Thread by @MaryRobinette

At #WXR19, several participants were frustrated 'cause they hadn't finished anything in years. We added "Short Stories on the Fly" in which I said we'd complete a 250 word draft in class.

I couldn't arrange for a projector, so here is my very fancy power-point presentation.

Writing is fractal - Once you understand how a technique works at a paragraph level, you can scale down to sentence level, or up to scenic level.

Here's the infographic that shares the same info.

Girded with the MICE Quotient, we venture forth to see if I can teach you to write a piece of flash fiction via twitter. Ready?

Opening - Here's where we meet your characters and set promises for your readers. The key here is that your reader wants to be oriented. The longer you take to ground them, the slower the story will feel.

They want to know Where they are, Who they are with, and the Genre.

Where - Link a sensory detail to the location. So rather than, "She stood in the battleship's engine room" go for "The thrum of the battleship's engines resonated through her feet."

Who - Tell me this through POV, or what they notice and the action that they take.

So rather than, "Sam, who was an airplane mechanic, walked into the hangar" go for "Sam winced as the rattle of the Thunderbird's engine echoed in the hangar. She shut it down, fast."

Genre - Get your genre-specific detail in as fast as you can. Preferably in the first three lines. (Time period is a genre, FYI)

For instance, "battleship's engine thrummed" could be multiple time periods. "Quantum drive thrummed" is more specific.

Exercise: Write an action-driven opening. Your character is doing a thing. To simplify your choices, I’m assigning you a character, an object, and a genre.

Scientist, Candle, SF

In any order, but within the first three sentences, get in Who, Where, & Genere.

Done that? Good. Now you have an opening. Let's talk about middles. To have a middle, you need a conflict.

Conflicts are all about your character is trying to achieve a goal and failing. This is often called a try/fail cycle.

Normally, I ask for you to establish the goal, at least thematically within the first thirteen lines.

Why? Because in standard manuscript format, that's the first half page. If you haven't given an editor reason to care by then... will they turn the page?

Excercise: No more than two sentences.

What is your character trying to do and why?

That’s the set-up of your first try/fail cycle.

Done that? Good!

We know what they are trying to do, what is stopping them?

Exercise: Give yourself another sentence, two at most, to get the barrier on the page.

(Caution: For purposes of this exercise, use no more than two characters and one location.)

Still with me? Well done, you.

Look at what you have on the page. Identify the MICE quotient.

Are they trying to escape? Milieu
Are they trying to answer a question? Inquiry
Are they unhappy with themselves? Character
Are they trying to change the status quo/normal? Event

You may have more than one MICE thread. For flash fiction, focus on your favorite.

Now you know what barriers to throw at them.

Milieu - stop them from leaving
Inquiry - block their attempts to answer the question
Character - Make them unhappier
Event - More things go wrong

When something fails, they try a different approach to get to the same goal. This is a try/fail cycle. As the author, your job is to knock the character down and then pick them up again.

It doesn’t take much. Asking a question and being snubbed is a try/fail.

Each action your character takes should have consequences. I describe this as “Yes, but”, or “No, and,” in which things keep getting worse.

Think about the MICE quotient. As a character moves along a MICE thread, things stop them from reaching their goal.

These are conflicts

In Single-thread mode, the consequences are a direct result of their attempt to achieve the goal as well as blocking them from achieving that goal.

Single Thread example: In Star Wars rescuing the Princess is a Milieu thread. While being chased, they escape by jumping into a chute.

Does it work? YES, BUT it is a garbage chute. As a consequence, they have to get out of the trash compactor, which is another Milieu thread.

In multi-thread mode, the consequences of one action affect another goal. You most commonly see this in Event threads, when the solution is to sacrifice a Character goal by giving up something precious or by doing something emotionally demanding.

Exercise: For your flash story, stay in single-thread mode.

Write for fifteen minutes, don’t let your fingers stop moving. When something fails, they try a different approach to get to the same goal. Does it work?

Yes, but...
No, and...

Coming out of the middle - We open questions until the 2/3 or 3/4 mark, then need to close them. (This is why you bog down there, fyi)

You’ve been using “Yes, but” and “No, and”

Switch to “Yes, and…” and “No, but…” as things start to go in your character's favor.

Exercise: The next thing your character tries gets them closer to their goal.

Does it work?

Yes, and (there's a happy bonus)
No, but (this happy unintended consequence helps)

Hint: Western fiction is based on the Rule of 3. 3rd times the charm. Three times is funny. Bad things come in threes.

If you want something to feel easy, use fewer than 3 try/fails. Harder, use more.

Three works well, but becomes a problem when it's the only pattern you use.

You're still here? Lovely! Let's end this sucker.

Aim towards closing the MICE element you opened.

IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE, think of it like nesting code. The first in, should be the last out.

Same techniques apply to the ending. It's a mirror of the opening.

So, again, we need to know: Who, Where, and genre/mood

These things have shifted over the course of the story, so hitting those points again helps us see the change.

Exercise:
In the last thirteen lines, write your last try/succeed.

In the last three lines, let me know where, who, an genre/mood.

Good job. In theory, you now have a rough draft. It may be longer than 250 words, it may be shorter, but it exists.

Questions?

Oh, and shameless plug...

If you want a class like this, once a month, try my patreon? Or if you just want to support my habit of doing EXTREMELY long twitter threads.

patreon.com/maryrobinette