How did you first come to writing flash fiction? What is it
about the form that resonates?
I started writing flash as a natural offshoot of writing short fiction. I discovered that flash accommodated odd subjects and structures that might not get enough mileage in a full-length short story. And I’m a slow writer, so being able to finish a piece in a reasonable amount of time was a bonus that became extra compelling after my kids were born and I had little time to spare.
I’ve said this elsewhere, but I love the intensity and flexibility of flash. The brevity adds pressure and heightens emotion. And you can get away with much more in a small space without testing a reader’s patience. Flash provides ample opportunities to start fresh and try something completely new; in that sense, it’s a hopeful, and maybe even redemptive, form.
How does a short story begin?
Sometimes with an image or object or turn of phrase, sometimes with a curious scenario. Sometimes a dream or memory will inspire me. But however a story begins, it’s almost always an organic process that starts small: I get a glimmer and I start writing to see where it goes. I’m not a big premeditator.
With a single full-length collection of short fiction published to date, how are you finding the process of learning how to put together a manuscript? What have the challenges been?
I wrote the stories in my collection over a good decade and a half, without thinking in terms of a book, so one challenge was cohesion, figuring out what tied the stories together and how best to arrange them. But it was also challenging to reckon with the oldest stories, to smooth out what I saw in retrospect as flaws while honoring what worked and accepting what I couldn’t make better. Compiling a book-length manuscript forced me to release my perfectionism because perfection was so clearly untenable.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
It depends. I work from home and my schedule varies, so I have a loose routine that changes based on workload and my kids’ schedule. I try to write early in the day, but that doesn’t always happen; I’ve become pretty good at jotting down a few lines here and there on the fly during extra busy times.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I’m biased, but I’m a fan of Colorado Review, where I’m associate fiction editor: I like the fiction, of course, but I admire the nonfiction and poetry we publish too. A few more print mags I appreciate: Copper Nickel, Gulf Coast, Missouri Review. I love a ton of online journals, more than I can name, but some standouts include SmokeLong Quarterly, Split Lip Magazine, Guernica, TriQuarterly, Threadcount, and Brevity.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I’ve been devouring Sally Rooney’s novels. Other writers I’ve recently enjoyed: Kiese Laymon, Emily Geminder, Big Bruiser Dope Boy, Dorothy Baker, Jamaica Kincaid, R. L. Maizes, and Nicholas Grider, among many others.
Jennifer Wortman is the author of the story collection This.
This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love (Split/Lip Press, 2019). Her work appears
in Copper Nickel, Glimmer Train, TriQuarterly, Normal
School, Electric Literature, Brevity, SmokeLong Quarterly,
and elsewhere. She is an associate fiction editor at Colorado Review and
an instructor at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Find more at jenniferwortman.com.
Some of her flash fiction appeared in the third issue.
I started writing flash as a natural offshoot of writing short fiction. I discovered that flash accommodated odd subjects and structures that might not get enough mileage in a full-length short story. And I’m a slow writer, so being able to finish a piece in a reasonable amount of time was a bonus that became extra compelling after my kids were born and I had little time to spare.
I’ve said this elsewhere, but I love the intensity and flexibility of flash. The brevity adds pressure and heightens emotion. And you can get away with much more in a small space without testing a reader’s patience. Flash provides ample opportunities to start fresh and try something completely new; in that sense, it’s a hopeful, and maybe even redemptive, form.
How does a short story begin?
Sometimes with an image or object or turn of phrase, sometimes with a curious scenario. Sometimes a dream or memory will inspire me. But however a story begins, it’s almost always an organic process that starts small: I get a glimmer and I start writing to see where it goes. I’m not a big premeditator.
With a single full-length collection of short fiction published to date, how are you finding the process of learning how to put together a manuscript? What have the challenges been?
I wrote the stories in my collection over a good decade and a half, without thinking in terms of a book, so one challenge was cohesion, figuring out what tied the stories together and how best to arrange them. But it was also challenging to reckon with the oldest stories, to smooth out what I saw in retrospect as flaws while honoring what worked and accepting what I couldn’t make better. Compiling a book-length manuscript forced me to release my perfectionism because perfection was so clearly untenable.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
It depends. I work from home and my schedule varies, so I have a loose routine that changes based on workload and my kids’ schedule. I try to write early in the day, but that doesn’t always happen; I’ve become pretty good at jotting down a few lines here and there on the fly during extra busy times.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I’m biased, but I’m a fan of Colorado Review, where I’m associate fiction editor: I like the fiction, of course, but I admire the nonfiction and poetry we publish too. A few more print mags I appreciate: Copper Nickel, Gulf Coast, Missouri Review. I love a ton of online journals, more than I can name, but some standouts include SmokeLong Quarterly, Split Lip Magazine, Guernica, TriQuarterly, Threadcount, and Brevity.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I’ve been devouring Sally Rooney’s novels. Other writers I’ve recently enjoyed: Kiese Laymon, Emily Geminder, Big Bruiser Dope Boy, Dorothy Baker, Jamaica Kincaid, R. L. Maizes, and Nicholas Grider, among many others.
Some of her flash fiction appeared in the third issue.