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Workshop #
01
No Flash in the Pan: Micro-Fiction
By
Felix Cheong
Pascal once apologized for writing a long letter because he didn’t have time to write a shorter one.
Indeed, brevity is the soul of wit, more so with flash fiction (also called postcard fiction or micro-fiction). Often, in just six words or up to 1,000 words, you have to compress a universe, telling a story with characters as real to the reader as a longer short story. It’s possible, it’s not easy, and it takes time.
In this workshop, using a multi-modal approach that uses short films, small-group discussions and writing exercises, author Felix Cheong offers you strategies in writing flash fiction, particularly in creating suspense and twists that keep the reader hooked to the end.
Biography
Felix Cheong is the recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2000 conferred by the National Arts Council. He is the author of 19 books across different genres, including poetry, short stories, flash fiction and children’s picture books. His works have been widely anthologised and nominated for literary prizes: His collection of short stories, Vanishing Point, was longlisted for the prestigious Frank O’Connor Award in 2012. In 2003, he won second prize for his short story in the Guinness Write-a-Bestseller competition.
Two of Felix’s short stories, “True Singapore Ghost Story” and “The Boy with the Missing Thumb”, are currently being studied as Literature texts for the GCE ‘O’ levels. Some of his flash fiction stories from his Singapore Siu Dai trilogy have also been adapted into short films by animation students at LASALLE College of the Arts.
As a writer who believes in giving back to the community, Felix has facilitated numerous short story writing workshops – with LASALLE College of the Arts, the National University of Singapore, the Book Council of Singapore, the National Library Board and The Straits Times. He has also served as a judge for the short story category in the Golden Point Award and the Fiction category in the Singapore Literature Prize.
Felix has been invited to writers festivals all over the world, such as Edinburgh, Austin, Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch, Ubud, Chengdu, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. He holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland and is currently an associate lecturer with Murdoch University, University of Newcastle, Curtin University and the National University of Singapore.