Sunday 24 January 2016


Prose Workshop: Writing "Flashes" with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 5th February 1pm-3pm.  This is a refresher start for the year. We will be writing short stories of no more than 100 words. Exercises will also give writers the chance to practice short prose of 33 words. Class to read various examples of this fiction, from 100WordStory.org, Mike Jackson and others. Writers will have the opportunity to be published on Writing at the Centre's website and also will be informed about other markets for this genre.















Flash fiction captures the essence of a story. In a snapshot, the subject is usually in front. The background takes a seat behind your conscious mind. You know it's there, but you are focused on the subject.
Example: Picture a child catching a bright, red ball. what do you see? Action. What's the background? I didn't tell you, but you probably saw a flash of one. Your own experiences detailed the sentence for you. Maybe you saw the child outside since that's where balls are usually thrown. Maybe you saw a young child because the ball is bright red. Older children play with basketballs, footballs or baseballs--usually none of these are red. Did you see sunshine? Was that why the ball was bright? Did you see grass and trees? Or did you see city streets and buildings? That would depend on your perception of outside and ball playing, wouldn't it?

Make your words Work

Use strong, active verbs and few if any linking verbs and adjectives. There is no time in flash fiction for a lot of description or detail or for much characterization. The writer must depend upon the readers' experiences to fill in the gaps. Dialogue-driven stories are great for quick action, character and conflict development.
Writing flash fiction is an excellent exercise to tighten your writing--to pack as much action in as few words as possible. You can use flash fiction as the core idea to develop longer pieces--even novels. It helps identify the four elements of fiction: Setting, Character, Conflict and Resolution.
One-word sentences can work for you. They get attention, convey meaning with their punctuation and say whole paragraphs in just one word. They are great hooks.

MORE ABOUT FLASHES
Here's some great advice from this year's Bridport Prize (UK) Judge David Gaffney about writing flash/short-short stories.

1: Does it have a beating heart?

A good short-short story should have a strong idea at its core, and you should be able to feel this idea beating away underneath every sentence. You may not be able to see it, or be able to explain what it is; but if it's a good story, you will know it is there.

2: Is it too cold or too hot?

A healthy short-short story can be flaming hot with desire, or cold, distant and awkward to handle; what matters is consistency. A story which is chilly and standoffish most of the way through and then suddenly pulls you up with a volcanic reveal at the end can be disconcerting and ultimately unconvincing. Temperature variations need to managed carefully and dramatic changes for which the reader hasn't been adequately prepared should be avoided. A punchline ending which yanks you out of the story world can destroy your belief in what you have read so far - like falling into an icy pool after you've been bathing in the sun.  

3: Do its eyes follow you about the room?

A good short-short story is aware of you reading it.  It never turns its back on its audience. It is in the room with you at all times. So no tricks of POV, flashbacks or show-pony foot work. If you push the short-short story it pushes back. The story should feel real. It shouldn't smell of wiki-research. Every change of gear will have been earned and will feel as if it was the only thing that could have happened in those circumstances. You are watching the story and the story is watching you. Because with the short-short story you have created something real with a life of its own. 

4: Is it breathing?

A healthy short-short story will expel puffs of air from an aperture somewhere in its centre. Long, powerful bursts. This is the first sign that the story might be a real living thing. But breathing can be faked. So apply the following tests. Does the story hold your interest with every line?  Short-short fiction allows the language no rest, and every word has to pay its way. Are there regular points of interest in the choice of language and in the concepts introduced by the story? We need to know at all times that the story is breathing, the story is alive. That someone who knows what they are doing is in control.  So don't make a zombie story. Make your story alive and real. Avoid worn-out tropes, cliches, stereotypes and previously-loved ideas. Not all call centres are boring, not all environmentalists are good, not all old people are nice, not all council workers are jobsworths, not all artists are worthwhile, and not all chain shops are evil.

5: Can it hear you?

While reading a good story you will have questions. You should have questions. Where is the action happening? Who is talking? Why are they telling me this? And why are they telling me it now? Ask these questions of the story and if it cannot answer, call the nurses.

6: Is the pressure too low?

Sometimes a short-short story is just too low-drain. It demands too little of the reader and of the writer. A pleasant vignette, a neat collection of words that describes a moment with no sense of urgency or jeopardy. If this is the case, class A drugs or adrenaline shots may be required.

7:  Is everything intact?

Count the extremities and check that all essential parts are there. If everything seems to be there, but it feels as though something is missing, that's a good thing.
Good short-short fiction will have a sense that something has been removed, a vital part amputated. The teller of the story knows something that the reader doesn't. We can sense a presence, humming from within the story like a distant generator, haunting us like the pain from a phantom limb.

Thursday 14 January 2016

Prose Tutor
Helen Hagemann has poetry and prose published in Australian literary magazines, including Southerly, Overland, Westerly and Cordite. In 2004, Hagemann won an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship program studying with NSW poet, Jean Kent. In 2008, she won a Varuna Macquarie/Longlines poetry publishing scholarship spending one week at Varuna with Editor Ron Pretty. Her collection Evangelyne & Other Poems was then published by the Australian Poetry Centre's New Poet Series, Melbourne (2009). Her second collection of Arc & Shadow was published by Sunline Press, Cottesloe WA, (2013). 
Hagemann holds a BA in Writing and a Masters in Writing from Edith Cowan University, and has taught at the Fremantle Arts Centre for nine years. Currently, she is working on her third novel (The Last Asbestos Town) and a collection of poetry for children, titled Miniscule. 


Poetry Tutor




Shane McCauley  is an award-winning poet with seven collections, including The Chinese Feast, Deep Sea Diver, The Butterfly Man, Shadow Behind the Heart, Glassmaker (Sunline Press 2005) The Drunken Elk (Sunline 2010) & Ghost Catcher. His latest collection is tRICKSTER, published by Walleah Press (2015). He co-edited WA poetry, The Weighing of the Heart, also published by Sunline in 2007. He has taught English at Edith Cowan University, and has taught poetry at the Fremantle Arts Centre since twelve years. He has also received local and overseas Fellowships.


Why not join Shane McCauley and Helen Hagemann for some writing in 2016. Download this year's brochure for more information.  http://members.iinet.net.au/~helen.hagemann/WACBrochure16.pdf

POETRY CLASS TERMS 3-4, 2019

POETRY with Shane McCauley

JULY - DECEMBER
12th, Friday 1pm - early December 2019 1pm-3pm

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    Writing at the Centre is an independent writing class conducted each Friday at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Print Room, upstairs in the main building.

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