Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Flashy fiction

Well, I got bored tonight, and as it often happens when I'm bored, I turned to the Internet to entertain me. This night it was Twitter that saved the evening with a fun little exercise in very, very flash fiction.

In essence, we told stories using 140 characters or less, per Twitter. I know it's not a new thing, but I find it a great skill to write succinctly.

The most famous of the succinct fiction would have to be Hemingway's six-word story:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.


It is rather intriguing to put a story into so few words. Here are a few that we came up with tonight:

The plane landed, no one to greet her. Walking the tarmac, she knew what it was to be alone for the first time and for the rest of her life. —me


Cool, crisp and sweetly exotic. One satisfying bite and she had brought damnation upon the world. —me


You were just bitten by a laptop?" He asked.."I guess you'll have to go home and crash now." So I did, and lost my memory." —HECurtis_author


She threw the spatula, glaring as It quivered where it stuck in the wall. Tears dripped as she searched the empty cupboards —Cassidy_McKay


We held hands for the first time while staring into the abyss. You kissed my cheek whispering, “This is how the world ends.” —jimmyjacobson


What are your very short stories?


Edit: Our next very flash fiction day will be this Saturday, April 25. Sharpen your wits and join us at the #tinyfic hashtag on Twitter. Need help joining Twitter? Leave me a comment and I'll give you a tutorial.

3 comments:

  1. Please update me when you do this again, I'd love to take part! Great little stories!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You closed the curtain, turned off your porch light. I walked away, pulling the loneliness around my shoulders like an old familiar blanket.

    ReplyDelete

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