June Flash Challenge
Here's your Flash Fic Challenge!
Literary Techniques
It will be your mission, if you so choose to accept, to write a Flash Fic that fulfills the following requirements:
Choose 2 (no more, no less) of the following literary techniques, and use them effectively in your response—aka to enhance your story:
It should be obvious to us, while reading your submission, which techniques you chose. Do NOT tell us which ones you chose.
- Irony - This discrepancy between expectation and reality occurs in three forms:
The concept of irony is too often misunderstood in popular usage. Unfortunate circumstances and coincidences do not constitute irony.
- situational irony, where a situation features a discrepancy between what is expected and what is actualized;
- dramatic irony, where a character is unaware of pivotal information already revealed to the audience (the discrepancy here lies in the two levels of awareness between the character and the audience); and
- verbal irony, where one states one thing while meaning another. The difference between verbal irony and sarcasm is exquisitely subtle and often contested, but exists nonetheless.
- Unreliable narrator - The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in his narration and possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.
- Stream of consciousness - Technique where the author writes down his or her thoughts as fast as they come, typically to create an interior monologue characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that trace a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.
- Ticking clock scenario - Threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillers where salvation and escape are essential elements.
- Plot twist - Unexpected change ("twist") in the direction or expected outcome of the plot. See also twist ending.
- Foreshadowing - Hinting at events to occur later.
- Pathetic Fallacy - Reflecting a character's (usually the protagonist) mood in the atmosphere or inanimate objects—for example, the storm in William Shakespeare's King Lear, which mirrors Lear's mental deterioration.
That's all. Have fun! :)
Standard rules apply:
- Your submission must not exceed 1,000 words (not including Author's Note, Disclaimer, Title, etc.),
- It cannot be posted to FictionPress until the deadline has passed, and
- It must be in Mae's inbox, via the submission form by June 23rd, 2010 at 11:59PM Pacific Standard Time.
Please read more about Flash Fiction here (an article written by our lovely Vena).
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. :)
Jun. 26, 2o1o