TravellerLast day of May and another flash fiction piece squeezed in to kick off the start of June (and hopefully nicer weather here in Britain), published in Pure Slush Magazine. The Art of Something out of Nothing is a sketch that plays around with language and interpretation. Just as an artist starts out with a blank canvas, a writer begins with an empty page; at least in a normal writing process. But what happens if a story is already fully formed and the writer begins by deconstructing the concept, picking away at elements and leaving the reader with only the bare bones that they need to know to follow the idea?

Speaking of bones – and incrimination… The Art of Something out of Nothing was inspired by editing stories. What are the limitations of language and of description? What are the things that can be said or done in a creative writing piece, but wouldn’t work as well cinematically? Can we break the writing conventions; is this taboo, or is it even acceptable within the confines of literature? What is politically correct, never mind grammatically correct?

In my story, I violate a lot of these conventions. Who is the main character really? What exactly are they up to and what have they done? It’s up to you as the reader to decide… but how much freedom have you been allowed?

Posted by on May 31, 2014 in Fiction, Writing and tagged , .

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About Leilanie Stewart

Leilanie Stewart is an award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She writes ghost and psychological horror, as well as experimental poetry. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis and create a new sense of identity. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry. In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.

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