Write a story with no more than 50 words about a shoe that was found on a beach.
Deadline: May 10th.
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Write a story with no more than 50 words about a shoe that was found on a beach.
Deadline: May 10th.
One can accumulate only so much karma in a lifetime. Bill picked up his things leaving the bathers to their lives.
“Hey, mister, you left your shoe!”
Bill knew he wasn’t far enough away. Did it matter? He walked back to the child, took the shoe and triggered the explosion.
Good entry! I think you master the most important technik of nano stories: how and when to surprise the readers.
Hoping for more so that we may have a contest.
Thanks, Danik! I hope there are other entries as well. I would like to see this continue.
Excellent fifty words is a tall order. I have seen one hundred in internet competitions.
I took the number of words from another Litnet Thead which has quite interesting contribuitions. Want to have a try?
If you're taking votes (which, of course, you're under no obligation to do), I would like to add my vote to Magnocrat's for an expansion to 100 words. I've always struggled with the 50 word limit. I even started a 100-word story thread myself, though the 50-word one remained much more popular. Just my two cents.
Liked your entry a lot, YesNo. Here's mine:
On the beach today, I found one shoe from my son’s horse, which he had haphazardly shod and melodramatically ridden into the lake after a failed romance--only then learning that horses can swim. His embarrassed observation: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it sink.
Good entry, Calidore, a wise story. And we have a contest now.
Why don´t we revive your 100 words thread instead of opening a new one? People then can choose which one they prefer or even post on both.
Seems like a capital idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danik 2016
Very good calidore I loved the touch of humour.
Nice one, Calidore!
We've got a revived 6 word thread, a new 50 word contest, an older 50 word thread, an older 100 word thread that I will try to revive and a short story thread for longer stuff.
Once we post something here, we have published it. Maybe we need a thread listing places where people have published stories (or poems) elsewhere. Perhaps that already exists.
I have found and revived a 100 word story thread but that one was started by cacian.
That links thread would be an good idea. If one wants to keep the stories but doesn´t have an own blog, that would be the way.
Another thread could be links to stories that other people wrote with a brief comment by us why we liked the story. We should not copy someone else's story into the thread, but a link would be a way to promote the author's work. There is a thread for poems we have recently read. This might be stories we have recently read.
I must have missed the 100 word story thread cacian started.
As there are only two entries as yet, I am going to extend the deadline to May, 15.
Please let´s have your contribuitions ladies and gentlemen!
This is an excellent idea, though I don't think I can enter the competition at this point. Still, there are some days left to the 15th...
Your participation is heartily envited DW. If it is necessary to extend the deadline a bit further for any one that still wants to participate there won´t be any problem.
Sorry, people, I just now noticed that I quite forgot about this competition and today we already have June 13th.
Yes/No- The effective surprise at the end.
Calidore-An interesting coupling of the story with a popular saying
Difficult choice- Calidore the next round is yours.
Congratulations, Calidore!
I totally forgot about this, too. Thanks much, Danik and YesNo.
Trying to think of a topic that might make for good short-shorts. Let's do spotting an ex (spouse, lover, etc) from a distance.
Phyllis left Brian for Pablo one weekend, but Pablo had a girlfriend. So Phyllis ran into Brian. They’d spend the night. He’d remember Pablo. Each time, he’d swear off all women. “Never again!” But Brian kept running into Phyllis.
Marcia, without Pablo-issues, broke the chain.
Brian never saw Phyllis again.
It just occurred to me that mine wasn't quite on topic since there was no "distance". Hopefully someone else will write one more on topic.
Your story reminds me of this poem by Carlos Drummond de AndradeQuote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
In a very rough translation:Quote:
Quadrilha – Carlos Drummond de Andrade
João amava Teresa que amava Raimundo
que amava Maria que amava Joaquim que amava Lili
que não amava ninguém.
João foi para os Estados Unidos, Teresa para o convento,
Raimundo morreu de desastre, Maria ficou para tia,
Joaquim suicidou-se e Lili casou com J. Pinto Fernandes
que não tinha entrado na história.
(Carlos Drummond de Andrade)
Quadrille
João loved Teresa who loved Raimundo
who loved Maria who loved Joaquim who loved Lili
who didn´t love anybody.
João went to US, Teresa to the convent,
Raimundo died in an accident, Maria remained single,
Joaquim comited suicide and Lili married J. Pinto Fernandes
who wasn´t part of the story.
After putting that in Google Translate, the style does seem similar. Many characters but only 50 words to develop each of them.
I didn´t notice that the poem also had exactly 50 words.
I think the poem had 52 words based on a Google Docs count.
If you count "US" and "J. Pinto Fernandes" as one word that will make 49 or 50 I think. Anyway it is a funny coincidence. Anyway let`s hope for more stories.
I hope so too. You going to submit one, Danik?
YesNo, you can always tweak that one or submit another if you like.
Dangit, forgot to include a deadline. How about the end of June.
Funny, I didn't have any ideas for this topic myself, but after I posted, two popped into my head immediately. I'll put them up after the deadline.
Phyllis left Brian for Pablo one weekend. Pablo already had a girlfriend, but he didn’t think Phyllis needed to know until afterwards.
Now Phyllis eyes Brian from a distance and Brian eyes Phyllis from a distance.
Marcia, without Pablo-issues, broke the stalemate, but they still think about each other.
Lol! I prefer this version.
Yes, if I have a good idea.
I do also. There is nothing like a constraint to force one to revise. I am looking forward to yours, if you get that good idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danik 2016
Thanks, Yes/No!
Some of you might be interested in:
The Dark Flash Month
https://brokenwriterblog.wordpress.c...k-flash-month/
That sounds like an interesting blog. There is also https://everydayfiction.com/ You can post comments on stories as well as submit them.
Thanks Yes/No. The link I posted is from Meg´s blog. I don´t know if you are still following her.
Well, the deadline has well passed with only one entry. YesNo, while you're the winner by default, it was a fine story.
The contest was a nice idea, Danik; I'm sorry it hasn't gotten much response. I'm always hopeful the board activity will pick up again.
Here are the two ideas I had after suggesting the topic:
1) On the freeway the other night, I came upon the now ex-love of my life standing in my lane, waving her arms, disabled car off to the side. Another chance, thank you, Lord! I approached her slowly so she could see it was me, and waved. Then I floored it.
2) Three years ago, I gave the beloved dog I could no longer afford to a friend of a friend. Out walking today, I saw her, unmistakably her, with a feral pack, rooting in garbage. She growled with them when I came near, no longer knowing me. Or does she remember?
Both of those stories are good, Calidore. I suspect the dog remembers and flooring it was unexpected in the first one.
I might as well continue this contest to see how it goes. The new topic will be "summer" which hopefully doesn't restrict too much. The deadline will be in two weeks or until someone submits something if it goes longer than two weeks.
Excuse me for not participating in this round, Calidore and Yes/No, I had to meet a deadline. I will contribute to the next.
I liked both your stories Calidore, although in the first I was floored by the use of floored in this context. I looked the verb up, but it still isn´t clear to me if the narrator helped his ex or if he went away and forgot about it. As for the second, the mystery remains: it could be that the narrator took a similar looking dog for his own. I suppose dogs and even cats recognise their owner after years.
A remembrance (still the last topic, more than fifty words)
I once had a cat called Jeremias. He immediately disappeared, but was found asleep on the winter clothes. We tried to take Jeremias with us, when we moved, but he escaped.
Some times later, I was there. A now feral cat answered my call.
I never saw him again.
Thanks, Danik and YesNo.
Danik, in the context of driving, "flooring it" means to push the accelerator to the floor. The second chance he was thankful for was in fact getting another try at killing his ex. Getting just that story down to 50 words, plus trying to include the misdirection and foreshadowing in those same 50 words, made it the more difficult of the two to write by a considerable margin. Ideally, it still holds up on rereading.
The memory question in the second story was actually a last-minute change. The narrator's original dilemma was whether to have her picked up and hopefuly adopted again, saving her from a much harder and probably much shorter life as a street dog. But she's now in a pack, her natural social setting, and doesn't know that she can have it better, especially since her first two (at least) human masters abandoned her. So would he actually be helping her or just ruining her life yet again? I quickly found that there was no way I was getting that into 50 words.
Fifty words is very little indeed. If I find the 100 words thread, I will put it up again. I found it difficult to squeeze Jeremias into 50 and odd words.