I've made attempts at four different flash fiction writing contests* in the last couple months. The process has been fun and extremely challenging.
Two of the contests had a word limit of 500, which seems a comfortable fit, but one, The Pearl, had a 250 word limit. I made two attempts at the problem (writing two completely different stories) and failed miserably, even after re-writing one of them multiple times. 250 words is a painfully constricting barrier. Despite the fact that I've read published stories of that length that worked (and a writer friend of mine wrote a very fine horror story for the same contest), I'm going to make an official announcement here... It's impossible to tell a good story in 250 words. It has to be impossible, 'cause I can't effing do it.
More about the mechanics of the flash fiction contest world in the next entry...
*Writer's Weekly, Reading Writers, Tattoo Highway, The Pearl
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I forgot to mention that I think it best to save the reading of your story to some kind of MP3 player and go listen to it somewhere away fro...
2 comments:
Hey, Trevor, repeat after me: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...
~Renee
Renee,
I'm going on the theory that hills are a BAD thing, and to be avoided at all costs.
Hmmmm. Maybe time to rethink...
Trevor
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