I rarely venture into the Amazon Forums. I always end up feeling a bit claustrophobic wandering through the threads. Today, however, I peeked in and found an interesting thread devoted to writing 25 word (maximum) flash fiction that somehow involved the subject of letters.
I don’t write flash fiction. I should. It’s an interesting challenge. Most of the flash fiction I’ve seen, though, isn’t story. They usually end up being the hor d’ouevres equivalent of a slice of life. Impressions. Not that I fault them. A 25 word story is extremely difficult.
Anyway, I gave it a shot, but I’m not sure if I pulled off a proper story. It has a narrative, characters, true, but the real issue is whether or not the characters have an arc. Did they change through the story? Perhaps the male character’s mood did. Here’s my attempt:
He lettered in golf. She lettered in basketball. “Let’s marry,” she whispered, “and have beautiful, bouncing babies.” Her suggestion teed him off.
Ultimately, I vanished within social media. Only occasionally did I emerge to enjoy those I loved, let alone life itself. Then I found my typewriter.
Nice. Nice touch of biting commentary in there too.