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I was cleaning a winter’s worth of debris from the garden beneath my kitchen window, and as I scooped away a pile of withered leaves from between some stones, a garter snake slithered over my hand. It’s possible that I let out a little scream, despite knowing that I was the one who had invaded its space and not the other way around.
Zoe Ballering is in the midst of completing her MFA at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. She's currently working on her thesis, a collection of short stories of speculative fiction dealing with themes of pain, grief, and the body—and naked mole rats, which is of course what she so kindly gave us for NUNUM's Summer 2018 issue.
The End
The idea of plot or the story itself was mentioned several times previously but never expanded on too much but it is a part of flash fiction just as it is in other forms of fiction. Returning to the example of the man in the airport, “An inattentive, transient jackass says, – “Check it” – high-pitched, estrogenic sound awkwardly steam from thick, too-big lips covering precarious tan teeth. Mirrored sunglasses sterilize eyes plunging transgressor back to fatigued, faded skin, unkempt hair – a mind of questions, comments, demands, justifications – stayed verbally, exposed physically – “Is there a problem?” Pigments, parchments, binding, images relapse then release ribbed steel, scuffed plastic, relabeled boxes reskinned with tape, twine, and plastic that meld into a horizontal borough in motion, eclectic and naïve to the pigment of deities. 
So then, plot does not matter.
It does, of course, but it gets to it in a different way. The primary focus of flash fiction is to present mental associations through words to the reader that will allow the reader to enter into whatever memory or knowledge they have which mirrors the associations of the character in the story at that moment in the piece of flash fiction. 
Flash fiction is versatile. It might not always be easy to write, but it’s certainly rewarding. Sometimes, it’s even fun. Best of all? You can use flash fiction to push the boundaries of your craft and end up with something surprising. So step outside your comfort zone and into something new. 
You do not have to try
Going back to the flash fiction example again, “An inattentive, transient jackass says, – “Check it” – high-pitched, estrogenic sound awkwardly steam from thick, too-big lips covering precarious tan teeth. Mirrored sunglasses sterilize eyes plunging transgressor back to fatigued, faded skin, unkempt hair – a brain of questions, comments, demands, justifications – stayed verbally, exposed physically – “Is there a problem?” Pigments, parchments, binding, images relapse then release ribbed steel, scuffed plastic, relabeled boxes reskinned with tape, twine, and plastic that meld into a horizontal borough in motion, eclectic and naïve to the pigment of deities” (Miller, 2012). 
In flash fiction it is
A reader holds a vast store of knowledge, experiences and memories that are uniquely networked to create a neural lattice-like topography of concept associations in their brain. Many traditional narrative pieces of fiction will introduce a concept within a certain situation, with a certain type of character(s). Then the story will move the reader systematically or connection by connection (association by association) through the narrative arch of the story, all the while providing the reader with the necessary information from which to recreate the reality of the story, the plot, within their brain. |
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October 2018
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