We have previously celebrated and the community-building she brings to
But that doesn’t preclude us from going again and celebrating a new undertaking to amplify the voices of writers whose craft is short-form storytelling.
As Erica describes it, ‘micro fiction’ is:
microfiction (noun)
something invented by the imagination, of varying lengths, no more than 500 words.
Regular prompts are offered to nudge the imagination of writers or to offer readers a selection of bite-size, coffee break reads.
I can’t claim to be a community member without contributing to it. So after Erica kindly - and unexpectedly - included my post Rejuvenate in her weekly round-up, I spotted this week’s prompt and got stuck in. The invitation is to write either a 6-word story (in the spirit of Hemingway’s ‘For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn’); or a 50-word musing; maybe even a 100-word piece … you can even run amok and pen something that fits the theme but which comes in closer to the 500-word limit.
Today’s prompt is ‘The Island’. I couldn’t resist the challenge of ‘one of each’.
(6 words)
Tickets - Île sans Retour - one way
(I’m going to say, straight off, that this is the hardest challenge. I’m no Hemingway, of course, but the execution of an idea - a complete tale - in so few words is frustratingly elusive. I guess I am way more practiced at the 50-word and 100-word forms of flash fiction. It’s time to tune up my nano-story writing!)
(50 words)
He pressed the vintage radio tightly to one ear. Calm maritime apprehensions. Doom-laden portents of violence, a tsunami of warnings. He’d grown immune to scaremongering. Waking, he sensed an absence of familiarity as the deck rocked precariously above an island that hadn’t existed when the shipping forecast crackled into life.
(This was the most edited piece. I started with the idea of a new island and fiddled around with too many words about the discovery in the morning. I took two further goes at cutting words and sharpening the ‘show not tell’ to get to a story I liked)
(100 words)
Acrid steam rose as hot lava crept over the serrated shoreline into turgid waters. An amber pathway appeared through dense foliage as a molten snake slithered seawards. The irascible prospector rubbed claw-like fingers through a dense thicket of fashionable whiskers as he thrust the parchment towards the Governor’s representative. “Sign or be damned”, he growled. “I lay claim to Devil’s Island”. The skiff rocked violently as breakers scraped it across razor sharp corals. Searing heat illuminated the man’s features, twisted with greed. Sailors crossed themselves as they watched flaming fingers beckon him shoreward, his mad eyes flecked with golden dreams.
These are all so engrossing, Barrie! Excellent examples. In your wonderful six-word, I immediately patched in my own three-word destination of no return. Made me smile to consider the possibility. As for the 50-word, you gave us such a solid sense of place, but I wasn't so sure he was immune to scaremongering... I will have to study it again. The 100-word creeped me out plenty with your collection of words like acrid, serrated, molten, slither, irascible, claw-like, razor-sharp, searing, and twisted! Wow! Nice work.
Six words is hard... but you really nailed that Barrie!
I can only come up with a rather bland 'lost at sea, finder keeps all' could be anything though...
I love that you've leapt straight back into your writing after such a fabulous adventure, these are all so captivatingly good.