground Above My Feet” by Christopher Allen in Literary Orphans
“Friday Night at Debra Jo’s Phone Sex Emporium” by Amy Rossi in Smokelong Quarterly
Jolene McIlwain’s “Drumming” in Cincinnati Review’s miCRo feature, also in her amazing collection, Sidle Creek, Penguin Random House, 2023
Someone kindly suggested my story, “Chicago,” published in Wigleaf and reprinted in Best Small Fictions 2023. (Thank you, Ruby!)
“The All of It, It Misses You, Come Home” by Sheena Cook Kopman, winner of the Edinburgh Flash competition
“A Story About the Body” by Robert Haas
Emily Raboteau’s “Oysters” in Aster(ix)
YOUR PROMPT
Aim for a quick draft here: