Saturday, September 10, 2011

Flash Fiction

As I've mentioned a few times before. I am putting a focus on the short story and the art of brevity for a little bit in hopes that it will improve my writing. When I came across a very awesome piece of flash fiction written by a friend of mine The Capillary. Her piece "You Can't Even Tell" is wonderfully written and an engaging read.

It was out of curiosity that I followed the link that she provided about the Platform Building Campaigner Challenge. I was very intrigued. I'd never attempted to write anything so short. So, much inspired by the wonderfulness of what I read, I decided to give it a shot, even though I am not actually a participant in the Platform Building Campaign.

So this was my attempt, but I don't think it really counts as a story. It was an attempt to do everything asked for in regards to extra challenges. I'm sure I could probably do better then this, but I didn't want to sit on it for too long and I've been so busy nursing my cat back to health. So I wrote this just this evening and spent maybe 30min on the edit for word count. It is currently unnamed.


The door swung open and I hoped it was him. A handsome man around my age, but he walked right by, roses in hand to the table of someone prettier than I. Averting my stare and adjusting the white rose I wore pinned to my chest, I waited for the door to open again.

This time it was an older gentleman, well groomed and flashing hints of gold around his neck and wrist. I sipped my water and watched him through my lashes. He glanced around briefly and then made his way towards a woman whose ears sparkled in the pale candlelight.

Thirty minutes past the hour, according to my watch, and the door stayed stubbornly still. The time had come and gone.

“Still waiting on your guest?”

“No, I don’t think anyone’s coming tonight.”

“Well maybe he’ll show up tomorrow.”

“Yeah. I’ll take the usual to go.”

“Already got it packed,” Nancy placed the container on the table and I grabbed my single, lonely meal as I stood to leave

“See you tomorrow.”

Nancy pushed the door open for me. “We’ll have the table ready like always.”

“Thanks.” I stepped out into the night and the door swung shut.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the mention!

    I found it difficult to write within a 200 word frame, but once I got into the idea of flash fiction, I sort of started to love the restrictions of flash.

    I did do a lot of reading in regards to the format before I even attempted one and the one thing I constantly keep in mind is: just like any other story, flash has a beginning, middle, and end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is very difficult! I did a lot of reading too, but I really struggled with it. I believe I have to agree with one thing that I read - flash fiction is not for everyone!

    I have a lot of appreciation for anyone who can write anything that short and make sure it has a beginning, middle and end.

    The shortest short story I've ever written was closer to 2K...

    ReplyDelete