Winning Pieces of Flash Fiction - must there be a common strand?

My own submitted flash fictions have varied quite widely in their nature. Some have been quite dark - murder, other death, jealousy, obsession, weirdness, threat and so on, with several of these appearing in my collection Bottles and Pots. Others have veered towards the lighter and hopefully humorous. Guess which types have won or been placed more times?

As I enjoy writing and entering flash fiction, I do read a great number of others' entries, especially those longlisted, shortlisted or placed. What troubles me is that these - and this often applies to your actual short story winners - tend to be disturbing, stream of consciousness, surreal or generally depressing. Quite prepared to be contradicted; this is just my impression.

Wouldn't it be pleasing if, sometimes, lighter work and humour could be considered worthy? Guessing most of us study what's been winning before we submit, as is wise, but I'm imagining a tranche of flash fiction competitions that state the judges are looking towards fun/humorous skilful writing that manages to tell a story, show a snapshot, make a point, deliver a twist - or all of these.

This a bee in bonnet matter!

 

Lots of Writing Going On!

Currently I'm in one of those can't-think-about-anything-except-writing phases. (Apart from cooking in between of course.) Brain is in overdrive.

A previous post was about being either a pouncer or a stalker, and I'm the former - can't resist a challenge, always several short projects on the go. Here in list form is what I've been pouncing on recently.

•  Gave a talk to a writing group about magazine articles, and have now been asked to return to run a workshop and judge
       a competition.

•  Submitted two stories for the Winchester Writers' Conference/Hampshire Chronicle competition - judged by the Prof of 
       Creative Writing. One was commended, one awarded third place. Very nice critiques, too.

•  A rather unpleasant piece involving a clown and a little girl was awarded 4th place in an international flash fiction comp.

•  A very short piece was included in National Flash Fiction Day's rolling blog. That was rather nasty, too.

•  My work is currently longlisted in Ether Book's twisted tales competition; shortlist not out yet.

•  Waiting to hear whether shortlisted for a cash-prize locally based story comp. And, oh goodness, another murder, 
        but this time set in the middle ages.

•  I have ready a 22,000 word anthology of my 'dark tales', and a cover, and currently exploring the best way to get it into print.

•  As a member of Inkslinger Books I've just submitted a 4,200 word whodunnit for consideration for our next anthology.

•  Now planning to give more attention to a work-in-progress novel for 8-11s about a boy and his mother's new partner. 
        Nothing nasty here but plenty of conflict. Cd be 15,000 words.

Please forgive the egotistical nature of all this - it needed to be out of my brain and onto a page of some sort. So if you're still with me, thanks ever so.

Writers - are you a stalker or a pouncer?

This analogy came to me overnight, while I was considering my writing goals for the next 3, 6 and 12 months.  I'm a pouncer who dreams of being a stalker.

The Stalker
In the kingdom of large animals, and indeed where early man is concerned, targets are often sizeable and almost always food-related. A 'caveman' might be away for a while with his peers, patiently waiting and watching, aiming to nab a large animal to take back for cooking and maybe sharing out. It could take ages, but if successful, the reward was significant and they could take a short break ("chillax" they used to grunt) before having to start the process again.

by Yinan Cheng
via flickr.com

This is how I see novelists. They know they're in for the long haul, and that a hard slog is likely to be involved, but they have the support of their peers hopefully (other writers and their agent and publisher), and there's celebration and feasting when the goal has finally been reached. They are willing to be patient and to make sacrifices.

The Pouncer
Here I'm thinking first of creatures who hunt quickly and descend on prey often. Something might pass by which would make a good meal, and it's rapidly dispatched. I have in mind toads and flies, pelicans (or otters) and fish, and - going back in time - the hungry dog and the string of sausages from the butcher's. 

by Thomas Guest
via flickr.com

Cats are pouncers too, quite apart from their method of capturing prey. They don't appear to push off outside specifically to look for mice and birds, but if there's a sudden scuffling or a tantalising scent, that's enough to trigger their hunting instinct.

Writers on this side of the fence would include poets, short story or flash fiction people, and magazine article journalists. Opportunities usually do have to be sought, but this is not such a long-drawn-out process. Work can be completed more quickly than the Stalker could imagine.

*         *         *         *         *

Writers of children's books, though, could come somewhere in between. Not a 2-7 day process, and probably not 9-12 months or more. Another analogy is needed. Another time!

I'm not sure that Stalkers do much pouncing, and Pouncers might rarely flirt with stalking. I love to read about writers nearing completion of their book, completing it, waiting for the verdict, then rejoicing about acceptance and publication. Not to mention launch parties. How I'd love to have a book to launch, giving a speech, signing books, and handing around perhaps an ice-cold, flinty Sancerre to the fans of my work. But now I have come to realise this won't happen. I submitted sample chapters to M & B in the past, and was told 'Nicely written but not enough emotional punch', and I've started other novels but ...

I'd love to know what you think about this analogy, and whether it's far too simplistic. It's just a bit of fun, really, but it clarified my vision of my own writing goals.