5 ways to use Setting in Flash Fiction

Oct 25, 2024

1. Establishes the stage of the story:

Stories need to take place somewhere so the reader is properly orientated to the time and place as well as the outside pressures that might exist. These details make the worlds of our stories feel concrete; they create the physical stage on which the action takes place.

a. “My parents are in the backyard, digging their graves. I'm in the kitchen with Orange, my younger brother, and we're watching through a grubby little window.” Syndication by Allegra Hyde
b. “When I go in, the sink is bursting with unwashed dishes coated with moldy leftover scraps, half-filled glasses, cups that balance precariously on the counter rim, ripped open TV dinner boxes thrown on top; there isn’t room for me to set aside the cleaned dishes.” Maid in America by Christine H. Chen

2. Establishes a character’s perspective:

Another way to reveal the nature of our main characters is to establish the world around them through how they perceive this world. The setting often provides objects, sensory details, and the opportunity to use metaphor to say the unsayable. Each character should have a unique way of taking in the world, the setting of the story, and should be influenced by this unique perspective.

Flash fiction, even in its limited word count, can transport us to new realms by focusing on the main character's perspective. It’s not just what they see or sense, but how they perceive it in the moment of the story that gives the setting the ability to do more than just provide a backdrop. Characters will have fresh ways of revealing themselves when they have a new setting to interact with.

A. I finally stopped at the smallest motel I could find and fed quarters into the Coke machine. Now I’m watching the electric blue light rippling from the pool. There aren’t any trees out here so you can see to the end of things. Lightning flashes, still far off. It’s pink and jagged, the kind you see in photographs on bank calendars - that nighttime shot with a distant farm along the edge and that one lone jag of lightning reaching all the way down. “In Case of An Emergency” by Linda Niehoff.

3. Establishes Metaphor and Figurative Language:

Setting is also a great place to find imagery to build metaphors and figurative language. It helps us focus on the world rather than a character's physical traits or the clothing they are wearing. Flash writers rely on the reader to build images of the characters based on the language that is filtered through the main point of view, and this is deepened by the figurative language that is inspired by the world inhabited by the characters.

A. His cleaver was hung up behind the counter, a bladed bible he reached for again and again, the slam of its weight against sinew, bone, to create a window display – cathedral roof of spare ribs, soft prayer of liver and kidneys, hearts slumped in tiny white plastic bags. Animal valentine. Cleave by Olga Dermott-Bond

4. Establishes what your character values

Settings often show us the value that a character attributes to a certain place, and this value helps to reveal the character and often the central conflict of the story.

a. The earth is exposed and muddy brown. The sun has chased the grass to the far corners of the yard. Tufts lay huddled along the fence line spitting out planks like rotten teeth. But I can still feel the Kentucky bluegrass underneath my feet. The stiff blades served as a wedding altar for my mother and stepfather. The grass cradled tangerines when I stripped them from the trees and they rolled from my hands. The once unending blanket of green caressed my stomach as my first child poked her way forward from inside me. What Remains by DW McKinney

5. Establishes defamiliarization

We see the world anew when we are faced with new rules, cultures, and experiences of place. A new place is just the friction we need to add new tension, to twist the emotional knob, to make the feelings fresh. Stories set in the usual places with the usual concepts or situations are too easily classified and labeled, and we want to create the ineffable, the mysterious, the unnamable. We want stories that are more than their summaries, that must be read, pondered, and felt by the reader.

A. The bride floats between the stones. Her groom plays dead for an iPhone camera. Laughter spills from mouths sweet with spirits. A plaid blazer dances with a pearl necklace. The groom plants a fat kiss on his new wife’s lips under a marble angel with a chipped wing. The trills of spring peepers serenade the souls and all the plastic flowers. “Wedding Party Moved to the Cemetery at Midnight” by Joshua Michael Stewart

Setting in flash fiction has a way of making each word count because it enhances all the other craft moves and elements.

Prompt:

For this story, allow your main character to return to a place that used to have some kind of power, good, or bad or complicated for them in their past. How has it changed? Does it have the same power? Does returning to this place reveal something about themselves they’ve hidden from another character or hidden from themselves? Why are they returning? What details do they notice now versus back then? What object can they interact with in a different way than they did in the past? Is this the last time they will return to this place? Is there a tradition they are breaking from?

Flash I Love:

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Matt Kendrick

Test Paper by Liz Matthews

Gone Fishing by Amy Barnes

Lollipop Kiss by Avitus B. Carle

Write with Me:

From Opening to Ending: Writing a Flash Fiction Draft, 1 session with Tommy Dean

1 session, Saturday, November 2nd, 11 -1 pm EST

online, 30 students max

$50

Enroll in this class.

Join writer Tommy Dean for a two-hour generative writing session focused on creating one full flash draft from opening to ending to everything in-between. We’ll look at model texts and use prompts for each element of a successful flash including openings, escalation, backstory, metaphor, middles, endings, and titles. Instead of 5-6 separate starts, we’ll concentrate on crafting one full story with inspiring prompts for each craft element. Come create a complete and urgent story with me and your fellow writers!

Writing Flash Fiction with Raymond Carver

Dec 1-15, 2024

Asynchronous using Canvas (free learning platform)

Cost: $140

2 spots left!

In this two week asynchronous workshop, we’ll use the work of Raymond Carver to investigate how to create tone and mood in our flash and micros. The way Carver’s characters long for and fight against isolation in an alienating world. We’ll focus on how Carver balances character, setting, and conflict while deploying his famous minimalism. How can we apply his craft moves to our own writing in 2024? Let’s find out together!

Participants will receive craft analysis of six Carver stories, have the opportunity to write to six Carver-inspired prompts, and receive positive feedback from their peers and the instructor. Prompts will be launched on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for two weeks.

Do you have a flash or microfiction that’s floundering in the submission queue? A story that starts off great but loses momentum or characters that lack agency? Maybe you don’t know what’s wrong with the hook, or you haven’t been able to stick the landing. Maybe the story is near perfect, but it needs a final polish?

Micro (1-400 words): $20

-Flash (401-1,000 words): $25

-Extensive Margin comments on developmental edits, especially on pacing, characterization, plot, and creating resonate endings!

-1-2 week turnaround time

*Zoom Meeting: additional $20 fee

Flash Perspectives

Discussion about this post