small fictions 3 08 2016

Small Fictions

What is your favorite small fiction so far? Why? Why does this story stay with you?
My favorite small fiction so far or the one that has stuck to me is “Twitter Fiction” by Stephen Orloske. It has stuck to me because the ability to say so much in a tweet sized portion brings out a challenge in me. It makes each word that the writer writes not only important but also it allows the reader to imagine the words that were taken out. The story is so raw with emotion and thought that the ability to show such a shocking scene. It paints a morose and depressing picture with one of brevity.  It brings the impulse of the scene into an impulse of a thought and just as quick it leaves us with a scar on our psyche to be inflicted by the narrator. It almost leaves this longing in wanting to know more of the thoughts of Abel as Cain is bludgeoning him to death. This ability to stay with me has inspired me to seek the same
Which story have you struggled with the most in the collection? Why? What is it about this story that you have trouble with?

I struggled with Apocryphal by Lisa Marie Basile, because the moment where the narrator has a moment of confusion is what takes me out of the story. This necessity that the identity of the narrator be set in stone is something that I struggle with. Mostly in my own writing every character is set so to see a writer play with that rule both disturbs and intrigues me,

Have you attempted to steal any techniques that you've read here? (Fiction writers can, in fact, should, steal. Stealing a technique is not plagiarism.)

                No I have not stolen anything from the writers but I have been changing how I write after reading some of the short stories in particular Hiromi Kawakami’s style interest me. I have this fascination with Japanese culture so to see a story that feels foreign with a different style and different rules appeals to me. It is not stealing more of adapting my writing into more of an international style than a domestic style. There is this sense of wonder when I delve deep into writing. It is something more than not knowing where the story takes me but rather exploring both the characters more and the story more that drives me to write more. So when I read how a Japanese writer tackles the problem of space it compels me to adapt that technique and design into my own to see if I can improve it. It is like taking a strategy of writing and changing it into a technique of designing a world in which my writing can improve.