October 18, 2008

On Very Short Stories

I've figured out why I'm very fond of short stories—especially the 300–1500 word range—it's from years of writing short journalistic pieces. Whether in the form of a poem, column, essay, letter to the editor, or terse pay-by-the-word ad content, or blog entry, brevity is often the soul of expression.
So when an article by Sandra Seamans on "flash fiction" at
Bookspot Central came to my attention, I was thrilled to read about its popularity in the mystery genre.
Any short fiction demands succinct delivery, all the more so with short-short fiction. In fact, there's a newish form, the six-word biography (see article in New Yorker). It was reputedly started by Hemingway, who is said to have written the tragic “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Try it out and let me know what you think!

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