Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

The Old Soldier is always talking about using everyday life for flash fiction material.  That advice is good advice; but don’t think that an everyday event has to be transposed into a short story just the way it is.

I have heard writers defend their work by saying something like, “But that’s the way it happened.”

“That’s the way it happened” does not make it a short story.  The short story has a very definite form and it is this form that makes the raw material of life a short story.

The writer usually has to take the raw material of life and highlight this, downplay that, add this and take away that before he or she has a “short story.” 

Don’t be afraid to shape the raw material of life into a short story.

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In The Garden Of Love

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