My Usual: The Snow Micro Challenge
My musings on the challenge; a collation of my entries; some shout outs to other participants
First up: My Musings
My main hope, as always, is that the entries that place hit the brief.
Microfiction is hard. I'm doing it every day, and I still think that several of those efforts probably don't hold up to a strict definition of microfiction. I think they do (of course, that's why I posted them), but I am biased aren't I? I'm too close. I'm probably wrong at least some of the time. I might be wrong about some of my challenge entries as well.
A fiction story needs to have certain features. Things like beginning, middle, and end twist. Sure, you can cut corners and shave bits off. Microfiction is all about paring it down wherever possible. Squeezing every word, and making it do the maximum amount of heavy lifting. Hinting at things, letting the reader fill in some gaps.
But like a lot of rules in writing, there's some wiggle room. You can bend the rules, if you do it well. For example, you can cut off the beginning (in media res).
I don't think an explicit ending is completely necessary either. For example, when the camera pans away from the couple kissing in the hotel room, and maybe there's a shot of waves rolling in and out on the beach below, we know what that is. We didn't need it in explicit 4K detail and dolby surround for the story to be complete. Some of you pervs and Game of Thrones fans (hi!) might prefer the in-your-face option, but it's a stylistic choice, isn't it? The story is still whole either way.
You can chop the heck out of it, but when you're done, it still needs to be a story. Not a set up, not a scene. There needs to be change. Conflict, success, death, escape.
Not to put too fine a point on it, something has to happen.
My Entries
There were over 600 entries in this challenge, if I've counted right. Eight of them were mine. Here they are, oldest to newest. Buckle up!
I don't want to give you a synopsis for these individually, because it will just be a spoiler-fest.
The Snowman, Revenge of the Snowman, and Snow Golem all work together, but also (I think) work as stand-alone stories. The first two being two parts of the same story, and the third being from a different perspective.
"Joy" is based on a true story, but not something I saw first-hand.
Cragfast is just a spectacular word, and I wanted to make a story around it.
Shout-outs
Here are a few of my favourite entries. It's not an exhaustive list by any stretch. I would be very happy if you would go and show them some love 😁
Telltale crimson trail by Raymond G. Taylor
Fresh Eyes, First Snow by The Dani Writer
Please Find Me by Mohammed Darasi
Into the Snow by Rachel Deeming
Unicorn and the Village by JBaz
Previous Challenges
I did the same for previous challenges. Here are the last two:
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Thank you for reading! If you entered this challenge, GOOD LUCK!
I've done my best to read as many as possible, but I know I have missed some. If I haven't seen your submission, please link to it in the comments for me, or link to someone else's that you think is especially good.
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More stories from L.C. Schäfer and writers in Writers and other communities.
Musings on the Misplaced Challenge
With the Misplaced challenge closed, here are my thoughts, my collated entries, and my recommended reads. My thoughts I thought this one was a lot of fun. I wrote four new entries for this challenge, and entered an oldie from last year that I thought fit the brief as well. Getting inside the head of a lost object was an easy one, which either means I nailed it, or I did it very, very badly. I liked that there were lots of ways to interpret the prompt. I hope Vocal give us more prompts like this one.
By L.C. Schäfer3 months ago in Writers
I Am Grateful For So Many Things
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to experience _________. Rupi Kaur's Gratitude Writing Prompts I am grateful that I had the opportunity to experience my children growing up to be kind and loving human beings, that are raising families and work in areas that are making a difference.
By Denise E Lindquista day ago in Writers
A Childhood of Wonder
My childhood was a magical time, full of wonder and adventure. Growing up in a small town surrounded by rolling hills and lush forests, I was always exploring, always discovering new things. Our house was a cozy little place, filled with laughter and love, where my parents encouraged me to be curious, to ask questions, and to dream big.
By Isra Saleem7 days ago in Writers
Comments (15)
Great selection, L.C.! I cannot disagree with a one of them. Thanks for sharing this.
Very much agreed that something needs to happen in a micro fiction, in order to separate it from simply being the description of a scene. I like reading your summaries of each challenge, and will check out a few of the stories you recommended!
Gotta give some of these a read
Right? I feel like I can't fulfill a microfiction with only 250 words without it feeling so rushed and unfulfilling. How can you fit a beginning, middle, end, AND twist? I'm struggling😅
I love how you made interconnected stories! These are great, and thank you so much for putting them all together in one place for me to catch up on 😄
I knew it wouldnt be your last entry. Im glad it wasnt! :D
Some excellent entries for the challenge L.C. I hope at least a couple of them place because they totally deserve to.
Micro-fiction is a strange beast for me. I tend to flub the assignment by making people think "oh there must be more to this!" when sadly there isn't lol. I've really enjoyed reading all your work and think it's awesome that you included a bibliography of other works you think did particularly well! It's such a great way of doing things
I agree with your thoughts on the story structure, especially within the context of "microfiction" (though I'm not a literary genius so take my thoughts with a grain of salt haha). Often, our imaginations can piece together things in such powerful ways that by allowing the imagination to do the work itself, a piece can become so much more powerful!
I really enjoyed reading your reflection on the challenge and your own work. And I can definitely relate to writing microfiction. I've only tried it once or twice so far, and who knows if I'm doing it "right" or "well enough." But that's how we all grow! And I have personally enjoyed your microfiction the past few days, so keep up the great work :)
I have really enjoyed reading your stories for this challenge. And I always look forward to your reflections on these challenges. Thank you for the shout out! I'm honored you enjoyed it and shared 😀
I love your insightful discussion of micro fiction. And you right, damn it's hard to do well!
Great idea. I think u have seen all of yours. I will confirm. Time to check our the others. Thanks for the recs.
Micro-fiction is tough for me. I’m a wordy talker. Lol I did enter the Winter micro-fiction challenge though. Mostly because it gave me a topic to write about and I needed inspiration. I did not know you could submit more than one piece to a challenge.
Thanks for the shout out. I've read some of these but not all so I will check them out.