A Fleeting Representation

Just Right Details

“Writing fiction is about accumulating stuff—details about setting, details about clothing and behavior and actions and speech patterns and all the rickrack of objects that we surround ourselves with.” Charles Baxter

How, then, in Flash and Micro, do we create convincing settings and characters when we can’t accumulate the details of objects and stuff? We can only offer a fleeting representation of these characters, of their stuff, of the things that mark us as individual and specific. This stuff must stand in for everything we can’t put on the page. We need just right details, just right stuff, the kind of things that represent these characters quickly but deeply.

First drafts are playgrounds for finding this stuff, for throwing details out there, for casting a wide net, in order to find the “just right” details, the ones that create and highlight a character better than all of the rest, that can reveal this character in a way that an inventory never could. This is a constant searching process, one that can stymie even the best writers as they try to shrink this stuff down to the essentials.

Flash, because of its lack of space, doesn’t allow for mere set-dressing. Each object, piece of clothing, action, or speech must reveal the character but also add to some other craft element in the story, such as adding to the tension, the structure, or an escalation of the plot. The truer the stuff, the truer our reader’s understanding of our character. The more we understand the characters, even if we don’t agree with their actions and choices, the better chance we have to feel something from their plight, and the closer we get to resonance.