It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all.
– Will Shetterly
haiku 241
prairie dogs
build their village
near Home Depot
#quikfic 28
Ralph stepped across the driveway. He stopped and smelled the roses in his neighbor’s yard. “Now what?” He shrugged and went home.
Fiction: Hatchet Job
“I’ve got it all set up for you, if you really want to do it.”
“It’s not so much a matter of want as need,” Wes said. “This is something I need to do. I should do it.”
Sheryl shrugged. “Over there. I’ve got one in a little pen, and Warren sharpened the hatchet. He said to remind you to just hit the turkey, not yourself.”
Wes made a little smile. “So kind of him.”
“He was kidding around. But it is good advice.”
They reached the small pen, and Wes stared at the big turkey his cousin and her husband had set aside for him. Sheryl kicked at the pen to make the turkey move back a little. She opened the door and ushered Wes inside.
Quotable 128
High impact fiction simultaneously does two seemingly contradictory things: On the one hand it conjures highly detailed story worlds that are entirely unique to its authors. On the other hand, it portrays universal human experiences with which millions of readers can identify.
– Donald Maass
haiku 240
on the shelves
marked “Bibles”
Harry Potter books
#quikfic 27
After making love in every state capital, we switched vowels. We’re up to 24 state capitols with 12 arrests and three warnings.
Quotable 127
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
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!