Is this the shortest published story ever?
And God said: DELETE line One to Aleph. LOAD. RUN.
And the Universe ceased to exist.
Then he pondered for a few aeons, sighed, and added: ERASE.
It never had existed.
Arthur C Clarke's siseneg is only 31 words long! Personally I really liked it when I read it in a collection of Clarke's short stories. (Sadly someone borrowed it and I have never laid eyes on it again.)
Does anyone know of anything shorter.
"When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there." by Augusto Monterroso is shorter.
Wow, that is short! (I presume some people might question whether it tells enough of a story.) Where and when was it published?Originally Posted by JCamilo
Nah. There are twitter zines that exist, which includes tons of stories much shorter. Such as this one.
Last edited by Drkshadow03; 08-15-2015 at 02:12 PM.
"You understand well enough what slavery is, but freedom you have never experienced, so you do not know if it tastes sweet or bitter. If you ever did come to experience it, you would advise us to fight for it not with spears only, but with axes too." - Herodotus
https://consolationofreading.wordpress.com/ - my book blog!
Feed the Hungry!
The following six-word story is often attributed to Hemingway, though that's questioned by others.
For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Sorry but I don't see that as a story. Are we to take every ad to be a story?
Those nanoism stories are more interesting than haiku.
My blog: https://frankhubeny.blog/
Give me haiku any day!
Yes. There is a certain something about haiku that makes people want to write it. I'm not sure what that is, but even I get motivated once in a while. Here's a haiku I wrote many years ago and I guess I'm publishing it right now.
Haiku: Japanese
form that is unworthy of
the English language.
There are also threads of short stories on Lit Net limited to 50 and 100 words. Now that I see the nanoism stories, 50 words doesn't seem that severe of a constraint.
My blog: https://frankhubeny.blog/
Read it again with a different eye. It's not an ad, it tells a story in ad form.
Funny haiku, YesNo.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Thanks, Calidore!
I just finished submitting a nanofiction to Nanoism. Now I'm sitting back waiting for the rejection.
My blog: https://frankhubeny.blog/
O Brontosaurus!
You've had your day, like Doris:
Now you just bore us.
That reminds me of Barney and Dora the Explorer.
My blog: https://frankhubeny.blog/
I came here to post this. This is one of my all time favorites.
Wedding dress for sale. Worn once by accident.
That probably doesn't qualify as it WAS an ad in a shop window in Inverness. But there is a story behind it.
In the dark he reached out for the matches. They were put into his hand.
That was a "story". Hmm. I guess there's fun in that sort of thing.
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