Interview with Amanda J. Conley, runner up in the WOW! Spring 2024 Flash Fiction Contest

 

Amanda J. Conley writes to survive the tangle of words that threaten to keep her up at night. She spent twenty-five years as a metalsmith, making a living fabricating gold and silver while wordsmithing on the side. Recently, she has devoted more time to the pen and is nearly finished writing her first novel, which will be completed as soon as she can tear herself away from her addiction to entering flash fiction contests. 

She is honored and excited to be published for the first time by WOW! Women on Writing. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, four children, and her two half-Maine Coon kitties.

If you haven't read her story, Merci, click here and take a few minutes to do so.  Then come learn about her writing process and inspiration. 

WOW: So many of the stories entered in the flash contest are about families, motherhood, and the roles of women. What was your inspiration for Merci? How did you decide to enter it in the contest? 

Amanda: I was practicing writing flash fiction just for fun when I wrote “Merci.” When a friend of mine suggested I write a historical fiction piece, I was inspired by my grandfather (also named Gene) who was in World War II. He was never injured, but once I did some research and chose my setting, the story kind-of just fell out of me as I wrote. Even though I don’t always write about women, although many times I do, I do tend to consistently have a central theme of hope that makes it’s appearance in my writing. As a cancer survivor and a woman and mother, my own soul thrives on little acts of goodness and hope. When I feel that a story showcases those things well, I want others to read it. 

WOW: And hope really does come through in this piece. Revision is such a big part of the writing process. Can you tell us how your story changed during revision? 

Amanda: Since I was practicing flash fiction, I had set for myself a 500 word limit in order to create an extra challenge. This is where the revision process comes in—and the growth! When using so few words to tell a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, each word really has to count. I landed on the French word for thank you—Merci—which had a sort of double entendre—Mercy—adding a layer of meaning into the story despite it being so short. Although the story line didn’t change much during editing, the poetry of the words became much more pronounced. I whittled it down to exactly 500 words. Goal!

WOW:  I love that one word, merci, added so much to the story.  And congratulations on writing your first novel. What can you share about it? 

Amanda:  My novel is really different from “Merci,” although writing flash fiction has made me a better writer. I am writing a rather humorous mystery set in a neighborhood with a pesky homeowner’s association. It’s fun, and cathartic for me to write, as much as it is a lesson in patience with myself and perseverance. To quote Glennon Doyle: “I can do hard things!” 

WOW: How does writing a novel-length work compare to writing flash? What should writers know about writing both? 

Amanda: I love writing longer works because I can play around with piecing together multiple story lines into a satisfying conclusion which is a facet of my puzzle-loving nature. I love getting to blossom the characters and the settings to an immersive level. The truncated version of story telling, as with flash fiction, doesn’t allow for as much detail, but I tend to write both similarly in that the first go is just getting the idea out without too much overthinking or else it will never get written! Then I can go back in and reshape and mold the story by cutting away, reworking and adding. 

I find that while I’m working on a bigger or longer project, like a book, it’s fun to take little hiatuses and write shorter pieces to break up the tediousness. I use flash fiction as an amuse-bouche, if you will. The only problem—it is habit-forming. Hello, my name is Amanda and I’m a Flashoholic. 

WOW: A writing habit is a good habit to have! Like many of our readers, I've never written flash fiction. What is the most important thing that I can do to set myself up for success when I try this form?

Amanda: Writing flash fiction has a similar process as most other forms of writing. The most important thing that I have found for my own writing success is to be process orientated rather than product orientated. I try not to get bogged down with my word count, or streamlining my beginning, middle and ending. Rather, I just begin with one tiny idea and start writing. After I get a good purge of words onto the page, I go back to organize and pare down. In the last flash fiction piece I wrote, my initial draft was nearly 300 words over the word limit. However, if I hadn’t just started writing and let the story come out, I never would have gotten my complete story. So don’t be afraid of the constraints. Get it out and then you can apply the word count afterwards.

WOW:  I know I've heard a lot of editors say that  you need to get the story down before you obsess about the word count.  Thank you so much for taking the time out of your writing schedule to spend time with us!