This post was originally a prelude to the micro fiction story, The map, on my Steemit blog, offering “some writerly thoughts about what motivates us to write and what feels meaningful in creative endeavors”.
At the time I was involved in a 16-week intensive writing boot camp, called Write Club, and the two writing initiatives (Write Club and my penchant for micro fiction) stood in thrilling contrast against one another. Hopefully this post makes sense in that light.
Why 50-word stories?
I have begun to think of the 50-word story as an amazing art form. And that is one reason I write them. But there are other reasons too. For one thing, they help me to break out of whatever writing trappings I may be stuck in. They feel like a nice way to stretch in between working on other things.
Writing as a break from writing
For readers who don’t know, I am currently involved in a group writing challenge called Write Club. This 16-week boot camp is designed to help all participants who survive the grueling (but super fun) experience to graduate from the want-to-be-published phase to the happily published phase of our writing careers. (For more info, check out the #writeclub tag.)
In other words, we are very serious writers, devoted to the practice and craft of fiction writing.
And we have deadlines.
Every two weeks we write a story of about 2,000 to 5,000 words. While working on these longer pieces (and working full time), I have been finding gaps to write and publish other stories on Steemit–some long, some short.
Can you say in 50 words what you can say in a longer story?
No. You can’t, of course. It’s a different art form entirely. These really short short stories are about capturing a larger idea in a space that seems too tiny to contain it. You must try it to understand what I mean.
I find these 50-word challenges to be truly refreshing. I spend some time on them, as I want to capture a mood and a complete story within those 50 words, and it’s not easy to do. But it’s also not the 10-day writing adventure that a longer story is!
Thanks for reading!
