Sunday, April 5, 2009

Experiments Lab (no safety goggles required)

My new favorite Twitter account is this guy Arjun Basu (https://twitter.com/arjunbasu). He's an American dude. A writer. And he composes short stories using only 140 characters in the status field. They're enjoyable snipits to read and it's amazing how much he conveys in so small a space. I thought it would be a fun exercise to try, so I stole his idea. It's kind of addictive once you get started. Here are a few I wrote over the weekend. I suppose they're a decent start.

“Stop pulling the crocuses out.” Lara squinted and turned to her mother. “But I’m looking for worms,” she complained. “Go find your father.”

The skyscrapers crouched down to suffocate him. He was sure the sidewalk would swallow him whole. “I have to go,” he said and headed west.

She went to visit her father on Mondays and Saturdays. It wasn’t the same, though, now that he was buried beneath grass and all of that mud.

Sometimes Ed just needed to get drunk. Piss drunk. Fall off the stool, slur your words, “where do I live” drunk. But she’d never understand.

Did I ever tell you about the time I worked for the Devil? Seriously. Her name was German for Beezlebub. Or fascism. A monster either way.

2 comments:

  1. These are beautiful stories! Way to go Kake! Hemingway once wrote what was dubbed the shortest story. It goes: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn." But no one can confirm whether he actually wrote this or not.

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  2. Thanks, Barrett! Interesting about the Hemingway story. It's a sad little tale. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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