Writing Wildly: How to Turn Experiments into a Cohesive Book

"Don’t worry about your experiments not yet forming a whole."

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.

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When I began publishing flash fiction nearly a decade ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I was a Dutch novelist with limited experience writing short form prose and knew nothing about the American literary market. I branched off into flash mainly to get comfortable writing in English (my second language) and get a few quick bylines to boost my bio. I didn’t see flash as a landmark on my author path.

But I was wrong. Flash was my gateway into the transformative world of editors and expert readers. Not only did writing flash improve my craft and connect me to cherished author friends (two related topics for another essay), it also taught me how to better evaluate my work.