I love you - but in a micro sort of way.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 at 10:56AM 
Fast Exit
Kiss me with both lips on your way out the door, on a bus to Texas and when you get there make sure you don't write. Damn sure.
The Brooklyn, New York writer Jennifer Prado asked for tales of love for her Valentine Day posting at her blog, EMERGE. The catch: they could only be 30 words long.
I don't usually dabble in this micro-fiction, but it was a slow afternoon and I enjoyed the challenge. Trying to compose some sort of narrative (or a snapshot of a narrative) in so few words feels akin to doing a good crossword puzzle. I say a "good" puzzle because it is satisfying when you finish, all the squares are filled, and a certain degree of head scratching was involved. I hate the really easy ones.
Writing micro-fiction forces you to take all the things you know about character, plot, story arc, and crunch them down into a few words - but it's different than poetry. I think there still has to be some semblance of story.
In my tale (shown above), I crunched down the passion of a deep kiss early in a relationship, to the eventual breakdown (out the door), and complete collapse (bus to Texas) to resolution and moving on, but maybe with a hint of anger (damn sure).
Maybe a bit edgy for this Hallmark holiday of love, but well, there you go.
For more micro-love tales visit Jennifer's blog: EMERGE - New Authors
Reader Comments