Life goes on, and for the sake of verisimilitude and realism, you cannot possibly give the impression of an ending: you must let something hang. A cheap interpretation of that would be to say that you must always leave a chance for a sequel. People die, love dies, but life does not die, and so long as people live, stories must have life at the end.
– John O’Hara
Author: bryon
haiku 239
12:34:56
twice a day
things are in order
Discussion: Flash Fiction: Stories or Poems
This discussion began here. So start with that and then continue here. Give us your thoughts on what constitutes a story. Do the requirements change when the writer has only 140 characters? Do some pieces of tiny fiction seem more like poems than stories? Where is that line drawn?
Jump in!
#quikfic 26
My future self came and told me how terrible and lonely his life was. I chose another path, which put us both out of our misery.
Quotable 126
The writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master.
– Charlotte Brontë
haiku 238
new blanket
keeps the neighbors’ cat
warm on our porch
#quikfic 25
When the sun went down, her clothes came off. Night after night, I sketched her in the darkness until I finally got it right.
Fiction: Sock Hop
Kevin swallowed a mouthful of potato and said, “So, Dad, how was work today?”
Hugh Nelson stopped scooping up his peas and sighed. “Y’know, Son, I don’t really want to talk about it tonight. It’s just the same old nonsense from the same people. Tell me about your day instead.”
“Well, Mr. Mackenzie told me that when Vernon Morgan retires next month, he’s moving Pete Cooper up to the number two spot.” He looked around the table at his family and grinned. “And I will be the new paint department manager.”
“Oh, how wonderful,” Kevin’s mother, Betty, said.
“Good for you, Kevin,” said sister Karen.
Hugh nodded. “Now that’s the kind of office talk I want to hear around this dinner table. Congratulations, Kevin. That’s a quick promotion as young as you are, but I know you’ve earned it. You’ve proved your work ethic at the hardware store, and it’s paying off.”
“It sure is,” Kevin agreed. “With the raise I’m going to get, I can afford to buy a nice little house and start out on my own now.”
“Well, that’s just fine,” Hugh said. “Start living the American dream.”
Karen eyed her brother mischievously across the table. “And does that dream include Tina?”
Quotable 125
Writing well means never having to say, “I guess you had to be there.”
– Jef Mallett