Since you don't have a lot of wiggle room to dig into the trials, tribulations, motivations and aspirations of a character you'd be better off looking for a central theme that you want to build around and give the reader enough to do the rest of the work (i.e. interpret) themselves. Mix and match different storytelling styles for your micro story until you find something that feels cohesive and your tale flows well. Now you absolutely can go for the generalization route and make it work (I play with this style myself) but in terms of designing something more intimate and character driven, you may have to trim it down. It varies case by case and by no means am I the definitive voice on writing a good micro story; just have fun building your character(s) and make sure the rest falls into place with that.
***Sorry about missing my Micro Fiction Monday blog yesterday but to make up for it, we have a special Tuesday edition of Micro Fiction Monday so let's get to it.
One really good thing about the Micro Fiction format is being able to focus on specific events and strengthen that event so that the event itself represents the fictional world. In longer works, you are allotted more leeway in terms of building a fleshed out world, but with micro fiction you can use a different approach (this event approach) to accomplish the same figurative goal. Micro Fiction rarely leaves room for fluff which makes building your story around a specific instance much more powerful with extra room for the reader for figure out intentions or implications behind the certain meanings, words and actions used both in terms of the micro and macro aspects of the story. When thinking about writing micro fiction, an important thing to consider is how well your premise translates to the format. You can write any story you like within the context of micro fiction just like any other format however it is equally important to respect the art of translating that premise to a format that will complement 200-500 words; this means that it will be easier to convert some ideas more than others. Have a strong understanding of the tale you want to tell with all the intricacies included, then combine those elements in a rough draft and start cutting down and consistently revising your draft until you have a suitable micro story that keeps the integrity and identity of your concept.
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Frank Sheppard
NOTE: all opinions/views represented here are my own and do not reflect on any third party that I am affiliated with. Archives
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