Part 1: The Short Forms
Your original idea starts your creative process.
âBob Mayer
Thereâs an old Ethiopian proverb that goes something like this: âLittle by little the egg will walk.â If you think about it a moment, the saying makes quite a bit of sense. Take one step at a time and youâll reach your goal. So thatâs what weâll do in this book. Weâll begin slowly and work our way up to writing longer, fuller, and more satisfying work.
The chapters in this section present examples of the short fiction forms beginning with 55 Fiction, or 55ers, and moving through flash fiction to short-shorts and short stories. Iâll provide some examples of exemplary pieces from my colleagues for you to analyze, and add a few stories of my own. Iâll also share some writing wisdom, invaluable tips, and words of encouragement gleaned from my workshop notes at the Central Coast Writerâs Conference. There will also be plenty of exercises at the end of the chapters to help you bridge the gap between the short and the long forms.
So like the egg, little by little, letâs begin our walk.
Chapter 1: 55 Fiction
How short can a story be and still be considered a story?
Steve Moss, editor and co-publisher of New Times in San Luis Obispo, posed this question in his introduction to The Worldâs Shortest Stories, and it wasnât long before these very short pieces of 55 words became a local, national, and international phenomenon. Each year New Times holds a 55 Fiction contest. I fell in love with the genre and over the years Iâve been fortunate to have several of my 55ers featured among the winners. For a fiction writer these very tiny pieces can be a huge challenge, but I guarantee youâll have tons of fun creating them, and in the process learn to shape and hone your writing skills for much longer work. Did anyone say warm-up exercises?
Letâs take a look at some excellent examples of 55 Fiction.
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December 8, 1980, 5:59 P.M. by David Congalton
She closed the history book and sighed. âThat General Custer. He should never have left the safety of the Dakota territory.â
He was in too much of a hurry to listen. He picked up his guitar and headed for the door. âBloody hell, Yoko. Letâs go. Weâre going to be late.â (51 words)
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Did you have almost a visceral reaction to reading this piece? I sure did. Like most horrendous events in historyâthe assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedyâwe remember where we were, often even what we were doing at the time. John Lennonâs assassination is no exception. My partner, Bob, now my husband, and I were sitting in our living room reading the evening paper when our next door neighbor burst in with the news.
Mr. Congaltonâs 55er has a sense of reality, immediacy, terror, and surprise; itâs economical in its brevity, but it has depth and great power and the satisfying feel of a full story. Not bad for just fifty-one words, eh? (Yep, pieces less than fifty-five words are allowed in the contest.)
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The More Things Change by Christine M. Ahern
When they met, her hair was wild, her name was Peace.
His hair was long, his name was Sam. He played guitar for her.
Sam traded his guitar for golf clubs. Sheâs long since cut her hair.
He calls her Judy. But sometimes, under a full moonâs light, he sees Peace and kisses her anew. (55 words)
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In The More Things Change, Ms. Ahern does a beautiful job of charting the trajectory of a relationship: how two people meet, change with the years, and come full circle at the end. She lets the reader fill in the blanks. One of the most striking aspects of this piece is its three-part structure. Can you identify and separate Ms. Ahernâs story into those divisions? The nostalgic afterglow is a wonderful bonus. How can anyone not love it?
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Grapplemeyer by Shirley Powell
âOld Grapplemeyer died broke. The reading of this will is over.â
âThat old fraud,â sobbed Lydia, Grapplemeyerâs mistress of thirty years. âIâve wasted my life.â
âYou?â shouted David. âI was his secretary, valet, and more!â
âI was only the cook, but Iâll miss dear Mr. Grapplemeyer,â said Rosemary, fingering a huge diamond ring. (53 words)
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Can you see Ms. Powell winking at you as you read the last line of this humorous piece? Itâs shortâclocks in at 53 wordsâsweet, and reads like a dream. Talk about curling up at the end. No reading between the lines here. Itâs all there and beautifully written.
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Your Turn Now
Before we begin this section of writing exercises, a few caveats.
Donât worry if you go over the fifty-five-word limit during the first draft. Let the creative juices flow. Let your imagination run rampant and make your story curl right up to its inevitable and surprising end. If you want to set a timer, feel free. Set the timer for whatever time limit youâre comfortable with, but like Goldilocks, not too long and not too short. You want to get your thoughts down as quickly as you can. I usually write these short pieces by hand on legal tablets as I find the words flow better for me this way than on a computer. But thatâs up to you.
Weâll talk about revising your drafts to fit the fifty-five-word restriction at the end of this section. Write as many 55ers as you like. Just remember to have fun.
In her book, Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes, Roberta Allen calls these types of writing exercises âplaying with possibilities.â Iâve adapted a few of her exercises for this book. If you like, try combining two or three prompts into one and write that story; for example, write a story about a myth, a victory, and growing old.
- Write a 55er thatâs a parody of one of your favorite novels, movies, or TV shows.
- Write a tale with erotic overtones.
- Write a parody of a myth or fable.
- Write a 55er using only dialogue.
- Write about growing old.
- Write about a close call.
- Write about a place or time that feels nostalgic.
- Write a 55er thatâs pure narrative. (No dialogue allowed.)
- Write about a crisis.
- Write about a victory.
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After the Exercise
- Review the rules for writing 55 Fiction (Appendix A).
- Does your story have an arc? A distinct beginning, middle, and end?
- Count the words in each line and write the line total off to the side.
- Add the line totals. Did you go over the 55-word limit? My guess is you did. I usually do.
- Review your draft and eliminate as many âweaselâ words as you canâwords that add nothing to your story.
- Replace weasels, usually adjectives and adverbs, with stronger nouns and verbs.
- If your story is close to fifty-five words, not to worry. Just donât go over the limit. As Stephen King said, âKill your darlings.â Donât be afraid to lose a word here and there. As you become more proficient at writing in this form, your work will become tighter. This is a skill worth its weight in gold when you face more challenging and longer writing projects.
- Does your story have a theme? If so, write it down. It will come in handy if and when you expand your 55er into a piece of flash or a short story. Or even into something longer. I know you can do it.
As an example, hereâs one of my drafts I revised from 132 to 55 words.
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A Tale of One Alley by Paul Alan Fahey
(A parody on Dickensâs A Tale of Two Cities)
It was a lovely day, it was a rotten day, it was a full moon, it was a total eclipse, it was Grenada, it was Asbury Park, it was the fog mixing in with the hue from the street lamp, creeping around corners on teeny, tiny ...