Sunday, February 17, 2008

They Don't Come Any Shorter............


Szelsofa has recently been trying her hand at making up short stories with only six words in them. Now, you could argue that a six word short story isn't a short story at all, but merely a sentence and to be honest, you wouldn't get much arguement from me. Ok, I'm sceptical, but is it possible to write something that short and convey a sense of narrative? I thought I'd have a shot myself.



I wait, lost. Not long now.


I understand. You don't need me.


Leaving here, missed the train. Fuck!


Bad sex? sure. Still miss you.


Feverish lust, darkened room, click click.


Burnt oil and engines roar. Ashfield Sundays.....


Damn! That's harder than I thought. I'd say only two of those are any good. I've tried one hundred word stories before, and yes, they're a pig to write as well.


I think I'll leave these little Zen numbers to the others.....









5 comments:

SzélsőFa said...

Thanks for the reference, IllMan.
When I first wrote my 250-word story for a friendly online writing contest, I found THAT extremely hard, too.
Then again, 100 words are still moe difficult.
But six?
Ouch.

Still, having learned taking a new look on words while doing some more 250-words exercises, now, these were not THAT very much hard for me.
I also sometimes write haiku, which also sharpens one's vision and word selection.

Don't get me wrong: I'm never near perfection or even being quite good- I'm just saying these exercisese did help me a lot to do now these 6-word challenge.

I'm so glad you tried it!
I liked the 5th the most.
If I had to rank it, the 5th would go first place, followed by 4th, 1st, 3rd and 2nd, but the 6th one's got 7 words, so that is didsqualified. Perhaps you can leave out 'and'. It stands without that just as well.

There were many people who visited my post, wrote they would try writing some, and so what?
Only you did it actually.

iLL Man said...

Thanks Szelsofa. Yes, the last one is a word too long, but I'll get round to changing it tonight. Quite happy with them, for first efforts.

Anonymous said...

"David Duff, wise, handsome, 'nuff said!"

The Birdwatcher said...

Nice photo. Impressed with the six word stories. I shall have a go.

iLL Man said...

Duff - It needs to have a narrative (of sorts). That's merely a statement. An untrue one at that.......

BW - Great! maybe we can get a wee meme going on this.

(Quick, run away! he's got a meme!!!)