The Rose Metal Press Field Guide…

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction edited by Tara L. Masih, reviewed by Joshua Garstka

“I look for a story that hits me in the face,” Mark Budman remarks about his experience editing flash fiction. The genre, not as new as some think, has arrived, like a literary crash of lightning that lingers despite its instantaneous nature. In response to the dearth of writings about the shortest of shorts, Tara L. Masih fills the void with The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction. As expected, a few of the twenty-five contributors quibble over defining flash as a pursuit that ultimately defies definitions and resists easy word counts. But though overburdened by the need to contextualize, this manual champions the sudden-micro-quick-short fiction with instruction and insight.

For some, flash is a teaching tool that angles the writer toward mature fiction. For others, it’s a singular beast best approached on its own terms. Masih pointedly assembles a crew of writers and editors who save flash from inscrutability. There are exercises and strict boundaries to goad a writer on. All, of course, try to describe the style concisely-an encounter, a vignette, a yearning-without sacrificing its charm. Budman, for instance, treats flash shamelessly: “After all, a writer is a professional exhibitionist.” Pamela Painter, Vanessa Gebbie, and Lex Williford persuade readers to write in the moment. Twenty minutes of focus may produce a shatteringly vivid, unexpurgated scene with the vitality that thicker tomes only dream of.

Each essay ends with a short piece of fiction, some lifted from other sources. The contributors lead up to each with explication of the craft. Their voices combined suggest flash writers must take risks, but within what Nathan Leslie terms a “slop-free zone.” Elegant, effective language comes first. Masih’s field guide, foremost an act of legitimization, embraces the exciting contradiction of short shorts-finite yet limitless, a trifle essential to contemporary fiction. Even snobbish connoisseurs seldom resist a meal composed of hors d’oeuvres.

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction, edited by Tara L. Masih

Rose Metal Press, 2009, 168 pages, $15.95