Startling Shifts in Form

So I've gone all shape-shifter with my fiction this week... (and because I'm on holiday for winter-een-mas everything is running late this week, including this blog... lie-ins and gaming take priority. ;) )

Starling was another flash fiction inspired by a piece of artwork, the cover of Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint, by Scott M. Fischer. Although I originally saw the image clean (i.e. without text). You can see what I've taken from the image and what I've altered and what I've made up. There's something of myself in the piece as well, I miss dancing. I miss it a lot.

I really like the shift in Starling, it jars a little, as it is supposed to. It's slightly unexpected and I think that jerky, flighty sentence actually captures something of the movement of a flock on the ground. It's supposed to make you stop and re-read and try to work out what's happening. Think of it as a forced double take, as if you'd caught sight of it actually happening in real life... 'wait, what just happened?'

Moonlight features a similar shift, an (I hope) unexpected one. I like the way it plays out, and that I take any ambiguity from the piece by the end. It starts of unsure and solidifies by the end, I hope it bears re-reading, encourages it even (in a good way of course).

Both pieces shy away from being too ambiguous by close of play. While I definitely think ambiguity has it's place, it's possible to leave people too confused. It can be a turn off if not handled properly. Think of it like spun sugar... it can look great and add a perfect element of sweetness, but overdo it and it looks like a mess and buries the other flavours.

The whole purpose of the Xeroverse, both Missing Pieces and 101 is to play with form and genre. Well, actually the primary purpose is to entertain, but for me it's the opportunity to do that with a variety of styles and characters. To explore both myself and other worlds.

The other thing that has shifted this week is Metamorphosis, my experimental piece of flash fiction. It will never be finished, but it will always be done. Until I next visit it... The interesting thing I've found is that it's not so easy to move things on and change things so dramatically purely through the editing process. The story has shifted, but more in point of view than in fact. It was supposed to tell different stories but through the process of shifting in small parts. It might still, who knows..? ;)

I've just found the #FridayFlash project too, which is a great, weekly, source of new flash from loads of different people. It's also brought a few new people to the Xeroverse, which is very cool; I hope they like it here. =)

Writing Nightmares

Ambiguity is always fun in writing. Getting the balance right is hard though.

Make it too obvious, give too much away and the reader is left feeling disappointed. Make it too obscure, and the reader is left confused.

Of course, this also depends on what you are trying to achieve. Do you want it unclear, or do you want it resolved, but with an edge of uncertainty. I mean, once the beast is slain, do you want it unclear as to whether the beast really killed everyone or if it was one of the protagonists... or do you want the beast slain, but a flash of something dark in one of the protagonist's eyes, the beast lives on in them?

Hmm... that wasn't entirely clear was it. It may be even harder to write about writing ambiguously than the ambiguous writing itself.

So in This Bedtime Story are Audrey's devils real, or are they just night terrors she has conjured up over missing her father? Obviously, I like the weird, so I'd like to think their is more to this world than most of us get to experience. If you know my writing you'll probably er on the side of the weird being the truth. But then, maybe those are just the nightmares of a child with imagination, the early stages of a writer like me.

I tend to try for the less obvious edge of ambiguity. I guess I'd rather leave someone confused than disappointed. Certainly in the past I know I've left people more in a state of WTF than I might have intended. But I would rather credit readers with intelligence than think they need everything spelled out to them.

There is danger in overworking it too. Less so in micro-fiction maybe. The X-Files, for example, was better when it was just It's aliens! No it's the government! when it carried on a few seasons with aliens/ government/ aliens/ government/ aliens/ government ad nauseum, I got a bit bored.

Ideally, obviously, you want to hit that sweet spot. Where the reader thinks they know what the truth is, but there is still a delicious edge of what if?, a splash of maybe.

There's a distinction to be made between ambiguity and suspense too. Or maybe a demonstration of symbiosis. And I think I've really been talking about something between the two. Because ambiguity covers a whole lot more than just a suspenseful ending and a lingering sense of unfinished business, although it is a great tool for that kind of effect.

Sometimes, ambiguity can just be bad or unclear writing. But when it is intentional and controlled I think it is something brilliant and interesting. Ambiguity is the opening of a discussion between the reader and the writer. What do you think is happening here?