Book Review – Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction

By Richard Edenfield

It is nice to call something your own. I have a small plastic Loch Ness monster that is by my bed that I call my own. I have family photos that I feel are my own. I have personal books like The Little Prince, that I call my own even though I know many other people do the same thing, which is the mark of great art—it truly belongs to everyone.

I worked many years at a prestigious, rare bookstore in San Francisco. I handled first editions of Ulysses by James Joyce, that were signed. Additionally, books signed by Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Lewis Carroll; etc. There were original manuscripts that I would go over and learn from after hours. I held the history of literature in my hands. I was fortunate to have this opportunity. But I bring this up only because the trajectory of literature has, at least for the moment, led to the re-emergence of flash fiction. And to appreciate what something is, you must understand where it came from. And the book Field Guide to Flash Fiction, published by Rose Metal Press, 2009, 163 pages, and edited by Tara L. Masih, gives us those roots with the book’s introduction that provides, for the first time, a glorious rollick through the corridors of the history of the short short-story. This and much more makes a clear and concise book that we, flash fiction writers, can call our own.

One day in February I visited Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. I was visiting the location that one of my Idols, Henry David Thoreau, once lived and worked. Being able to touch and feel this beautiful place made it real for me. And the field guide does a similar thing, makes it real, by presenting a comprehensive backlog of great short literature from the past by such masters as: Kate Chopin, Ambrose Bierce, O. Henry, Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving as well as many others. It has an unprecedented 25 brief, insightful essays by editors, teachers and writers, one of which is by Robert Olen Butler whose book The Alleys of Eden, I greatly admire. These essays by experts in the field go over about every aspect of flash fiction writing that any aspiring writer could want and provides valuable insight for those already well acquainted with the form.

There are countless helpful exercises provided by these masters of the craft for the short form author such as writing something and giving every line you write a title so as to clarify your objective and learn focus. Furthermore, an exercise inspired by Bruce Taylor, which appeared in Vestal Review, where you write three flash fiction pieces in which each consecutive one is half the length of the previous keeping the same plot and set of characters. I found myself immersed in these exciting and challenging exercises that are presented in a book that is very attractively done with its field guide motif presented on its decorative, black cover.

Of course, every conversation about flash fiction requires that you ask—what is flash fiction? What should it be? In a piece I wrote called, “Zero Masterpiece”, published on 101 Words, I bring up the subject by writing about a one-word story or even a zero-word story.

There are no small roles only small actors.

Everyone has heard those lines and I would apply that to literature: there is no small writing only small writers. Now, being about 5’10, I consider myself just about average—but I feel my writing can exceed my height as all great art should do: transcend.

“We never know how high we are till we are called to rise…” And flash fiction will only have the definition that great writers of the present and future put on it. We never know what is possible till we do it. And the field guide is a good place to start or continue your creative journey.

Purchase Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction