Reading · Good Trouble: The Art of Storytelling

Resonance in flash fiction is often created in the twinning of openings and endings. By finding a way to provide the reader with an intriguing opening with enough information to get a solid footing on the who, what, where, and hopefully, the ending offers a clue to the why of the story! One way to know when to end is to consider if the story has a central image/metaphor and if this image has been shifted two to three times by the end. This is one way to create movement and depth, and I think Flash needs both of these elements! Another thing to think about is whether the story has satisfied the build-up of the confrontation. Has the main character had enough pressure put on them to act in a way they haven’t acted in their lives before this particular story? Stories are about breaking rituals, about seeing a character try to get out of trouble or get into trouble, to witness their choices, their actions, and the fallout from these choices. I’m always looking for this sense of fallout!

A Flash’s ending often starts after a final escalation or climax, a point where the character is on the precipice of knowing, learning, rejecting, or accepting something provided to them by the pressure of the conflict and their actions to relieve this pressure. Characters often cannot speak this understanding and can’t be self-aware enough to see/feel/understand its magnitude. So, the writer must show this to the reader through image, metaphor, and/or heightened language. The world is shown anew to the character and reader, but through an unspeakable means, a glimmer or clue found in something meaningful from the story itself. There are often breadcrumbs, objects, images, and phrases that can be used again, manipulated, and shown in a new way. Our stories/drafts are often smarter than us, and it probably holds the “something” we need to find our endings.

This turn toward language, toward the ineffable, can be swift and can emerge from a small action or escalation, but usually, we want it to have roots in the context the story has already provided. This means we shouldn’t withhold information or context. We should create tension through what we provide, not hope for an explosion of withheld information, which can feel like a trick.

It can be difficult to find a flash’s ending if the story doesn’t have an object, image, or central metaphor. In this case, the ending often tries to rely on the character’s thoughts rather than heighten language or imagery. Ending on exposition or thoughts can take the reader out of the story by not allowing them a chance to make the final inference about what the character’s life will be like after the story ends! This can often take the reader out of the experience of the story, out of the illusion, and remind the reader too clearly of the story’s artifice. A story’s power relies on its ability to get readers to forget that they’re being told a tale.

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Endings: Find the unsayable

1. Characters often cannot speak this understanding and can’t be self-aware enough to see/feel/understand its magnitude.

2. So, the writer must show this to the reader through image, metaphor, and/or heightened language.

3. The world is shown anew to the character and reader, but through an unspeakable means, a glimmer or clue found in something meaningful from the story itself.

4. There are often breadcrumbs, objects, images, and phrases that can be used again, manipulated, and shown in a new way.

5. Our stories/drafts are often smarter than us, and it probably holds the “something” we need to find our endings.

Endings Revision Questions:

1. Endings: Endings shouldn’t be pat, one-sided, summarizing of meaning or themes. Give the reader room for speculation and inference. Ending on exposition or thoughts can take the reader out of the story, by not allowing them a chance to make the final inference about what his life will be like after the story ends!
2. Find room for a central image/metaphor. The shorter the story, the more it relies on metaphor to create depth. Typical plots can be refreshed by an apt metaphor or fresh central image!
3. Is what was at stake for them in the beginning obtained, collided with, ducked, or shrugged off? Have we given our Main character enough chances to act in order to reveal their character under the pressures of this plot/conflict?
4. Have the tensions come to a kind of head? Are there more ways we could escalate or add tension? If not, how do we convey this to the reader? Action, metaphor, zooming in or zooming out, showing a glimpse of the past or the future?
5. Endings in flash are rarely the end for this character, so what clues from the story tell the rest of their story?
6. Is there a sense of fallout?
7. Have you checked for feeling/abstract words/ideas? Are they doing the work or making things less clear/more telling? Are they allowing for intimacy and immediacy or distancing the reader from the text/story?
8. Is the title doing any work, adding any weight or nuance? Does it add to the themes, does it add to the setting, does it direct us to the character’s desires?

A Few Thoughts on Flash Endings

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