100 word short story

Forums: Original Writing, Short Story, Writing Contest, 100 Words
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This has been an interesting project for growth. I decided to enter a few literary contests - and this, I've never done: writing a 100 word short. I guess it's difficult to say anything worth reading in this format in 100 words.

If anyone else wants to compete, I'll add the link... But, for others, ... what would you do? I think action - avoiding passive voice,...and having something of consequence in the balance - between the lines... must be what they're going for.

I suck at plot. My "writing style" tends to lend toward character study - but in 100 words...hey. No time for such a thing...

If it was you writing - what would YOUR goals be in 100 words?

(laughing) I'm not asking you to do my homework, but I'm genuinely interested in what GOALS or first thoughts would be for such a varied bunch.

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@Lash,

Oooh, I love short-short stories!

That was pretty much my favorite thing as an English major.

Well, the stories I liked best were 2-3 pages. 100 words is super-short. I love it as an exercise.

Hard to say how I'd start. Probably just cast generally around for something vivid -- something that either carries a lot of punch right there or can suggest a lot more through power of allusion.

When I think of YOU writing a short-short story, I think of some sort of dialogue between some vivid characters with distinctive voices (older women maybe, though I'm not saying just re-do your funeral story), where there is something self-contained there but there are also hints at a vast backstory.

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I agree completely about vivid, two character action. Great insight - thanks!!

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Would you let me have the link? I might be interested.

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@Lash,

I used to love reading short short stories, I'm sure Asimov edited an anthology I read. Way too many elaborate puns, but fun.

When I did my grad dip a lecturer read one story out of a collection (can't remember the writer) that went something like this.

'It's not easy sharing a fifth floor apartment on the lower east side with a man learning to play the violin in a summer heatwave during a blackout' she said as she handed the policeman the gun.

I guess I'd focus on one idea and try and get it across economically and imaginatively as possible, striving for 'show - don't tell'. As in my example use the reader to fill in the back story, you don't have to.

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@hingehead,

Way big yes on show, don't tell. Mulling something worth showing in 100 words. Thanks, HH! Nice share!

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Here ya go, edgar. Good luck!

http://www.100wordsorfewerwritingcontest.com/index.php?id=51

I think I'll post them all as they become current. This kind of company may push me to work better.

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@Lash,

Lois McMaster Bujold finished her last novel with five "drabbles." (Stories that are exactly 100 words.)

Very much character driven, but the characters have had something like eight novels worth of development before that.....

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Here ya go, edgar. Good luck!

http://www.100wordsorfewerwritingcontest.com/index.php?id=51

I think I'll post them all as they become current. This kind of company may push me to work better.

Thank you. I don't think a lot of their example of a winner. But, the first version I read of The Birds ended with just a hint of what those feathered little bastards were up to. So, you never do know.

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@Lash,

Looks like I was repeating a few of their hints. I think what I like also about these stories is the idea that you get a lot of information very quickly, but it all doesn't fall into place until the last line. If it offers a different way at looking at something so much the better.

That hot dog story went two sentences too long - for me it was over once I guessed what was happening.

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@Lash,

Quote:

100 word short story

Utter verbosity lying loquaciously in a ruin of tautology.

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@oolongteasup,

Succinctness is unreachable for some...

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@Francis,

WTF?

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@Lash,

It was an ordinary piercing although everyone in the tat shop thought the location odd. A gold ring half way between her elbow and her pit on her left arm. She seemed a little old but not unusually so. The piercing took just a few minutes, a 14 karat plain gold finger ring commonly seen as a wedding band. There was very little bleeding as she held a tissue against it. She walked directly out the front door, took a .38 special revolver from her purse, held the barrel to the palm of her hand and fired. She smiled, quietly.

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@dyslexia,

(smiles quietly)
very hot, baby

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@dyslexia,

Put it in the contest, dys. Please?

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@edgarblythe,

nah, I spent 12 minutes writing just to see what 100 words could amount to. not much.

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@edgarblythe,

I wish he would.

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dys - that's brlliant. Please enter it.
Here's mine:

Nine months after the death of her husband, she did the unthinkable: she took a lover. He was younger than her by twelve years. She didn't care. He was a simple man, strong, handsome and genuine. She cooked for him and greeted him when he came home from work, taking off his boots and kissing him on the neck. He did things for her around the house and made love to her every night. This went on for one year. Years later, she knew his love somehow diluted the thickness of grief, enabling her to drink of it without choking.

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@PUNKEY,

Very nice, Punkey, thank you!! It's helpful to see what folks would do under the parameters!

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100 word short story

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