TECH: Creativity Starter (A Moldy Oldie!)

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Original Posting July 18, 2015

The October 2002 issue of Writer's Digest on page 21 has a very short worksheet, basically, by Geoff Fuller and Pamelyn Casto. It's a sidebar to their article on Make Your Fiction Flash, which I probably ought to summarize some other time. But I thought you might like this to get you thinking.

"Here are four easy steps to get you into the swing of turning anecdotes into flash fiction:

1. Think of something that happened to you when you were a kid. Write it using "I" (the actual truth), and then rewrite it in third person. Be open to the story's new mutations and possibilities for expanding its anecdotal limits."

Oh! So take something that actually happened and start by writing it up in first person exactly the way it happened. Then rewrite it in third person, and think about twists and changes. What else could happen?

"2. Choose a symbol fitting to your story, and let it act as a catalyst to expand the story's bounds. You might choose a lizard, geranium or a noose, but don't tell what that symbol means within the story. Let the mystery remain intact, and allow your reader to infer expansive meaning from the clues you provide."

A symbol? Some kind of a concrete thing that means more than it appears? Animal, vegetable, mineral? But don't tell the reader what it means, let them figure it out for themselves.

"3. Work with your personal story to provide an 'Aha!' moment. Give it a twist without overtly stating what's at stake or its resolution. Intensify the clues to lead your reader to an 'Aha!' Choose the strongest placement for the epiphany: in the character, in the character and reader, or only in the reader."

The flash in the fiction! That realization, epiphany, Aha! You may have to polish your story to bring out that, strengthening the clues, making sure that it really is a flash, an insight.

"4. Give your favorite myth or fairytale a modern spin by attaching it to your personal story. Have you ever lived the pattern of Echo, forever repeating others' words? Or the female Pygmalion pattern? Pick your favorite literary name or most effective pattern and write your story."

Those mythic echoes that still seem to shape so much of our lives. Can you find one that fits your story? Does having the myth or fairytale "in the background" help to make your story richer?

So, start with something that actually happened to you. Then generalize it, turn it into a third person story. Mix a little symbol in there. Bring out the flash, the Aha! And finally, toil and trouble, bring out the myth.

Crank those stories!