4. a particular kind of substance
In this fourth look at the various definitions of matter, I encounter this one:
a particular kind of substance: coloring matter
I like the particular here. An editor of a journal nicely called my writing flash fiction “a particular talent.” It is a particular kind of writing, and figuring out the particulars is part of the fun of writing in any form, included compressed ones. Someone recently wanted to interview me because she didn’t know anyone else who wrote in this particular way (very very short fiction). Interviewers often ask about the particulars of writing tiny things, and it’s hard to answer because each writer seems to approach it differently. But they do approach it; set themselves both with things and against them. With the poetics, say, of the objective correlative; against, say, the drawn out middles of narrative. With the weight of nouns and verbs; against the falsehood of transformational endings. And so on…
Of course, there’s also the “dark” side of writing compressed things, such as the famous poet who said to me, “You write flash fiction. Is that so you don’t have to write beginnings or middles?” He could’ve said, “Is that because you CAN’T write beginnings or middles?” So, in retrospect, he was being rather nice, I think.
Read the other three definitions here: 1, 2, and 3.