Carl Klutzke ([info]sirvalence) wrote,
@ 2006-01-10 06:12:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:100stories

100 Stories
[info]arenson9 has challenged me to write 100 stories of 100 words or less. I accept.
My plan is to post a new story every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. That gives me one day to write a first draft and one day to edit.

I just wrote the first one this morning in about an hour, from the idea I had while I was on vacation. My first draft was 250 words. It took considerably more time to cut the story down to size than it did to write it. I wonder if 100 words, while long enough to describe a plot, is too short to create the emotional impact a story should have. I guess I'll keep going and let Andy decide if he wants to alter the conditions.




(Post a new comment)


[info]erichris
2006-01-10 11:33 am UTC (link)
Asimov had a series of "postcard stories" which were all exactly 250 words. They were literally published on postcards, an idea which didn't catch on. But the micro-short stories were interesting. Asimov did say that it was, for him, a lot more difficult writing a short-short story than he thought going into it.

The true master of the short-short is Fredric Brown... He wrote a book that I wish I still had (I think I loaned it out and never got it back) called "Nightmares and Geezenstacks, which is a book of stories of a page or two in length each, all in a Twilight Zone-ish format... with the zinger you didn't see coming at the end. Even after reading a couple of dozen zingers, I never predicted how the story would end for any of them. Must take a special kind of brain to be able to do that.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]maerson
2006-01-11 02:34 am UTC (link)
Ooo... :o I may have to check that out. Sounds like some great game ideas... :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]sirvalence
2006-01-11 12:02 pm UTC (link)
250 sounds much more realistic than 100, but we'll see. I think the trimming back to 100 made my first story stronger than it would have been otherwise, but I'm also afraid that it loses so much detail as to be unintelligible.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]arenson9
2006-01-10 11:22 pm UTC (link)
Nope. Can't pin this on me. This is your exercise, you have decide what the conditions are.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]sirvalence
2006-01-11 12:03 pm UTC (link)
You challenge me but I set the conditions? That doesn't make sense. But okay, I absolve you of responsibility.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…