You’ve heard of ipod nano, well there also exists nano stories. Small compact stories that in few words can be considered complete with a beginning, a middle and an end.
Recently I came across a form of story telling I had never heard about, via a publication called Per Contra They are looking for submissions for Fifty-fiver stories. The guidelines are exact. You write a story using only fifty-five words. If that’s not enough of a challenge, in a fifty-fiver, the first sentence has to be ten words, the second sentence nine, the third sentence eight then seven… down to one.
I love challenges, especially ones that make me work on grammar and story structure and I also like to take breaks from long, long stories that some days I wonder if I will ever finish. So I wrote a fifty-fiver and I made myself submit it. Submitting was the real challenge, the writing was fun. But, submitting is when you set yourself up for someone saying, thanks but no thanks.
A few weeks after submitting, I got a very nice, thanks but no thanks letter by email saying they we are sorry they couldn’t use my nano story (no elaboration as to why, because it’s a form letter) but they looked forward to reading more of my work.
Now that I know my fifty-fiver is not going to be published, I can claim sole rights and post it on my blog, knowing my friends won’t reject it. 🙂
Are any of you interested in the challenge of writing a fifty-fiver? I’d love it, if you would post your fifty-five words in the comment space or better yet, submit your work to Per Contra.
Come on try it! I did. I guarantee, no rejections.
No More
My mama didn’t need any more babies, papa disagreed.
He wasn’t around much to notice he had nine.
My sister, Maria remembers mama saying, “No More.”
They say I burnt my mama’s insides.
Her hot blood followed me out.
Her screams, my cry meshed.
Now we are ten.
Maria holds us.
Papa drinks.
Alone.
Chris Wenzel's Writing Frame Of Mind 