Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it’s a deceptively difficult soul to seek out. Enter Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook by David Galef, which aims to provide a comprehensive guide to the world of short-short stories.
“If art is life with the boring parts left out, as more than one commentator has quipped, short-shorts are both artful and artistic. The rest of this handbook is devoted to demonstrating this point in many different forms. the chapters include close looks at vignettes, twist stories, what-if premises, fables…everything from anecdotes to the vanishing points of narrative,” writes Galef in the introduction.
The book covers everything from form to revision to writing prompts that help to provide a little flash of short-short inspiration.
“If I had to choose just one book for my class in writing flash fiction, it would be this one. Practical, direct, wonderful examples, fun to read―if this book doesn’t energize your writing, nothing will,” praises Robert Shapard, coeditor of Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories.
