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.
