In 2019 my children’s novel had been quietly simmering on a back burner for eight years. So I decided a writing course would help stir it up. Check it wasn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan (whilst working on my extended metaphors). So I enrolled on a Writers Bureau course, and was vaguely surprised that I enjoyed (positively looked forward to, in fact) every single assignment.
But the course stirred up more than I’d anticipated. It reignited that spark, that itch for just getting words down, and trying to make them the best words you can. This is when I discovered flash fiction. And I became a little bit besotted.
The Start of Something
In 2018 I couldn’t have told you what flash fiction was. I’d never heard of a story for adults that was less than 500 words. So why was I suddenly infatuated? I realised it was the genre’s ability to capture fleeting inspiration and either hold it within its tiny frame, or let it grow into something new. Flash fiction is like a photograph – a flash-bulb moment frozen in time. It weaves a narrative in itself, but it leaves the reader to fill in the blanks. A great piece of flash fiction will have you thinking and asking questions long after you’ve stopped reading.
Up until my discovery of this genre, the idea of doing a ‘writing exercise’ as an activity in itself had never appealed to me. I’d always needed a bigger picture: a goal or a deadline … perhaps a children’s novel that needed finishing (ahem). However, a writer friend and I decided we would write something weekly and share it with each other. It could be a character profile, short story, or a piece of flash fiction. Anything that came to mind. We named it Fiction Fridays.
Although enthusiastic, I wondered if I would have the weekly inclination to write something that had nothing to do with either my coursework, or my slow-cooked, slightly neglected novel. Come on, I told myself, you’re trying to be a writer – so write!
Promising Prompts
We took turns to find a prompt – a word, phrase or photo. Then we wrote. We discovered neurotic characters, abandoned places and secret childhoods. Some characters and places reappeared after a few weeks if we weren’t ready to let them go, others made us smile and were then forgotten.
One prompt that my friend chose was a photo of three cats eating pasta from a carrier bag. Where could I go with this? Well, I went for a shower. And when I came out it had become screamingly obvious to me that these were stray Parisian cats, taken on by an old homeless lady, who wasn’t really homeless at all, but rather wealthy, who had secrets. Flash fiction pounced and captured my story. But after I’d written it, I still found myself frantically scribbling ideas, and ordering secondhand books about Paris in the 1960s. Two months later, the pasta-eating cats were still with me, but now as an idea for a novel. Several other Fiction Friday ideas have flourished into stories that have placed in competitions, and one was published in two parts by the children’s magazine ‘AQUILA.’
So one of the things I learnt first when I embarked upon my writing journey, was that inspiration is a strange guest. It knocks on your door at unexpected times, and can stay for months or moments. So it’s best to leave the door open so it can come and go as it pleases. Or get a cat flap. I really need to work on my metaphors.
