Discussion → FLASH SEQUENCES
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Some Thoughts on the Prose Sequence
On the surface, it makes sense to ask of a sequence that each part should be able to stand alone, as an integral object. Otherwise, the question arises, how does such a sequence differ from a short story simply broken up into parts?
For the sequence to be successful, it must itself function as a poem—that is, as a piece of art surrounded by the frame of silence. And who can ask of a poem that each section stand alone? Who can say of a sonnet: the octet must stand on its own, the sestet as well? We ask only that the entire poem be a piece on its own, entire, pristine and self-reliant.
Some sequences are indeed composed of integral sections, but in some others the sections can't be isolated without each piece losing its integrity, the whole in this case being more than simply the sum of its parts. In a way, this second sort of sequence is even more complex than what at first seems the ideal, a whole composed of standalone pieces.
However the pieces are organized, they create a rudimentary montage: narrative, syllogistic, or following some other scheme. We aim to include as many examples of this as possible.
For questions, email: editor@mariealexanderseries.com
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Group Description
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Wikipedia:
Charles Dicken's novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.[4][5] The installment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback
We've all seen them scattered among the flash fiction, these "little" segments of "enormous" stories trying to pass for small. I admit I've tried to do it myself with a story I really, really want read but no one here will read 7000 pages. It took a lot of work to change the serial format which to me is more readable and accessible.
Anything longer than 1500 words a section is verboten and has plenty of place on groups for longer stories and novel excerpts. Not here. Not among these flash fiction pieces linked together by a theme, but which can also stand alone.
Just as flash and microfiction are tiny stories that tell a life and are self-contained, so are the "sections" of the flashes in these linked serial stories. They are linked, but they each carry within them the whole of a story. This is not, in contrast, a "chapter book." It fits the Fictionaut model perfectly.
--Gloria Garfunkel
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