L'aura del Campo

Is Flash Fiction a Haiku on steroids? Like sumo wrestling?

I wrote to AJBurchell- Australia in a response to a review of a recent flash fiction:

I have about 150 in my folder "Flash Fiction". Some seem to be there to remind me that I'm NOT a short story writer! My strength is lyrical poetry. But there are a few other flash fictions that I'm quite proud of.

The reason why there are so many is that I decided to expand my writing abilities and short stories are too much work for me. Don't ask about novels. Even with poetry I prefer 20-30 lines max and 8-16 can be better. Flash means one can't be wordy and occasionally I can be lyrical. A narrative line is the key ... and after writing so many I'm getting better at that.

I'm glad the images worked for you. In 'painting/drawing terms' it's a matter of evoking a reaction with only a few brush strokes. Almost like a rotund haiku with lots of flesh. A sumo wrestler perhaps?

Thanks for reading,

K.

This got me to thinking. I do like haiku! But they aren't easy. A juxtaposition of two 'images' (the frog, the splash) set in a season, evoking an emotion from the reader/hearer without providing it. It shows ... never tells. A senryu is a close cousin. Of course haiku in earlier form was a back and forth renga of hokku (5-7-5 then 7-7 ... 'on' not syllables) that was a kind of 'parlor/drinking competition/game' dating back over a millennium. I can't remember whether the renga or tanka came first but the tanka gave rise to it's own game (can you match the two parts?)

A haibun was a mix of prose (like Basho's travel narrative) punctuated by haiku. I think of it as a long walk through nature (a telling); the haiku being that moment when I sit down to really notice and write a couple lines that evokes something (by showing).

A flash fiction is neither! But it is short. It does drop the reader into one moment, preferably a key moment, that defines a person, nation, object; it's a turning point, a road taken or not taken, the consequences of life distilled into it's essence. But unlike poetry, it maintains a narrative.

So maybe it's like a sumo wrestler. Big, rotund, yet in one fleeting moment one wins, one loses. It's catching that moment in a fewness of words.

The FLASH in question:

STATIC

Wendy-of-the-weeds [73] (264 words)  (18+) <300 flash, prompt: leaf, shade, nose #2221849 by Kåre Enga in Udon Thani

The folder for my flash:

FOLDER

Flash Fiction  (GC) Short 300 word, more or less, "stories" . #2190336 by Kåre Enga in Udon Thani

104,247