The Essentials of Micro-Fiction
Micro Fiction, by nature, is defiant. It defies length, boundaries, and expectations. But tight, provocative fiction requires analysis and editing. Taking an idea and distilling it into a “micro”- cosm of its original self is challenging. So what are the essentials of Micro Fiction?
- Length and form obviously matter. The average micro fiction will be less than 400 words, with some exceptions that reach as much as 750 words. The form is strictly prose. If the novel writer is the carpenter who structures a whole house, and a short story writer is the decorator of one of its rooms, then the micro fiction writer is the mailman who looks into the box before dropping in the household’s letters. Readers discover something brief and intimate in a very short space.This is the only point that stands alone for micro fiction. The following six points are made to declare the specific differences and similarities micro fiction has with short stories and poetry.
- Be willing to edit and re-edit: Take a story of mine, for example. Here’s what our Poetry Editor, Anne Doolittle did to a draft of my “A Carpenter’s Wife.” [Click Here]Remember: You must have the guts to take criticism, but don’t unnecessarily burn yourself. Make sure it’s from the right people. Anne’s a very sharp editor and writer, so she’s a great person to have critique my work.
- Soul-stirring Language: Choose your words carefully. You’re using so few. Here’s a prose poem from Charles Simic’s Pulitzer Prize winning collection, The World Doesn’t End.
The stone is a mirror which works poorly. Nothing in it but dimness. Your dimness or its dimness, who’s to say? In the hush your heart sounds like a black cricket.
- Imagery: Here’s the second paragraph of Francine Prose’s “Pumpkins”:
Actually, she is beheaded, her body thrown from the car and decapitated with such force that the head sails through the air and lands in a pile of pumpkins spilled out onto the road.
In such a short space some thread must hold the story together. A recurring image can always do this. By the end, the holiday season plays a primary role in the lives of the characters and the story. Don’t you want to keep reading?
- Make it tight: Use a minimum of words. Amy Hempel’s story “Housewife” is a prime example:
She would always sleep with her husband and with another man in the course of the same day, and then the rest of the day, for whatever was left to her of that day, she would exploit by incanting, “French film, French film.”
(yes, this is Hempel’s story in its entirety)
What was Hempel’s original idea? Was the woman on a train or in a taxi going back and forth between lovers? Did she have lunch or buy a paper? Did she almost get caught by her husband? Did she go to a film festival with her lover and see Purple Moon? We don’t need all these answers for the story to work. In fact, getting the reader to ask a few unanswered questions can be a part of a story’s resonance (see #7).
- Play against expectations. Let the narrator tell the reader one thing, lead him in one direction while the text leads the reader in just the opposite. A Hyper Fiction Contest on NPR included this example. For a moment the reader may think it ends too soon:
The World’s Shortest Horror Story: The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door.
(author unknown to me)
- Implication: The key requirement of a literary short-short is implication. There’s no room for life stories. Just enough for resonance. An instructor once (correctly) labeled a piece of mine a situation not a story. You never want that said. Here’s a list, by no means exhaustive, of how to create stories:
- Use a directive last sentence that gives narrative insight or opinion. Thomas Bernhard does this with nearly every story in his recent Micro-Fiction collection, The Voice Imitator. He uses closing sentences like, “In this way Fourati, as is well known, had ruined not only the lady’s life but his own as well.” Or, “He asked us what he should do to be freed from his guilty conscience, but we dared not give him any advice.”
- Make rereads necessary or at least inviting. In “Three,” Gordon Lish tells us three stories. He prefaces them with the statement, “One of them taught me the meaning of fear,” but doesn’t say which one. In the first story he talks to a woman who enjoys the funeral of her lover. In the second he sees a headless baritone on the subway that sings to him. The last simply reads: “The third thing was I went home.” What is it he said in that first paragraph again?
- Close with a phrase that sends the reader back into the story. Then it might sink into the reader’s own life. In Molly Giles, “The Poet’s Husband,” she writes, “…but later that night when she is asleep, he will lie in their bed and stare at the moon through a spot on the glass that she missed.” Wow. What did she miss? We don’t know, but within eighteen lines, just one sentence long, we’re stirred to think about the loved ones of all the writers we know. How do they feel about the ways and places that our fiction intersects with their lives?
- Know when you’ve made your point. In Grace Paley’s “Mother,” the last paragraph reads, “And then she died.” Paley can end this way because she has summed up the distinctive character of her mother and made us miss our equally distinct mothers standing in doorways at night abrading us with, “You run around senselessly. What will become of you?” Mission accomplished.
References:
Francine Prose’s “Pumpkins” was first published in Western Humanities Review, Autumn, 1989.
Amy Hempel’s “Housewife” was first published in Micro-Fiction.
Molly Giles’ “The Poet’s Husband” was first published in Micro-Fiction.
Grace Paley’s “Mother” was first published in Later the Same Day.
An Excellent review of the macro genre in micro form.
[…] opinions about literature, and especially concerning something as new as this, take the article, The Essentials of Micro-Fiction, with a grain of […]
[…] http://micro-fiction.blogspot.com/ https://www.pifmagazine.com/1998/06/the-essentials-of-microfiction/ […]
After reading this article I find that micro fiction is very engaging with the readers, it seems like a small glimpse in a story. It doesn’t reveal the whole story but it makes you think or assume what has happened or what will happen. What I find difficult is how short it has to be and how there has to be so much with minimum writing. Making a point is what needs to be made in the micro fiction writing, what I want to do in my micro fiction is to make the readers question what is happening. Imagery is useful for micro fiction.
Micro fiction, to me, seems like really good story telling. Its a short story that can incorporate lots of things. The trick is to keep it short and only tell the reader what they need to know. I think I would be really good at this because I already do this everyday when I talk to my friends. I am looking forward to writing a successful micro fiction.
This article nicely focuses on the meat of the art of the micro-fiction. I find that the main purpose is to both completely reveal a certain part of a story to the reader, and also to have a certain amount of mystery pertaining to the background. The different elements that go into writing a micro-fiction is very diverse, but each part is vital to making a complete work. To do it appropriately will be difficult, but incorporating these ideas will help to create a good writing piece. The subtly in the writing is going to be difficult, but I think it will be most helpful.
Micro-Fiction is more different than what I originally thought it was going to be. I had thought that micro-fiction and short stories were almost the same. Now that I’ve read this article, micro-fiction reminds me of a summary of a story. You only need to put in the most important parts of the story. However in a summary of a story, the writer tries not to reveal the ending in order to create suspense. In micro-fiction, you tell every important part from beginning to end. I also think that it will be hard creating a micro-fiction because of the word limitation. I’m used to putting a lot of details whenever I write so trying to compress what I want to say will be very hard for me.
Because of this article I now posses knowledge of the basic characteristics of micro-fiction. I appreciate the extensive use of examples provided. This combined with the formatting I was able to read through the article with ease and understanding. The essentials make complete sense and flow in a matter that the reader can comprehend. I look forward to writing my own micro-fiction.
Reading this article gave me insight on how to write a good miro fiction story. The purpose is to write a well put together short story, without given too much information but giving enough information to understand. It must be intriguing, informative, and to the point. it seems like a challenge to write a micro fiction story just because it is so short and there is only a minimum amount of words you can use. It seems like every word has to have a purpose. I am really exited to write my our micro fiction story.
Micro fiction, from what I understood, is a short story about 400 words or less. It tells an entire story quickly and to the point, but has little detail in little text. The only details that should be included are the only ones that the reader needs to know what is going on in the story. But what confuses me a bit, is how it is supposed to have necessary detail, but can also be confusing to where the reader must reread. I think writing a micro fiction will be a fun, yet difficult task. I will probably look up a few to get a better understanding of how they are written and structured.
Micro-friction is a type of writing that draws a reader closer to a small piece of writing but yet still bring a meaningful ending as any novel. It takes passion and lots of refinement to create a piece of writing that can be categorized as a micro-fiction. I find it interesting on how such a small story can have an incredible meaning. The author packs the story with depth and meaning but restricts it through the language. Micro-fiction is a type of story writing I’ve over looked but after reading this article its sparked interest for me in micro-fiction stories.
It almost seems to me that micro fiction is essentially an even shorter version of a novella or short story. The way I’ve tended to write – or begin to write – usually sticks to these key aspects in the article, but it would be even more difficult to write a story with such fewer words.
When i fist saw the title of this article I was confused and unsure of what this article was going to be about. As I began to read I now understood that it had something to do with poetry and writing. I like how it gave many examples of micro – fiction and the essentials by showing the boundaries and expectations. It stated the length of an average micro fiction can very from 400 words to 750 words. It explained that your word choices should be chosen very carefully. Imagery is a big part to help people visualise. One thing that really struck out to me in the article was when it said “Let the narrator tell the ready one thing, lead him in one direction while the text leads the reader in just the opposite” that popped to me because I found that very complex, it made me think that whoeverr is writing a Mirco-Fiction needs to really think things through and in a sense be slick about trying to lead two people in different directions with only one story. The key requirement of a literary short short is implication and what consists of that is to use a directive last sentence to allow the narrative to think of there own opinion. Also closing with a phrase that can send the reader back into the story so that they can relate to the situation by thinking of examples in there own life. Another thing is to make sure you made your point, The last paragraph should wrap up everything and make sure your mission was accomplished and you know for a fact your point was made. Over all this article was interesting because I never have read anything about this topic so it was kind of confusing and boring. However; in the end i still understood the main logistics of Micro-Fiction.
Lauren,
Thank you for this summary of the article. I love the complexity that you’ve identified in this work that although simple will not be easy. -Mrs.Simko
I had no idea that all this was Micro-Fiction. As I started reading I was really struck by the imagery portion. I was really interested in what Francine had wrote in “Pumpkins” and I noticed it was because of the imagery. I think imagery can make a short story stand out from others. It makes the reader feel like there in the story and paints a clear picture in there mind. All that goes into micro-fiction are all different but that is what makes the writing so good. The implication of the writing piece when you close with a phrase that sends the reader back into the story I think is one of the more important parts. It sums up the story and often leaves the reader thinking and wondering what would have happened and makes them want to read more and more. All these details that you may think are small or unimportant are actually the most important part of the writing and that’s what makes a great story.
At first I didn’t understand what micro-fiction was in the first place but after reading this I now have a clear understanding of what it is. I liked the idea of make it tight. I like reading things if there simple and to the point and I feel like that is what there trying to say. This article made me think about my writing and how I can improve it. These strategies I think will really help me in the future.
I always thought structure was the key thing to writing. But form learning about Micro Fiction there is a whole knew idea on how writing is written. This article breaks down the difference between writing like every body does. When you can use micro fiction and make your writing sound professional. So now I learn that if I start using the 7 bullet point above in the article I would improve my writing.
This article is the first I’ve seen that talks about Micro-Fiction. After I began reading, I thought it was going to be something very similar to a short story. However after reading, I saw how a Micro-Fiction piece of writing is much different than a short story. In a Micro-Fiction, it is not only number of words, but choice of words that make all the difference. Every word you use in a Micro-Fiction must have a point or purpose; there is not room for an unnecessary adjective. Writing a Micro-Fiction seems like the most challenging form of writing there is. When writing my first short story, I had a very hard time trying to determine what was and was’t important. I feel that writing a Micro-Fiction is going to be just as challenging, if not more.
At first when Mrs. Simko said micro fiction I didn’t know
what it was, but after taking the time to dissect the words I can almost come
to the conclusion of what it means. Micro means small and fiction is a form of
literature so I can assume that it’s a small piece of writing. This would mean
that it’s almost like a short story. Based off the article my assumption was right.
Micro fiction defies the normal length of literature and that’s why it’s called
micro. It has to be “soul- stirring in Language” and good in imagery. It’s a story
that has multiple points going on at once that all connect to the main story
line. What I get from this is that a micro fiction is basically a very dramatic
and sometimes suspenseful short story. There is a certain way you have to go
about writing the story in order for it to be successful. I found it really
cool about how much detail you can use in one sentence. I really liked the
concept having multiple point happening in a story that all connect into the
main point.
At first when Mrs. Simko said micro fiction I didn’t know
what it was, but after taking the time to dissect the words I can almost come
to the conclusion of what it means. Micro means small and fiction is a form of
literature so I can assume that it’s a small piece of writing. This would mean
that it’s almost like a short story. Based off the article my assumption was right.
Micro fiction defies the normal length of literature and that’s why it’s called
micro. It has to be “soul- stirring in Language” and good in imagery. It’s a story
that has multiple points going on at once that all connect to the main story
line. What I get from this is that a micro fiction is basically a very dramatic
and sometimes suspenseful short story. There is a certain way you have to go
about writing the story in order for it to be successful. I found it really
cool about how much detail you can use in one sentence. I really liked the
concept having multiple point happening in a story that all connect into the
main point.
These seven points have helped me learn a lot about micro fiction. Before I read this, I had never heard of a micro fiction. I thought it was a weird way of saying short story. Although a small word limit seems to make them easier to write, the fact that you have to choose your words perfectly makes this more of a challenge. Although the primary purpose of the article is to talk about the essentials of micro fiction, I feel like most of the points (aside from the fifth and seventh) made can be applied to any sort of fiction. For myself personally I see writing a micro fiction as something that would be very fun as well. I’m never been great at writing anything with lots of substance. I never like to write to a limit in fear that I may ramble on and on about pointless nothings. If I follow these points I feel like I can grow more as a writer, and a person.
The firth thought that came to my mind when I heard the words “micro-fiction” was that
it is like a small story. Or maybe even another way of saying short story, but as I continued to read I notice that they’re many differences. Like how micro fictions are very complex stories with deep meaning constructed of little amounts of words, more like a poem. They’re normally are around 400 words long, but they’re some rare cases that have up to 750 words. The purpose of a micro fiction is to show a little portion of a story, that is explaining something that is worth noticing, without telling you all the details. These stories are made to make a connection with the reader so that they might have a better understanding of what is happening, having to be picky with the words. A story that does not answer all the question, but gives you enough information to make your own assumption. Short stories are nothing like micro-fictions. I have never really heard of a micro- fiction before this, but they seem to be interesting to read and hard to create. I am looking forward to making one, only because it is something that is so new to me.
This is a good representation of the methods required to write a micro-fiction. It is very educational and I learned a lot from reading this. How to end the stories was the most informational one for me.
I found this article very interesting. Like Aja, I didn’t know how I was suppose to write an entire story in a short essay?But then I read Hempel’s example and saw that this was totally possible. In his example, two sentences lead to tons of questions like “Why was he the only man on earth? Who was at the door?” This article had a lot of helpful hints for me. As well as the comments. I new that micro meant small but to know that these micro fiction’s were to be more imagery and more thought provoking than anything else. I am really looking forward to write a story and to challenge my self, I am going to aim to write it with only one sentence. To create a story that has all of the component as mention in the above article, could probably get a story across as well as display what my automata is about..
This idea of a micro fiction was real new to me. After reading this article I understood what it was and the different ways micro fictions can be written. The most helpful parts of this article was the short tutorial that described what should be include. Especially that with each hint it included example of other writer’s micro fictions. I liked what other people where commenting.In Mallory’s explanation I like how she spoke about how each word that you have to write has to have a purpose and like in the article talking about how each sentence you write has to be down to its minimum while still getting its message across.
Micro-fiction is basically a tidbit. A bite of literature. There is little to be had, but if done well will appeal to your taste. Of course it will by no means fill you up and you may wonder whether or not it was worth reading in the first place but there are many people who simply don’t have the appetite to have large pieces as well as those who find micro-fiction as both fancy and convenient, relishing in what they may define as “class” or “sophistication.”
Frankly, I find micro-fiction to be snarky and almost tongue-in-cheek as the reader will basically be doing most of the writing themselves due to the urge to imagine the rest of the scenario. Micro-fiction writers seem to be a quirky bunch, and a comment this long almost seems to be an insult to the genre. And with that, I’m off.
Yours truly,
An esteemed gentleman wine-taster of the non-alcoholic variety,
Anthony T.
This article was useful in the sense that it defined what a micro fiction was. The part that was he most useful was how it gave examples, steps, and how long the length should be. Since the story has to be short, at first i though it would be a whole lot easier of an assignment but after seeing that you have to get a full story across, and still include “imagery” in the details. I think doing this as art of the project will be a little chalenging but very interesting to write.
When reading this I had no idea what is micro fiction and
once I read this I had understand that it is even shorter that short story. The
part I enjoyed the most was to learn that it doesn’t need to be complete to
convey a message. That you could let the reader think if his or her ending in whichever
way the please, letting multiple messages be able be conveyed from a single
micro fiction.
I’ve written a micro fiction before and I did pretty well with it. I think the fact that every word has to have some emphasis makes the story more intense because the author needs to plan it out more. I think the tip of leaving the readers with questions is something I will use in my own writing. The process of writing the story and the reader reading the story makes it exciting on both ends. Each word has its own story behind it.
I’ve never heard of micro fiction before Im excited to be able to work on something i never tried before. I think this will be an excellent challenge for me as a writer. I’m not the best writer but i do enjoy it to some extent. Reading this post i’m excited to start my own micro fiction. I like how we can keep the reader guessing during our story, i have a few ideas and I’m ready to start
From this article, I learned that micro-fictions are normally less than 400 words and when writing one you need to choose those words carefully. And since you have so little words, you have to be willing to refine it a lot in order to use the minimum. Depending on what you want to write, you can use different techniques or writing-styles to make the micro-fiction “soul-stirring,” mysterious, relatable or anything else you may want. I thought that this was really helpful and I look forward to trying to write a micro-fiction myself.
i have honestly never really read anything on micro fiction but i found this to be pretty interesting. I see it sort of like a short story but really brief. I find t really interesting how short these can be; up to 300 words! for some reason I feel like this will be a little difficult because it had a lot of points going on so i feel like I will get confused. IN conclusion, i am interested in doing something like this only because I have never tried something like this before and it seems interesting.
Micro-fiction is completely new to me, but from what I see it seems very interesting, and something that I would want to do a lot in the future. I like how it has to be crafted very carefully in order to convey a message in a short span. It’s definitely different for me who’s a guy who likes to put every possible detail into a story.
I had only heard about micro fictions from certain books (like the short stories at the end in the original book “Last Man on Earth”) but I never entirely understood what their purpose was until I read this article. I now see that its purpose is to be short but impacting. It is a hard to be able to put a whole story into such a short amount and have it be able to have a place plot and characters while still having it make you emotional and captivating while you read it.
After reading this, I feel like I have already read a few micro fictions before, and I personally enjoy them a lot. I think it’s interesting how such a short amount of writing can say so much. I think it would require time and skill to create a micro fiction, though, because you only have a length frame of about 400 words and in that frame, you must have an impacting message related to whichever larger story/conflict. I also feel that reading a micro fiction would be similar to reading poetry in the time it would require to analyze that content and re-read to decipher the message. I feel it would be a cool thing to try and write a micro fiction. It seems like a fun challenge.
After being told about the micro fiction i thought it was a short story that had to explain the reasons why we chose to create the automata that we did. I thought it was similar to a short reflection. But after reading “The Essentials of Micro-Fiction,” i realized that it’s something a bit more complicated. The examples from “Soul-Stirring Lanugage” gave me the impression that i should write my micro fiction with a creative vocabulary and a mysterious stlye of writing. I thought this reading was useful in informing me about the specifics, such as the length and the different styles of writting to choose from. I really enjoyed reading the example “Play Against Expectations,” it was simple yet very intresting and left the reading begging for more. I can’t wait to start my own and hope it turns out great.
Micro fiction is new to me, but from what i read i do find it very interesting. I like how its confusing and a little hard to understand at first but when you do understand it, it makes a lot of sense.
I had never heard of micro-fiction before reading this article. At first I was very confused when I read this article because I was not understanding all the examples they were mentioning. After I read it a second time I understood it more clearly. I really liked how they gave examples and I find micro-fiction very interesting. I like how they make it confusing so that you have to read it several times and get your own meaning out of it.
This is my first time learning about what a micro-fiction is and from this article I have learned that when creating a micro-fiction it must drive the reader into asking more questions, having to read more than once, and be able to make the reader picture what is being said. Another thing that I took from this article was that it must be under 400 words and the words must be chosen carefully. Also to keep it short and sweet and to the point and to not scramble all the ideas into one, but keeping a basic idea of what you are trying to say. Its kind of like a short story, you have to be precise in what message you are trying to send out and make the reader want more but not overdue it with too much information so that it flows smoothly.
When I first read this it seemed to me like a how-to article. I didn’t really know what Micro-Fiction was, and this was really helpful. From this i got that Its not supposed to be a story but a resonance. It also encourages to use imagery, since there isn’t a lot of words they should be able to have provide a mental image. I though it was really interesting to see how they said that to write a successful Micro-Fiction you have to be open to criticism.
This was the first time I heard about Micro-fiction. Reading this article I learned it somehow like a short story. It has to be under 400 words its usually around 250 most of the time. In a micro-fiction is good to use imagery that way the audience can picture whats happening in the micro-fiction, it’s good to also let the reader have a perspective of it’s own on the short story.
A good micro-fiction reminds me of an adequately made chocolate truffle. Instead of the short story brownie, or the novel rich chocolate cake, this particular style of literature is quite bite-sized, but fully flavored by a distilled plot. And when you take the entire truffle into your mouth, biting into the middle of the candy, you take in a fullness of a story; its outer layer the fiction’s exposition, the taste of the center its climax, and taking in the flavor of the entire truffle is your resolution. All in one little package.
[…] The Essentials of Micro-Fiction by Camile Renshaw […]
[…] in brevity (and feeds my fascination for all things Lilliputian). Camille Renshaw, in her article The Essentials of Micro-Fiction, offers the following ingredients for creating your own dessert-sized […]
[…] Camille Renshaw wrote an article for pif Magazine about the essentials of micro-fiction. Micro-fiction, by nature, is defiant. It defies length, boundaries, and expectations. Such tight, provocative writing requires analysis and editing. Taking an idea and distilling it into a “micro”- cosm of its original self is challenging – the purpose of micro-fiction. So what are the essentials of Micro-fiction (for more detail, read Renshaw’s article)? […]
[…] do here with the Friday Fictioneers. At just 100 words, it is technically called Micro Fiction. Camille Renshaw, editor of Pif Magazine, lists a number of points specific to micro fiction, but my favorite is […]
I’ll keep this comment brief, in harmony with the article. This was a great look into the crafting of microfiction, and–if I were to guess–the future of all fiction. Ultra short is the new short and all that jazz. I’m learning microfiction myself over at The Drabbler, a collection of 100-word short fiction. http://the-drabbler.com/splat/
[…] Camille Renshaw: “The essentials of microfiction” […]
[…] to read more about writing micro-fiction? Check out The Essentials of Microfiction by Camille […]
[…] The Essentials of Micro-Fiction ~ by Camille Renshaw | Pif Magazine. var addedComment = function(response) { //console.log('fbComments: Caught added comment'); […]