Customer Reviews

Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes

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I have really gotten a lot out of this book. Ms. Allen breaks down the art of storytelling into 5 minute exercises that are easily done, and that can be linked together to complete longer stories - even full-length novels! By breaking the assignments down into 5 minute exercises, she takes a rather daunting task and turns it into something easily confronted and easily done. She gives lists of exercises which are varied and interesting, and which are geared to really stimulate one's creativity. There is even a section of photographs that one can use as a starting point in their writing.

I really enjoyed reading the samples of short shorts which she included, both from unpublished and published writers, and I found her appreciation for her students to be very encouraging.

I think she must be a wonderful teacher, and I am actually quite grateful that she has written this book. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys writing, or who thinks they MIGHT enjoy it if given the proper encouragement.

The basic idea of "Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes" is that you can really let go and write interesting stuff if you set a timer for five minutes, grab a writing prompt, and free-write for those five minutes. Okay, Ms. Allen doesn't call it free-writing; she explains it as though it's something new. However, she does have a rather new and interesting approach to the use of free-writing, and that has value.

She directly relates these exercises to the short short story form. She also sees the five-minute exercise as a stepping stone, or building block, when working on longer fiction. She presents a great deal of information on the use of these exercises in the creation of short stories, novels and novellas, in terms of both method and revision.

Unfortunately, the text of this book rambles, babbles, and repeats itself; don't read this book while you're sleepy or bored. The five-minute exercise method itself is quite fascinating, however. The ideas for working these exercises into longer pieces save this book from being a simple rehashing of free-writing and turn it into a collection of very interesting ideas.

She makes the point that when free-writing, you need to allow yourself to "make a mess." You can't be thinking of comma usage if you want to see what your unconscious mind has waiting for you. On the other hand, when discussing examples from her students' work, she describes "mistakes" they made as being ones of "carelessness." If she wants people who read her book to let go and write what comes into their heads, then it's a bad idea to indicate that making mistakes would be careless of them.

This isn't a perfect book, and you have to be willing to look past a few small issues, but the ideas are innovative and useful. If you're looking for a new way to jump-start your creativity, this book can be a lot of fun!

Roberta's "Fast Fiction" has helped me tremendously. With my little kitchen timer and her exercises, you get past the "writer's block." She makes this phrase almost obsolute! A necessary book for both published and unpublished writers. A great tool for anyone living the writer's life!

I consider Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes to be the most valuable book in my "How-to-Write Collection." I wish I had had it when I first started writing. It would have jump-started my creative process much sooner. I thank author Roberta Allen from the bottom of my heart.

I have at least fifty books covering all aspects of writing: structure, formatting, dialogue, description, characterization, marketing, etc. I even have one titled How to Write and Sell Children's Picture Books and another How to Write Attention-Grabbing Query & Cover Letters. While each of these books was helpful in individual aspects of writing, they all advised the best way to get started is to sit down and start writing; none told exactly how to begin ... as this book does.

After reading everything I could get my hands on about writing, participating in many creative writing courses, and spending years in the journalism field, I finally absorbed enough information to edit and publish a newspaper and to write decent novels and short stories. I had reached a point where I could sit down with a blank Words document and go with the flow. By blending bits and pieces of "book-learning" with "street smarts," I had accidentally stumbled on the concepts taught in this book: I had learned to use my conscious mind while accessing the deeper well of knowledge in my subconscious.

This, for a writer, is a wonderful place to be--a place I could have reached much sooner if I had had this book.

I had always bragged: "Give me a word and I can write a story around it." Several friends and family challenged me; one gave me two words: "Heavy Metal"; another gave me the word "harem." To see where blending my conscious and subconscious minds led me with those words, read "Heavy Metal" and "Uncle Herman's Harem" in my Amazon Connect blog on my profile page. And those flash-fiction stories were written long before I owned this book. I feel that with this book I could have written them much quicker and my short-shorts backlog would be much larger.

Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes shows you how to write fast fiction (most often called flash fiction or short-short stories) in only five "short" minutes (pun intended). That is not to say your story will be polished and ready for publication in five minutes, only that the main theme of your story will be firmly in place, ready for the next step. The author not only teaches the five-minute process for flash fiction, she goes on to explain how an entire book can be developed using this same, easy method. Fascinating stuff!

FYI, flash fiction is characterized by its extreme brevity. While there is no universally accepted exact word limit, most flash-fiction pieces are between 250 and 1,000 words but can go as high as 2,000 words. "Traditional" short stories range from 2,000 words to upwards of 20,000, and are mainly between 3,000 and 10,000 words long; they are distinguished from longer forms, such as the novel and novella, primarily by the intent that they be read in a single sitting.

Many of my Amazon Friends and reviewers ask me for tips about writing, which is the main reason I reviewed this book today. I want to encourage every aspiring writer to get started, and this book contains over 300 prompts to help you do that. In addition, I advise potential writers to subscribe to Writers Digest (1-year) because each issue has not only writing tips but encouraging stories from famous and beginning authors, lists of markets for your writing, helpful tips from agents and publishers, and writing contests. Many of my published author friends swear by WD.

As soon as Roberta Allen explains the five-minute process, I urge you--no matter what level of writing you are on--to close the book and try a five-minute exercise. She not only teaches you to choose a single word to get you going (as I did above) but also to use a photograph or a scene for inspiration. Very clever! Very inspirational!

So go for it! I'm certain you'll be inspired as much as I am! Reading and utilizing this author's methods is fun and useful. It's also exciting and will lead your Muse right to you!

Bless you, Roberta Allen!

Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, 2008
Author of: The Toonies Invade Silicon Valley

I read this book and totally loved it. There are so many writing exercises and it's so fun doing them. For example, one topic might be to write about a secret and you have only five minutes to write about it.
When I did the exercises I was so surprised by some of the stuff I wrote. The ideas just came in a flash for me. I found myself with so many ideas rushing through me that I had to slow down a little to actually get everything written down. Occasionally, I would read one of the topics and for a second I'd think something like, "Okay, I can't think of anything to write about an insect" and then the next second I found myself just writing for five minutes straight as the story rapidly unfolded in my mind. When the five minutes were up, I'd be left feeling stunned that I actually wrote a pretty decent story on a subject like the one above.
Although, I've always enjoyed writing, before I read this book I was starting to get a little stuck. I had trouble thinking of topics or finishing short stories. This book really made me want to start writing stories again. I haven't completely finished the book yet, but already it has really helped me out a lot. I unquestionably reccomend this book to anyone reading this review.

I read this book and totally loved it. There are so many writing exercises and it's so fun doing them. For example, one topic might be to write about a secret and you have only five minutes to write about it.
When I did the exercises I was so surprised by some of the stuff I wrote. The ideas just came in a flash for me. I found myself with so many ideas rushing through me that I had to slow down a little to actually get everything written down. Occasionally, I would read one of the topics and for a second I'd think something like, "Okay, I can't think of anything to write about an insect" and then the next second I found myself just writing for five minutes straight as the story rapidly unfolded in my mind. When the five minutes were up, I'd be left feeling stunned that I actually wrote a pretty decent story on a subject like the one above.
Although, I've always enjoyed writing, before I read this book I was starting to get a little stuck. I had trouble thinking of topics or finishing short stories. This book really made me want to start writing stories again. I haven't completely finished the book yet, but already it has really helped me out a lot. I undoubtedly reccomend this book to anyone reading this review.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. It was great. I've always enjoyed writing, but a few months ago I got writer's block. This book helped me to get started in short stories again. I highly recommend this book to anyone reading this review.

In five minutes one can go from utter despair over not knowing what to write yet needing to write to wonderful little story gems or the beginnings of larger novel treasures. I recommend this fantastic book to anyone in need of inspiration.

"Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes" by Roberta Allen. Story Press, Ohio, 1997.ISBN 1-884910-27-0 HC, Pages 194/198, Index 3 pages. 9 ¼" x 6 1/8".

Author Allen, a published writer of short short, short, novella and novels, teaches at NYU. Her book has 3 sections whose titles are defined if not self-explanatory and include I: The Short Short Story, II: The Exercises, and III: Writing Longer Stories and Novels where shaping, polishing, "seeing" stories and getting started are emphasized.

Roberta Allen offers a delightful, instructive and perchance novel approach to writing, particularly of the short short story via chiefly brief 5 minute non-stop creative writing exercises, and she includes a dozen examples of excellent short shorts that cut to the bone, three enticingly important examples include: "The Nincompoop" by Anton Chekhov, "Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye" by Luisa Valenzuela, and "Dinner Time" by Russell Edson -- these provide an excellent overview of the wide dimensionality of short shorts and are instructive of how brevity can become master of success, where every word of the short short should be accounted for - akin to poetry, and where laxity as encountered in many novels would spell disaster.

I began studying and writing Micro & Flash fiction on Zoetrope's Writers' Workshop in 2000. Over the years, I've accumulated a "how-to" short-short fiction reference library and Roberta Allen's FAST FICTION is simply the best textbook.

I've never been able to create anything in five minutes, but Ms. Allen's five-minute-thought-probe drills can really help a writer get off the flat part of the creative wheel. The high examples of Flash chosen are remarkable. I have to agree with Doctor Owl, "Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye" by Luisa Valenzuela is a minor masterpiece.

I've recommended FAST FICTION to many beginning Flash writers.

Ramon Collins - Micro editor, The Linnet's Wings