Language as a Medium for Communicating the Nuance of Memories

from Microfiction edited by Jerome Stern

Microfiction is a collection of short short stories (under 250 words). The stories must be effective—that is, possessed of emotional impact—despite the short length, which does not allow for traditional character development, setting realization, evolving dramatic arc, extensive climax, etc. To that end, the following are some tricks the authors employ to create a successful narrative in a short space.

1. Use archetypal relationships—eg, mother, father, brother, sister, lover, wife, husband, friend, etc. Employing these identities sets up relationships that carry emotional weight without the need for detailed characterization.

• Example: A Gentleman’s C by Padgett Powell—In the first line we are told that a son ends up teaching his father in an introductory composition course. The father dies of a heart attack when he gets a C and can’t graduate. (This story’s also loaded with irony. P.P.’s real good at that. For a deeper understanding of irony, see his freakin’ amazing story Mr. Irony and the sequel Mr. Irony Renounces Irony in his freakin’ amazing collection of stories Typical.)

2. Use irony to heighten emotional impact. Situational irony occurs when the reader or character expects one thing and another thing happens. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows something that a character does not. Irony complexifies ostensibly simple narrative dynamics, allowing the author to talk about one thing while simultaneously explicating another. It dramatically increases the emotional impact of the narrative.

• Example (Situational Irony): Grief by Ron Carlson (author of Bigfoot Stole My Wife—check it out. It’s real good.)—Readers are told that the king died then the queen died of grief. We expect that the queen died because she missed her husband. Carlson’s narrator says that’s what the royal coroner says but that’s not it, how can you know when someone dies of grief, etc. Turns out the queen died laughing while she choked on a tangerine with the narrator, a lord, and another lord in her chamber.
• Example (Dramatic Irony): November by Ursula Hegi—A mother stands in a pool in November with all her clothes. She says that when her daughter comes home and sees her this way she will not get married. The mother explains how these guilt trips have always worked before, though the mother doesn’t see them as guilt trips but affirmations of how much she loves her daughter. Although it’s never said, we understand that the daughter will not call off the marriage because it is a sign that she is breaking away from the manipulative mother.

3. Setting must be specific and clear early on. Where we are in space and time is an important information for grounding the reader in the world of the story, as well as supplying information about how to think/feel about the characters. Also, setting is an important tool for establishing tone and mood—that is, how we are to think/feel about the characters/situation.

• Example: Conception by Tom Fleming—The first paragraph is, "Mother had seen Father in town, squatting in the shadow of his hulking Dodge wagon, scratching his head with a car key. The light bisected him, burning into Mother’s memory an elbow forever cocked, a silvery hand, a restless wishy smile. Inside they drew the curtains and made love on a bed of fresh canvas." Setting, setting, setting. How much more mood can you want?

4. Chronology should be straight and linear. Jumping around in time—eg, flashbacks—confuses the present moment and diffuses tension.

• Example: Eclipsed by Robert Shuster—This narrative tells the story of a son watching a lunar eclipse with his father. It moves straight through the brief moment—setting up the viewing boxes, watching the eclipse, a brief dialogue about what they’re watching and when it will happen again—even though the things the father says and the boy thinks about jump forward to the father’s death and back to the present.

5. Language must be clear and, for the most part, literal. Complex syntax, elevated diction, or intricate metaphors bump the reader out of the immediate moment of the story. It is a diffusive effect that can work well in longer stories, but in stories this short serve only to alienate the reader from the action and diffuse tension.

• Example: Harmony by Joy Williams—Recounts the story of a daughter bringing a friend to visit the daughter’s dying mother in the hospital. It is an odd story because the friend leaves without doing anything and then the daughter thinks about the mother dying and then she sees a fly and remembers another fly associated with her mother and wonders if the fly in the room is the same fly. Even though the ideas are strange and obliquely approached. The language is simple and there are no similes or metaphors at all.

Synthesis

...micronarratives [can be] used to tell significant memories from childhood. The goal is to capture the importance of the memory, why it "stung," and how it shaped/reflected a worldview at a formative age. To that end, they are microfictions, with a basis in fact.

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