Welcome! March 1st, 2016 Wednesday Do Now Find your seats! If you don’t remember where you sit, ask me. Write the date at the top of a new page in your journal. Once the bell rings, begin the freewrite. Prompt: What’s a talent that you wish you had, but don’t? Why?

Flash Fiction: Where to start? As a reminder, we’re going to explore writing prose (non-poetry) for the rest of the semester. Specifically, we’re going to write flash fiction, or incredibly short stories (1500 words or less). The thing is, because flash fiction is so short, you have a limited amount of words to really make an impact with your reader. As such, flash fiction writers usually need to include much more vivid prose than a typical novel or short story author might need to.

Flash Fiction: Including Imagery Vivid prose is writing that is packed full of sensory imagery – characters, settings, dialogue that you can almost see, hear, touch, smell, they’re described so accurately and uniquely. A common thing you’ll hear writers say is, “Show, don’t tell.” Don’t tell your reader about your story – show it happening before their eyes. Here’s what I mean…

Flash Fiction: Including Imagery Vivid prose is writing that is packed full of sensory imagery – characters, settings, dialogue that you can almost see, hear, touch, smell, they’re described so accurately and uniquely. A common thing you’ll hear writers say is, “Show, don’t tell.” Don’t tell your reader about your story – show it happening before their eyes. If you can do that, you’ve got a more engaged reader and a much more impactful better story. See the handout titled “The Snapshot” for an example of what I mean.

Flash Fiction: Including Imagery Turning barebones prose (writing that either doesn’t have imagery, or the imagery that is there isn’t very powerful) into writing that shows is difficult. The best thing you can do to improve is practice. Challenge yourself to get more and more specific with your words. They ate food. They quickly ate their lunches. They frantically gobbled down their soggy cafeteria pizza.

Flash Fiction: Including Imagery Next, we’re going to try it our for ourselves… Read the narration on your handout titled “Exercise in Showing vs Telling.” Once you finish, your job is to rewrite the narrative using as much imagery as possible. Remember, do not use “got.” Replace it with more exciting, descriptive verbs! Be as specific as possible, and make sure you include all parts of the original narrative.

Flash Fiction: Including Imagery For the rest of class, I’d like for you to give vivid prose a show. Describe a moment in your life (seriously, a moment – not five minutes, not 10 seconds, a moment!) that you will never forget. Walk me through that moment in as much detail as possible. What were you feeling? What did you see, hear, taste, touch, smell? What was going on in your mind? (Give me at least 10 sentences for this assignment )