Monthly SimLit Short Story Challenge
The announcement and first info: Monthly Simlit Short Story Challenge: Announcement and Info https://i.imgur.com/8LBnqSj.jpg General Guidelines: Please note that I have changed the bloggi...
Forum Discussion
The hardest part for me was that in 600 words it had to be a COMPLETE story: beginning, middle, character development, plus the brutal mic-drop ending that will leave the reader with an open jaw furious that it's only a short story. (That's the best part of writing them, coming up with those M. Night Shamala twists).
As for advice, I'll offer some (unsolicited). It's fool month. So, start by thinking about who the fool is. Can there be more than one fool? What if the foolish thing isn't really foolish at all but accidentally or secretly brilliant? What if the reader has to decide who the fool is? What if it's not so clear cut?
Here's an idea I was kicking around but ultimately discarded when I came up with a better one (which is hard to illustrate but whatever). I'm releasing it to all for inspiration. Just imagine your mood has gotten very light-blue all of a sudden. Two men get locked in a store overnight. Maybe they’re brothers, friends, exes, I never developed them. They spend the whole night arguing, bringing up old slights, etc but ultimately come to a deeper understanding. It’s basically a brief character study. In the morning, when the guard comes and lets them out, he shows them it was unlocked the whole time. They were just too wrapped up in themselves to notice. Sure, they feel foolish. But maybe a little grateful too?
Shadami,
I don’t have an idea for your second Hunchback one, but the first should be easy enough to get started. Start with the characters and work backward. From what you wrote, it seems like she got dumped. She’s calling herself a fool for dating him, after all. But of course, this is fool month. So it wouldn’t be a story if she were the only fool, would it? For example: Imagine he left her to motorcycle across the country with this new biker girl he just met. He couldn’t be bothered with her. He wanted nothing at all to do with her, ever since their last, tearful breakup fight when he humiliated her. To make matters worse, she started sobbing and spilled her drink all over his motorcycle jacket! Of course she was frantically pawing at it with a towel while he sat there and sulked. Now it’s the next day. She hasn’t even cleaned her room she’s so sad. Finally, she figures she’s ready to get out of bed. She’s cleaning when he calls her cell. He can’t find the key to his bike anywhere! It’s lost, probably at the bar he went to last night. Has she seen it? This is CLASSIC, Alex, she thinks. In that moment, she just checks out. She picks up the towel she used to dry him off and out tumbles the little silver key right onto the floor. She’s looking right at it. “I really have to go, Alex,” she tells him before hanging up. “And no, I haven’t seen it at all.”
The trick is to “Gift of the Magi” the story. Have you read that? It’s great. No one’s happy in the end. Each has something the other wants. But in the end, it’s always just barely out of reach. Or, the villain wasn’t who you thought it was all along. Who holds a motorcycle key hostage over a breakup?
Now I’m thinking I should I have written the motorcycle one. But mine’s done. It’s your seed now.
As for advice, I'll offer some (unsolicited). It's fool month. So, start by thinking about who the fool is. Can there be more than one fool? What if the foolish thing isn't really foolish at all but accidentally or secretly brilliant? What if the reader has to decide who the fool is? What if it's not so clear cut?
Here's an idea I was kicking around but ultimately discarded when I came up with a better one (which is hard to illustrate but whatever). I'm releasing it to all for inspiration. Just imagine your mood has gotten very light-blue all of a sudden. Two men get locked in a store overnight. Maybe they’re brothers, friends, exes, I never developed them. They spend the whole night arguing, bringing up old slights, etc but ultimately come to a deeper understanding. It’s basically a brief character study. In the morning, when the guard comes and lets them out, he shows them it was unlocked the whole time. They were just too wrapped up in themselves to notice. Sure, they feel foolish. But maybe a little grateful too?
Shadami,
I don’t have an idea for your second Hunchback one, but the first should be easy enough to get started. Start with the characters and work backward. From what you wrote, it seems like she got dumped. She’s calling herself a fool for dating him, after all. But of course, this is fool month. So it wouldn’t be a story if she were the only fool, would it? For example: Imagine he left her to motorcycle across the country with this new biker girl he just met. He couldn’t be bothered with her. He wanted nothing at all to do with her, ever since their last, tearful breakup fight when he humiliated her. To make matters worse, she started sobbing and spilled her drink all over his motorcycle jacket! Of course she was frantically pawing at it with a towel while he sat there and sulked. Now it’s the next day. She hasn’t even cleaned her room she’s so sad. Finally, she figures she’s ready to get out of bed. She’s cleaning when he calls her cell. He can’t find the key to his bike anywhere! It’s lost, probably at the bar he went to last night. Has she seen it? This is CLASSIC, Alex, she thinks. In that moment, she just checks out. She picks up the towel she used to dry him off and out tumbles the little silver key right onto the floor. She’s looking right at it. “I really have to go, Alex,” she tells him before hanging up. “And no, I haven’t seen it at all.”
The trick is to “Gift of the Magi” the story. Have you read that? It’s great. No one’s happy in the end. Each has something the other wants. But in the end, it’s always just barely out of reach. Or, the villain wasn’t who you thought it was all along. Who holds a motorcycle key hostage over a breakup?
Now I’m thinking I should I have written the motorcycle one. But mine’s done. It’s your seed now.
