Writing Prompt: Short Short
Last summer, I took a course with the wonderful, generous and so gifted Jim Heynen while at the Pacific Lutheran University MFA program.
Jim taught a seminar on Short Shorts. I had no idea what this was but went because I so enjoy Jim and his teaching. Here is an interview with Heynen, from his own site, giving some insight into the flash form:
Q: You've written poetry, short stories, young adult novels, and a nonfiction book on centenarians. Which form comes most naturally to you?
JH: The short-short stories. There's a groove in my head for them. I often polish them the way I would a poem, but they come quickly, effortlessly. I hope to write more novels, but they don't come effortlessly. I suppose they don't for anyone--except maybe John Updike.
Q: Those effortless short-shorts you're referring to are your stories about "the boys'--that group of farm boys who inhabit the pages of The Man Who Kept Cigars in his Cap, You Know What is Right, The One-Room Schoolhouse, and your most recent selected collection, The Boys' House.
JH: Yes, those little guys. But many of the stories about the boys were published as poems--or as prose poems. An editor might take some of them and I'd assume they were going to appear in the fiction section--and, surprise: I'd find them squatting there among the skinny poems. This has happened lots of times.
Q: So if editors don't know what they are, what do you think they are?
JH: Some of them are cross-dressers, especially the ones that are lyrical rather than narrative moments. I don't blame editors for putting these in the poetry section of a magazine. It just surprises me, catches me off guard and makes me have a second look at them. The label I prefer for most of these little stories, though, is tales, like telling. When I am writing these stories, it's as if I am hearing the voice passed down to me through an oral tradition. A really good story that has been passed down orally glistens in a pure and simple language, yet sounds natural, sounds easy--as if anybody could have written or told it.
Jim gave me a chance to play and practice this "little" form and while I found it to be a particular challenge (because I am so "wordy" by nature), I was intrigued. Only this week did finally write something that hit the mark and thus the little short I wrote on Monday--which is so damn short--I'll print it again:
Her lover swore he was infertile.
Her test came back positive.
"Impossible," he said.
INSTRUCTIONS: Now you try. Write three lines that are an entire story.
EXAMPLE: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." This was written by Hemmingway.
WRITE & SUBMIT: No more than twenty words. Good luck! Share your writing by emailing me via this site.
Jim taught a seminar on Short Shorts. I had no idea what this was but went because I so enjoy Jim and his teaching. Here is an interview with Heynen, from his own site, giving some insight into the flash form:
Q: You've written poetry, short stories, young adult novels, and a nonfiction book on centenarians. Which form comes most naturally to you?JH: The short-short stories. There's a groove in my head for them. I often polish them the way I would a poem, but they come quickly, effortlessly. I hope to write more novels, but they don't come effortlessly. I suppose they don't for anyone--except maybe John Updike.
Q: Those effortless short-shorts you're referring to are your stories about "the boys'--that group of farm boys who inhabit the pages of The Man Who Kept Cigars in his Cap, You Know What is Right, The One-Room Schoolhouse, and your most recent selected collection, The Boys' House.
JH: Yes, those little guys. But many of the stories about the boys were published as poems--or as prose poems. An editor might take some of them and I'd assume they were going to appear in the fiction section--and, surprise: I'd find them squatting there among the skinny poems. This has happened lots of times.
Q: So if editors don't know what they are, what do you think they are?
JH: Some of them are cross-dressers, especially the ones that are lyrical rather than narrative moments. I don't blame editors for putting these in the poetry section of a magazine. It just surprises me, catches me off guard and makes me have a second look at them. The label I prefer for most of these little stories, though, is tales, like telling. When I am writing these stories, it's as if I am hearing the voice passed down to me through an oral tradition. A really good story that has been passed down orally glistens in a pure and simple language, yet sounds natural, sounds easy--as if anybody could have written or told it.
Jim gave me a chance to play and practice this "little" form and while I found it to be a particular challenge (because I am so "wordy" by nature), I was intrigued. Only this week did finally write something that hit the mark and thus the little short I wrote on Monday--which is so damn short--I'll print it again:
Her lover swore he was infertile.
Her test came back positive.
"Impossible," he said.
INSTRUCTIONS: Now you try. Write three lines that are an entire story. EXAMPLE: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." This was written by Hemmingway.
WRITE & SUBMIT: No more than twenty words. Good luck! Share your writing by emailing me via this site.
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