Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Gather your writing utensils, set the timer to five minutes, and write a short short story. Do not think. Do not judge. Just write. You'll be amazed with what you come up with. The rest, says Roberta Allen, is merely a matter of rewriting and refining. There's something very appealing about the short short form (defined by critic Irving Howe as "a moment rendered in its wink of immediacy" and limited here to 1,000 words). As in poetry, every word and punctuation mark counts. Your characters' histories have to be delivered, if at all, with just a sliver of language. The form is elegant in the way a mathematical proof can be elegant--beautiful and economical--and the examples Allen uses, from the works of Anton Chekhov, Carolyn Forché, Mark Strand, and others, are sublime. (The examples from her students are less compelling, and one does tire of trying to keep her many students straight.)

The center section of the book comprises a nice selection of exercises to get you started. One involves writing stories from photographs; another has you choose one item from a list (such as "a broken promise," "something that was stolen," "a party," "something that hasn't happened yet," "a child," and "a secret") and write a story about it.

The third part of the book, in which Allen makes an argument for using her method to write a novel in five-minute bites, is shakier. Writing longer fiction generally requires some kind of flow that this method doesn't allow for. Using this method for that purpose would require that a lot of energy to be spent creating connective tissue. Even still, the five-minute method would be useful for tapping the unconscious, working through problem spots, and getting going in the morning. After all, doesn't that page look much more inviting once it has some words on it?

Product Description

The techniques described in this book will help writers be more creative and more productive in shorter periods of time. Allen guides the reader step by step through the basics of writing short fiction, then shows how to use her five minute method to produce longer work, even novels.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Story Pr; 1st edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884910270
• ISBN-13: 978-1884910272
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #653,013 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars encouraging, helpful, inspirational!, February 3, 2001

By	Jane James "homeschoolmum" (California) - See all my reviews

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Building blocks for writers, April 25, 2004

By	H. Grove "owling6683" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book brings out your creativity in minutes!, January 16, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

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!