Going Against Your Own Nature

[SlickTony]

Having missed the deadline to submit an entry for my local rag's annual Christmas short story contest for '04, I decided to get a leg up on the coming year and start working on it now.

Needless to say, it's non-erotic, but that's not the problem. The problem is that it has to be only 1500 words or less, and as anybody who's read my stuff here can attest, keeping under a stringent limit like that is damned hard work. I mean, I don't think I've submitted anything that's under 7K.

I'd like to hear from anybody else who's forced to lie in a Procrustean bed like this one.

 

[gauchecritic]

Don't know if you've read any Slick but you have probably seen the award winning "Snippetsville Group"

A bunch of us (under expert management and tutelage (Wild and Alex: thanks) wrote stories of (I think) 500 words (though some cheated and wrote 3 and 4 parters) and I at least found it extremely educational in having such a severe limit.

Concision and precision make for paradoxically more choice rather than less in actual word usage.

The challenge of the short form, for me, is hugely satisfying.

 

[SlickTony]

Thanks for the tip. I need to check that out.

 

[carsonshepherd]

I've written Lit stories that were 6500 words and stories that were 59,000 words. In the long ones I develop everything I want to the best of my abilities. In the short ones I develop just one or two ideas and make the time frame short - like one night. 1500 words is short. I doubt I could do it. But I bet you can.

 

[SlickTony]

Why, thank you, Carson. I'm certainly trying. I'm working on this 1500-word opus that brought this thead on, and feeling rather as if I'm trying to maintain a bonsai tree.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Why, thank you, Carson. I'm certainly trying. I'm working on this 1500-word opus that brought this thead on, and feeling rather as if I'm trying to maintain a bonsai tree.

I've killed every bonsai I've ever had but I have an 8' tall ficus I've had for 15 years that won't die no matter what I do to it.

 

[Songcatcher]

I am pure nature.

 

[SlickTony]

How do you maintain ficuses anyway? I have this idea it can't be easy, considering all the fake ones I see.

 

[Songcatcher]

How do you maintain ficuses anyway? I have this idea it can't be easy, considering all the fake ones I see.

Don't you know me at all?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

You might have to change your style to do a real shorty. Consider doing it a lot more tell-y than show-y, especially in the set-up. At 1500 words you've just got enough room to set up a scene and show us what happens. Everything else is superfluous.

Look at jokes. Most jokes are little stories pared down to their absolute minimum. To pull this off though you need an especially strong story, because you're not going to be able to save it with your style.

---dr.M.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Don't you know me at all?

Songcatcher, I know you better than you think

STony, all I do is stick it in front of a window and water it once a week, also keep the leaves clean. (Also I talk to it, but that's my little secret.)

 

[Belegon]

getting back on track...

I had to limit myself for a challenge on the poetry boards to turn one of your poems into a story...I used Dancing Wildly and did a piece that was just over 1300 words, very short for me...if memory serves, the limit was 1300 not including the poem. It was interesting, but I definitely felt constrained. I am playing with the idea of expanding it...

 

[oggbashan]

The year before last (2003) I came third in a local writing contest. That had to be non-erotic and no more than 1500 words.

I could enter three stories. I wrote two and began to run out of time. I took one of my Lit stories 'Bastille Day', took out the sex and cut it down to the required length. That story came third. The others were unplaced.

I attended a creative writing class. Each week we had to write something to a them and were restricted to a maximum of 400 words.

I tried 50 word stories. Here they are:

FIFTY WORD FANTASIES

Fifty Word Facesit
I struggle vainly, bound by her bra and pantyhose. She straddles
my legs, slides up my body. White panties flash, her grey skirt
covers me in scented darkness. Warm damp cotton brushes my nose, covers mouth. Her legs wrap my head, pulling my face deep. "Pay rise now!" she insists.

*************************************************

Fifty Word Femdom
Her black-booted foot pressed my chest. Cautiously I looked up her leather-corseted body to the stern face. I winced as the lash trailed across my shuddering skin. "Beg forgiveness, slave!" she ordered. Helpless, I cringed as she frowned at my bound body. Then she winked. The pantomine rehearsal was going well.

*************************************************

Fifty Word HOM
I slept in our tent cocooned in my sleeping bag. My wife's body
slammed across my shoulders, pinning me helpless. Her
black-gloved hand wrapped my mouth silent. Silk-clad fingers
clamped my nostrils tight. "Look at that bitch again," she hissed
"and you stop breathing forever." Breath-starved, I lose
consciousness again.

*************************************************

Fifty Word Scarfing
Her interesting neighbour was noisily drunk every Saturday. She
acted. She opened her door, pulled in, pushed him in her deep
settee. He reached out. She scarfed his wrists. He protested. She
scarfed his mouth, tied legs. She stripped him slowly and scarfed
tightly. Now he is interested in her.

*************************************************

Fifty Word Unbirth
She grimaced with effort as his shoulders followed legs and hips
inside her. She paused, looking at his head protruding from her
sex. Eyes pleaded above covered mouth. She braced for the final
pull. "Next time, pay my alimony on time or you will stay
inside." Some ex-wives are vindictive.

*************************************************
Copyright Oggbashan November 2002