I broke my rule last night and wrote a flash piece. Now this may not seem like such a bad thing, but as I was writing it I thought of several more ideas for flash pieces or shorts. It's like I opened the door on distraction here.
It's partly because I have not been able to make time for the novel in two weeks. A trip to NY last weekend and now Easter festivities will take a big chunk out of this one.
The flash piece was also pretty didactic, probably not what the flash sites want anyway.
How do you bite back the need to instruct readers in a story? Can the political and the criminal be combined in a 700 word piece effectively? Who does this effectively even in a longer piece?
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You need to trust the reader. You're more liable to lose their interest if you hold their hands. I think the best people who do this are sci-fi writers, or I should say the cream of the crop sci-fi writers - I'm amazed at how much I learn about a fictional world by following a few clues from the author. Try the short stories of James Patrick Kelly, Jim is the king of short fiction sci-fi.
As for writing effectively within a short word count, of course it can be done. You have to get to the meat of the story quickly, but again, you have to trust the reader to follow by giving as few clues as possible.
You are so right about science fiction writers being able to do it more effectively. The genre is nearly based on a critique of current norms. It's almost an expected element whereas in crime you need to shoehorn it in.
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