Wee small stories

Hello everyone. It’s not 5am, but I’m in a library grinding the gears between academic second and journalistic reverse. Fizz, crunch, squeal. And anyway I’ve been away from the dawn-time scribbling slot for too long. So here’s a few little somethings I’ve been dreamily messing about with when I should have been up to other things.

It started with these rather fun little nuggets of nano-fiction. You won’t click, so let me summarise: you write a story or poem in 25 words or fewer. Got it?

My favourite example is:

“Houston, We Have a Problem,” by J. Matthew Zoss.
I’m sorry, but there’s not enough air in here for everyone. I’ll tell them you were a hero.

They remind me of something I wrote in an English lesson at school. Get ready for a piece of therebeforelight juvenilia:

It wasn’t easy but in the end
something had to happen
for the sake of evolution.

So I thought I’d see if I could churn out another three.

First attempt, crime thriller:

Lesson #1: Purple Dye
Even if you sleeper-hold the security guard and angle-grind the cashpoint, it spouts like Tourette’s: gets on the notes, and gets on your clothes.

Next, a spot of magical realism:

Post Mortem
When they jigsawed the stomach they found not cyanide swallowed with a litre of water but, smooth, blue, lodged in his gullet, the philosopher’s stone.

And last of all, sci fi:

Missed Opportunity
“Do we age faster here?” I asked.
“Einstein thinks so,” she replied.
“Too late to repopulate the species then,” fingering my beard.

What I’d really like would be for your lot to send your own efforts.

But I know you won’t. On with work.

~ by David Thorley on November 10, 2010.