What is "euphiction"

Euphiction is a writing genre where writers do literary " cover versions" of specific songs, a marriage of musical inspiration with the written word, or a story that works like a three-minute single. The word combines euphonious and fiction.

To write a euphictional story, writers select a song and either use the song's title or a lyric from the song as the title of the story, and then write a story that reflects the song itself. The goal of the piece is to create a literary cover of the song, by emulating the song's message or theme, or simply replicating the mood of the song in the story. The song's influence can be overt or cryptic, or the song can simply be recognized as a kind of soundtrack to the story. Some euphictional writers challenge themselves further by inserting as many of the lyrics from the song into the story. It must be stressed, however, that permission to use lyrics from the musician or band is paramount, especially if seriously considering the publication of the story.

Euphiction is a form of flash fiction, where the maximum word count for the story is 1,000 words, not including the title. The imposed word limit helps to reflect the ephemeral nature of a song.

Euphiction, as a writing genre, fits neatly into Warren Ellis' concept of burst culture. Euphictional pieces, like the songs that inspire them, are meant to be digested quickly and provide readers with satisfying narratives in bursts. And like music, collected euphiction can be shuffled (read in any order) and encourages repeat readings.