Tag Archives: short story

Feb 4 2013

Procrastination


Stop Feeling Lazy by Carol Look

Stop Feeling Lazy by Carol Look

 

I realized that I’ve been procrastinating.

I was genuinely busy through the last couple of months, until about the first week of this month. I got used to being so busy I had little time for writing (and what I had went into blogging and Friday Fictioneers).

When the other demands on my time finally let up, I should have gone back to the short story I’ve been trying to finish. Instead, I filled the time with more reading, particularly many interesting, but not really relevant, blog posts and news articles.

Last April, I wrote about joining the Write 1 Sub 1 monthly challenge. I had fully intended to do it. But I failed abysmally. Not a single short story finished, let alone submitted.

I set out with great intentions to participate in the monthly challenge for the whole year this year. But I let January pass me by with no progress. Continue reading →

Nov 12 2012

Ultimate Flash Fiction


English: Ernest Hemingway on safari, Kenya, 1954

English: Ernest Hemingway on safari, Kenya, 1954 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

If flash fiction is defined as less than a thousand words, or even less than a hundred, this must be just about the ultimate in flash fiction:

UMass Boston students show creativity in six-word story contest

Inspired of course by the legendary six-word story by Ernest Hemingway, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”, UMass Boston held a six-word story contest, and some of the top stories are brilliant.

Flash fiction is sometimes known as micro-stories. These must be nano-stories.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Found a web site devoted to Six Word Stories.

 

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Sep 13 2012

Book Review: Let’s Write a Short Story! by Joe Bunting


Let's Write a Short Story

Let’s Write a Short Story! by Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting, of the well-known writing blog The Write Practice, recently published the e-book Let’s Write a Short Story!. I agreed to review an advance review copy (and my apologies, Joe, for being so late with the review; life conspired to keep me from writing it until now, let alone finishing my short story WIP).

The purpose of this book is to help writers to write short stories and get them published. It’s a short book, only 153 pages in the PDF I received. But it’s packed full of useful information to get beginning writers on the fast track to short story publication.

The book begins with a reality check: some statistics on the low acceptance rates of submissions to major American literary magazines. But it goes on to give eight good reasons we should write short stories anyway.

Next, short stories are defined by giving four main attributes they generally share, and three things they are not. This is followed by some discussion of how to get published by literary magazines. Continue reading →

Apr 17 2012

Writing Challenge: Write 1 Sub 1


Writer's Stop

Writer's Stop (Photo credit: Stephh922)

I just came across this writing challenge Write 1 Sub 1. Here is the description:

  • Write and submit a short story or poem every week (or month), starting the first week of January and ending the last week of December.
  • Goal: 52 new submissions in 52 weeks (or 12 in 12 months).
  • You don’t have to write and submit the same story within the same week — although that’s what Bradbury did. Often it pays to set a story aside for a while and come back to it.
  • The length of your story can be as short as Twitter fiction (140 characters) or as long as a novelette (15,000 words). Any style, any genre: whatever you write.
  • Every week, we post a “check-in” where you can tell the world about your progress. Share your triumphs and disasters — we’re all in this together.

Continue reading →

Mar 29 2012

Flash Fiction: The Fight


Red sunset

Red sunset (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s another short story that I submitted to The Write Practice. This one was on the post announcing the “Show Off” writing contest: The Love Story Edition. This isn’t exactly a love story, though love is involved in it (and I know this will cross some of your minds, so yes, it is partially autobiographical). I also submitted it late, so I had no chance of winning the contest, but I decided to put it out there anyway. Let me know what you think of it.

 

The Fight

Mike sat on the edge of the cliff. He could feel the cold roughness of the granite beneath him. This was his favourite thinking place. Peaceful. A beautiful view across the wooded valley. The sun was just setting, painting the sky and clouds fiery colours. But his attention was not on the sunset today.

His eye was drawn to the jagged rocks far below, at the base of the cliff. He contemplated how it would only take one quick lunge forward and it would be over in seconds. No more pain. Not even from the impact. It would be so fast his brain would not register any pain. The easy way out. The selfish way. But that wouldn’t be fair to the kids. They had done nothing to deserve this. Continue reading →

Mar 19 2012

Short Story: The Wrong Turn


Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest citie...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following is a very short story (460 words) that I wrote for the first prompt of the book The Write Practice: 14 Prompts by Joe Bunting (available for the Kindle from Amazon, or on Joe’s blog The Write Practice as a PDF file. All feedback is welcome (and while I enjoy compliments as much as the next guy, constructive feedback would be more helpful 8^).

 

The Wrong Turn

It’s late. I’m exhausted. Shoulders are aching. No sound but the hum of the engine and the tires. My wife’s asleep beside me, the kids in back. Twelve hours on the road. I’ve got to find a hotel before I fall asleep at the wheel. But I want a name I know. This place scares me, even up here on the interstate, above the building roofs. Industrial, dirty, urban decay. Like a scene from some dark movie. Continue reading →