Still, writing the story in a traditional way, as a continuous stream of voice where the past is interwoven seamlessly with the present, seemed awkward to me after the novella-in-flash adventure.

I was very excited to spend time with a character like that, channeling his voice. He’s also suspicious of everyone around him, and rather unreliable as a narrator. George Baker is a highly intelligent retiree, with an acute sense of irony and self-irony.

I included flashes as lists, instructions, stories told in reverse chronological order, postcards, and even a story written as a table.Īfter the novella-in-flash stint, writing a linear narrative was a challenge.įinding my narrator’s voice was easy. As I wrote it, I often wondered about the various ways a writer can tell a story, and what makes a story a story. It had been so fun to write ‘Bottled Goods’: each chapter as a distinctive flash fiction. Every now and then, I tried to step back from the planning board, trying to see where they were ‘holes’ in the plot, where a new flash was required. I worked fast, completing a new piece every two or three days. I had been immersed for three months in my novella, cutting and adding flash fictions as I adjusted the story arc. Fiction in fits and starts defined me back then and I had just completed my novella-in-flash ‘Bottled Goods’ - the longest fragmented narrative I’ve ever written. I had a six-month-old baby, and I only had time to write when she was napping. Sophie Van Llewyn discusses her short story, ‘ Dinner for Two’, taken from Issue Ten of The Lonely Crowd.Īt the time when I began writing ‘Dinner for Two,’ in the winter of 2017, I was, primarily, a flash fiction writer. Writing ‘Dinner for Two’ / Sophie van Llewyn

Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn