Deborah’s Bio:
Deborah Thompson is a short/flash story writer, Pilates teacher and Graphic designer. Her writing has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Fairfield Scribes, The Remington Review and the To Hull and Back Anthology,and recently won an Off Topic short story competition.
She has an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University, lives in London UK with husband and two adopted children. and spends far too much playing online Bridge with robots.
If you haven't read her story, "Big Eye," take a moment to do so and then come back here to learn more about her writing process.
WOW: What was
the inspiration for “Big Eye”?
Deborah: I sometimes
use competitions to kickstart a story. This story was originally inspired by a
Globe Soup flash competition, with a list of paranormal subjects to write
about. When I saw the word ‘Kraken’, an image floated into my mind of two young
things playing together, human and non-human. A Kraken in popular folklore is a
giant, octopus-like creature, and when I did some research into octopi, their
intelligence, their reproductive cycles, I wondered what the friendship between
two such different species would look like as they grew. Would it even be
possible? That’s when my imagination fired up!
WOW: And that imagination comes through loud and clear in this story! How did
“Big Eye” change during the revision process?
Deborah: The story
and its themes were pretty much there in the first draft. I enjoyed subverting
the idea of the Kraken as a terrible, man-eating male, turning her into a
creature who, like any powerful female, is both misunderstood and feared (by
men). This particular story seemed to write itself – the non-verbal bond, the
simple fun they had as children, their separation through the undeniable fact
of growing up, the understanding that females endure, and sometimes sacrifice,
for their children—a powerful bond which replaces the simple one of their
childhood. In subsequent revisions, I tightened the writing, choosing words
that reinforced the themes of connection, loss, and grief, and the final
reconciliation of these three things. Final lines are important in short
stories, and I tried various words and sentence structures, opting in the end
for simplicity to try to suggest joy, endurance and love.
WOW: There
are so many details that are left out of flash fiction. How do you decide what
to include and what to omit?
Deborah: As a
writer, I need to be clear what the story is really about – what it is I’m
trying to say, what the themes are, and then choose words that most effectively
illustrate this. Evocation is key – what words will evoke, or infer, rather
than explain? Generally, I look at a paragraph I’ve written, and then ask
myself how I can say (or infer) exactly the same thing, only with fewer, more
evocative words.
WOW: That's an excellent way to do it, and a great lesson for us all. You
identify yourself as a flash/short story writer. What do our readers
need to understand before attempting to write flash?
Deborah: With flash,
you don’t have time for lengthy descriptions, backstories, explanations. It’s
very possible for a flash story to roam through time, as "Big Eye" does, but
generally it’s best to stay in one moment of time and write about what is
happening as vividly, and viscerally, as possible. Replace explanation with
inference, and use descriptions and backstories sparingly, trusting the reader
to read between the lines, to fill in the blank spaces with their own
imagination and experiences. It’s quite an interactive process between writer
and reader. I love writing short fiction for that reason. Hemingway’s famous
6-word story—‘For sale: Baby shoes, never worn’—is a perfect example of this
interaction.
WOW: Keeping the reader in mind as an interactive partner works so well for you. How has
your MA in Creative Writing helped you compose flash fiction?
Deborah: In the MA,
I learned about the 3- (and 4- and 5-) act structure, about the classic story
arc which consists of establishing a status quo quickly followed by some sort of
conflict that changes the status quo, then the quest by the protagonist to find
a way to return to the status quo, and the final resolution and/or epiphany
that leads to a different, (better or wiser) status quo. The MA gave me a
chance to play around with this, in both flash and with longer short stories,
and to have lots of feedback from tutors and fellow students. The poetry module
was particularly valuable. I’d never written poetry before, and found the
practice of using simile and metaphor very useful when it came to writing flash
stories.
The MA was
great fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but really, it was a springboard.
I’ve learned so much more since graduating, through reading other’s stories,
writing in as many different genres (and story lengths) as possible, attending
online courses, entering competitions as well as sending stories to online
magazines, using rejections as a stimulus to rewrite stories (rather than curl
up in a ditch, which I sometimes want to do.)
Above all,
I can’t recommend enough belonging to a writers’ group. Mine is a small one,
made up of people from the MA, and there’s nothing better than having them
critique my stories, and me theirs, to help me improve my writing.
WOW: Thank you for sharing so much of what you have learned and how it shapes your writing. And, most of all, good luck with your current projects.
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