Tuesday 28 September 2010

Very very short stories

I've been writing today and actually sent off a story by e-mail.

Well it was only 60 words in total.

This is the third time I've submitted very short stories this year, and as a break from longer projects they are satisfying even if the rewards are small.

Yes, every word has to count just as it does with a standard length short story or novel, but how you use those limited number of words is the important bit, and it certainly works your brain to be original- hopefully.

Currently, I and a lot of other writers are waiting to hear the results of the Arvon Foundation 6 Word Story. Though with only 6 words I'm sure there will have been a large number of  entries, so I don't expect to get anywhere.

Though it is a good excercise in summing up a story in a few words and still making sense...

4 comments:

joanne fox said...

Good luck with those Carol. I didn't think I'd like writing very short pieces, but now I've started I find they are a challenge. Quite satisfying too, as you say.

Carolb said...

Thanks Joannne. Yes they are an interesting challenge once you start them, hope you find success with them.

Lexia257 said...

I love writing these short pieces, Carol. As you say, they are a challenge in themselves and can't just be rustled off in 2 minutes just because it's a few words.
Good luck with your submissions.

Anonymous said...

Commenting to this one rather late, but such short stories are suprisingly hard to do. One of the online communities I'm in has weekly drabble challenges (a drabble is a story in exactly 100 words). Once I get an idea I can normally write a first draft in about five or ten minutes, and the first draft is usually about 150 - 180 words. It can then take anything from a few hours to a few days to edit it down to exactly 100 and still tell the story I want to tell!

Jill