Shaina, I agree. Tam’s story… shudder. Which is the intended effect, I believe. It works.
Don’t worry about what other people have done, just have fun with trying to write a complete story in 75 words. Write about something you know: a young woman in college, for example. 🙂
Pat–i think the reason tam, and i, thought mab is an alien is because you say “back to Earth” and “after 100 years”. although i suppose in a futuristic setting, humans could live more than 100 years, and travel to lots of other places. but the first reaction on my part is that she is not an earthling.
the first reaction on my part is that she is not an earthling.
Me too.
Note to Doug: I had to look up “otolaryngology”. Relevance unintended, btw, but glad you got a Bwaahahahaaa out of it.
and to Shaina: I find these things work best if you follow a “free association” technique for inspiration.
Or you could take a similar route to the one I use to draw really great bunny rabbits. Put a whole lot of pencil lines on paper and then erase all the non-rabbity ones.
About this….I didn’t lnow what was the pain, and I did not want to talk to anyone about it, until it got to the point to where I got a girlfriend, and I told her that I have pain there and she said did you see the doctor for it? Well, no I said. Then I went. It was embarrassing to talk about it, I couldn
t even look at the doctor till after I was finished. It is good that I did, as now there is recovery.
Re-discovered A Softer World tonight, thanks to Tor.com’s e-newsletter. Some of these are remarkably compact stories (less than 75 words, I’ll warrant), with nastiness to spare. Like #350 and #354, f’rinstance.
Shaina, Tam: I wouldn’t say you’re wrong to assume Mab is an alien. When I wrote it, I imagined her as human, but really, she could just as easily be inhuman…
“I originally thought so, Watson after examining the disposition of his used cutlery in the kitchens after the royal banquet. However, this was until I realised that the fish served was, in fact, red herring.”
another place, similar to a softer world but nicer, is storypeople.com. they blow me away. my favorite goes like this: “you’re the strangest person i ever met she said & i said you too & we decided we’d know each other a long time” and then there’s the one we bought my parents for their anniversary: “two could live as cheaply as one if one of us didn’t like chocolate so much”. 😀 some are long, some are short, some are funny, some are sad, all make you think. i love them to pieces.
my “story”, such as it is, came to me as i was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, and i had to get up, grab my glasses and sit here shivering cuz i have no socks on and write it before it escaped. what think you?
I’ll kick things off. Microsoar’s story? Bwaahahahaaa! And it even has otolaryngologic relevance.
tam’s is GROSSSSSS. ew.
and…i have no chance. i still might try. but i’ve gotta bow before someone who compares pieces of brain to nuts.
Three entries so far, three genres. Cool!
Write from the heart, Shaina, and I bet people will love it.
Shaina, I agree. Tam’s story… shudder. Which is the intended effect, I believe. It works.
Don’t worry about what other people have done, just have fun with trying to write a complete story in 75 words. Write about something you know: a young woman in college, for example. 🙂
Microsoar: hilarious twist.
Tam: At last count, that’s about 950 different kinds of wrong.
Mab’s an alien, right? Makes me wonder what kind of gun she has.
Microsoar’s story made me laugh. Quite the twist ending. Woohoo!
tambo
Hmmm, I never imagined Mab as an alien. Just a human who’s gone home, because “the last place he’ll look is in my home”, or something.
Your interpretation is interesting, though.
Pat–i think the reason tam, and i, thought mab is an alien is because you say “back to Earth” and “after 100 years”. although i suppose in a futuristic setting, humans could live more than 100 years, and travel to lots of other places. but the first reaction on my part is that she is not an earthling.
Me too.
Note to Doug: I had to look up “otolaryngology”. Relevance unintended, btw, but glad you got a Bwaahahahaaa out of it.
and to Shaina: I find these things work best if you follow a “free association” technique for inspiration.
Or you could take a similar route to the one I use to draw really great bunny rabbits. Put a whole lot of pencil lines on paper and then erase all the non-rabbity ones.
I tried that, Microsoar, but I wound up with a page full of holes.
Re: otolaryngology.
Jeez, it’s only my profession 🙂 And it used to be worse. We used to call ourselves otorhinolaryngologists (ear, nose, throat — get it?)
Can anything actually be full of holes? I mean, if it were all holes, it wouldn’t be there at all.
Oh. I’ve just described a Matthew Reilly book plot.
This is really fun!!
From my inbox . . . I thought this was a 75er:
. . . but it was in response to this post.
My bad!
Just wanted to say that I found my way over here from Dean’s Anacronyms – very nice entries so far.
Microsoar
By Jove, Holmes! Was he left-handed, too?
Re-discovered A Softer World tonight, thanks to Tor.com’s e-newsletter. Some of these are remarkably compact stories (less than 75 words, I’ll warrant), with nastiness to spare. Like #350 and #354, f’rinstance.
Shaina, Tam: I wouldn’t say you’re wrong to assume Mab is an alien. When I wrote it, I imagined her as human, but really, she could just as easily be inhuman…
“I originally thought so, Watson after examining the disposition of his used cutlery in the kitchens after the royal banquet. However, this was until I realised that the fish served was, in fact, red herring.”
You know what amazes me? How many times I’ve used the phrase “a red herring” only to be met with blank stares.
You know what amazes ME? The number of times I’ve used the phrase ‘blank stares’ only to be met with red herring.
At high velocity.
Pat: Or this one.
O.
M.
G.
another place, similar to a softer world but nicer, is storypeople.com. they blow me away. my favorite goes like this: “you’re the strangest person i ever met she said & i said you too & we decided we’d know each other a long time” and then there’s the one we bought my parents for their anniversary: “two could live as cheaply as one if one of us didn’t like chocolate so much”. 😀 some are long, some are short, some are funny, some are sad, all make you think. i love them to pieces.
my “story”, such as it is, came to me as i was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, and i had to get up, grab my glasses and sit here shivering cuz i have no socks on and write it before it escaped. what think you?
I liked it, Shaina, but you’re right, it’s not a story. But that’s okay — you’re in good company. Lots of ’em aren’t stories, strictly speaking.
What I thought reading yours . . . Ten years? You think you’re going to have perspective in TEN YEARS?
And, Don’t worry. You’ll always remember why this time of your life was such a bitch.
Age stuff sucks but many things about life do improve with the passing decades.
i have another…story-er one in mind. is sexy. i think you’ll like it. i just gotta flesh it out another 30 words or so…
Good one, Shaina!
it’s true, too 😉 thanks!
Shaina
For some reason your latest story made me think of a poem I read once, called “Raising Rabbits” or something like that:
Woops, big brain fart, that should’ve been directed at tambo, not Shaina.
<blushes>
Haha, but it could apply to Shaina’s second one too!
That had crossed my mind, too.
<blushes more>