Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

Image: Maggie Smith/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’m a big fan of the vignette, the sketch, the slice of life fiction piece.  For years I could not tell the difference between flash fiction and the vignette.  Both are very short.  In the hands of a skilled writer, both present a relatively narrow period of time.  Both can have some sort of tension or conflict.

Years ago as a young writer trying to learn my trade, I would go to the Carnegie Public Library here in Pittsburgh and spend hours reading the stories of John O’Hara that had been published in The New Yorker Magazine.  I had heard of something called “The New Yorker Story”  and John O’Hara was one of its leading practitioners.  Some of his stories were very short.  Maybe not flash fiction but short enough.

I knew that for a piece of fiction to be a short story it had to be about a significant event which meant “narrative movement.”  Something had to be different.  Often, O’Hara’s stories did not seem to me to be about significant events.  As far as I was concerned the man was writing sketches, vignettes.

Well, now I know he was writing short stories.  I was missing the “narrative movement” because it was so slight; but it was there all right.

In my opinion, the vignette lacks this narrative moment.

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Good morning, my brother and sister writers and bloggers.  It’s a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh.  The sun is shinning and the Old Soldier is trying to learn a new trick about blogging.  We all know that photos and graphics can enhance any presentation.  Well, the Old Soldier is running an experiment today.  The young woman in the photo in this article is biting into the apple of knowledge.  This time the knowledge is good.  The Old Soldier can use all the knowledge he can get about blogging.  I hope to be using more visuals on this blog to increase the pleasure of your reading experience.

Short Story Ideas That Work

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