Monday, January 21, 2013

The Only Thing Skinny - My Fiction


A new term has been coined for short, short fiction, it’s called Skinny Fiction
Gary Taaffe may be the person responsible for the term, and he has a blog dedicated to this type of short. Writers are encouraged to send in stores with word limits less than flash. 10, 25, 50, at most 100 words. 

The most widely known and often quoted example of skinny fiction is by none other than Ernest Hemingway. The story goes that in response to a bet to write a story under ten words in length Hemingway did of course, with brilliance. Full of intrigue, mystery and emotion. He wrote:

Classified:  Baby Goods

        For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

During a flash fiction workshop with instructor Devon Ellington last month, an optional exercise to produce a twitter story of 140 characters or less piqued my muse. In the shower, where of course, the best ideas are spawned I came up with the idea for my first foray into skinny fiction.  I’m no Ernest Hemingway, but it was fun.
I’ve reformatted the story here from the 140 characters for twitter, to thirty words just for ease of reading. 
                    SOS

At sea. Dog and me. Feel so free. 
Dog died. I cried. 
So sad. Feel bad.
Got a cat. Imagine that.
Two days later, I hate her. 
Kitty-whipped. Abandoned ship.  

 
















So at least something is getting skinny this year, if only my fiction. Wish my thighs would follow suit.

As always feel free to post your comments or your skinny fiction.

4 comments:

  1. Your post lifted my spirits and made me chuckle. I love smart asses--Ernest Hemingway, definitely. I love realists--abandon ship! AND I LOVE YOUR SKINNY FICTION.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Sandy and glad I could lighten your day.

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