#FridayFlash Favorites (2010/06/15)
This is an archived post, originally published on Be the Story (bethestory.com).
Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. Mine this week was an experiment in conflict, a story about a character who thinks she’s dreaming the future. Of the others that were posted, here are my…
#FridayFlash Favorites for June 11
Out of 100 stories posted this week (of which 74 were listed on the #FridayFlash Collector), here are my 9 favorites, listed in no particular order.
"Poker Face" by Michelle Sussman — A novice player has it out with a nervous redhead. No sense in bankrupting her on the first hand, eh?
"The Highest Score" by Joanie Rich — What do you do to that annoying nemesis, the one who takes pleasure in demeaning your only accomplishment?
"Harbingers" by Icy Sedgwick — Icy does it again, with another gripping story. "... I disagreed. Plenty of people have stressful jobs, but they don’t imagine dead bodies."
"Hindsight" by Genevieve P. Ching — What if you could meet your future self at a critical juncture in your life? Would you make better choices?
"After the Quest Is Done" by Stephen Watkins — What if characters in an MMORPG were real people?
"Theo" by Leah Petersen — Well... If it is a phallic symbol, at least it will have been worth it.
"Red" by Tessa S. Bazelli — True love, a wolf, a gun, and a magic ring.
"The Shabby Man" by Alan W. Davidson — Touching story of the business of a shabby man.
"Gullfoss, The Gold Waterfall" by Aiden Fritz — An unexpected horror-romance. Yes, that really is a body.
Note: To be selected as one of my #FridayFlash Favorites, the post must be a genuine flash story, not a chapter in a longer piece, a series of one-paragraph vignettes, or anything else. It should have a beginning (conflict), a middle (thickening), and an end (resolution). Not necessarily a happy ending (though I do enjoy happy endings), but whatever conflict the story introduces at the beginning, it must resolve at the end. No fair building up suspense and then stopping in the middle of the story, just so you don’t have to figure out how to save the hero in 1,000 words or less; that’s cheating. The story should also be a single scene, because multi-scene flash usually does too much “telling” and doesn’t “show” enough to engage me in the story. While I do browse Twitter for #FridayFlash posts, the best way to get me to read yours is to put it on the #FridayFlash Collector. I judge posted stories according to my own preferences; your mileage may vary.
Till next week, and…
Keep writing! -TimK