Back in college, one of the creative writing-related classes was about flash fiction and other forms of the short story. Anyway, I was digging through some old things and this was an exercise where you wrote a 250 word story, condensed it to 125, and then 75. Truth be told it could have been done with any length but these lengths seemed to work best.
Anyway, the point of the exercise is to study detail and how much you really need. Where does a story fall away and just become fictitious-facts (heh, contradiction) instead of something coherent? Or is it possible to cut something down so far that it still retains all the meaning of a story. Ernest Hemingway once stated that he could write a story in as little as six words and held true on his promise: For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Anyway, it's an interesting topic, but without further ado, here's my story:
A Right to Kill – 250 Words
I honestly don't know if I meant to do it.
I mean, when thinking about it, what kind of monster does that make me? Sure, we're supposed to defend ourselves but does that necessitate the loss of life? There might have been a way to talk it out with him though; I mean, he was human so there had to be some civility there. The guys that trained me though told me it was better to shoot first and ask questions later. There can't be room for error because error can cost you your life.
So I shot him. The thing is, I don't even remember loading the gun or taking aim with it. Perhaps it was just a gut reaction after weeks of hardcore training. We practiced with live ammunition on a range where even the rookies could get hurt. They literally want to crush the hesitation out of you when they do those kinds of things. After all, war is a brutal machine. There's no person who randomly runs onto the field shouting time out because someone got hurt. No, the only thing that rushes onto the field here are Abrams tanks playing tag with the enemy's body.
The more I look at the blood trailing from the steaming hole in his head, the more I realize that I didn't mean to do it. I mean, why would I take anyone's life? It's not my place to decide these things.
Blam.
...What? He would have shot me first!
A Right to Kill – 125 Words
I honestly don't know if I meant to do it.
What kind of monster does that make me? Sure, we're supposed to defend ourselves. There might have been a way to talk it out with him though. The guys that trained me told me it was better to shoot first.
I shot him. Perhaps it was just a reaction. We practiced on a range where rookies could get hurt. After all, war is a brutal machine. There's no person who runs onto the field shouting time out because someone got hurt.
The more I look at the blood, the more I realize that I didn't mean to do it. I mean, why would I take anyone's life?
Blam.
...What? He would have shot me first!
A Right to Kill – 75 Words
I honestly don't know if I meant to.
We're supposed to defend ourselves. The guys that trained me told me it was better to shoot first.
Perhaps it was just a reaction. We practiced on a range where rookies could get hurt. After all, war is a brutal machine.
The more I look at the blood, the more I realize that I didn't mean to do it. Why would I take anyone's life?
Blam.
...What?
--------------------------------------------
This isn't just a thread for telling what you like about my story here, but just for general discussion -- what makes a story, a length, etc. All that stuff, or whatever thoughts this set of stories brings to mind. One of the most important questions asked in that class, and I'll remember it until I die, was:
"If you take the same story, and cut it in half or lengthen it by half, does it become a completely different story?"
Have fun. ^_^
Anyway, the point of the exercise is to study detail and how much you really need. Where does a story fall away and just become fictitious-facts (heh, contradiction) instead of something coherent? Or is it possible to cut something down so far that it still retains all the meaning of a story. Ernest Hemingway once stated that he could write a story in as little as six words and held true on his promise: For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Anyway, it's an interesting topic, but without further ado, here's my story:
A Right to Kill – 250 Words
I honestly don't know if I meant to do it.
I mean, when thinking about it, what kind of monster does that make me? Sure, we're supposed to defend ourselves but does that necessitate the loss of life? There might have been a way to talk it out with him though; I mean, he was human so there had to be some civility there. The guys that trained me though told me it was better to shoot first and ask questions later. There can't be room for error because error can cost you your life.
So I shot him. The thing is, I don't even remember loading the gun or taking aim with it. Perhaps it was just a gut reaction after weeks of hardcore training. We practiced with live ammunition on a range where even the rookies could get hurt. They literally want to crush the hesitation out of you when they do those kinds of things. After all, war is a brutal machine. There's no person who randomly runs onto the field shouting time out because someone got hurt. No, the only thing that rushes onto the field here are Abrams tanks playing tag with the enemy's body.
The more I look at the blood trailing from the steaming hole in his head, the more I realize that I didn't mean to do it. I mean, why would I take anyone's life? It's not my place to decide these things.
Blam.
...What? He would have shot me first!
A Right to Kill – 125 Words
I honestly don't know if I meant to do it.
What kind of monster does that make me? Sure, we're supposed to defend ourselves. There might have been a way to talk it out with him though. The guys that trained me told me it was better to shoot first.
I shot him. Perhaps it was just a reaction. We practiced on a range where rookies could get hurt. After all, war is a brutal machine. There's no person who runs onto the field shouting time out because someone got hurt.
The more I look at the blood, the more I realize that I didn't mean to do it. I mean, why would I take anyone's life?
Blam.
...What? He would have shot me first!
A Right to Kill – 75 Words
I honestly don't know if I meant to.
We're supposed to defend ourselves. The guys that trained me told me it was better to shoot first.
Perhaps it was just a reaction. We practiced on a range where rookies could get hurt. After all, war is a brutal machine.
The more I look at the blood, the more I realize that I didn't mean to do it. Why would I take anyone's life?
Blam.
...What?
--------------------------------------------
This isn't just a thread for telling what you like about my story here, but just for general discussion -- what makes a story, a length, etc. All that stuff, or whatever thoughts this set of stories brings to mind. One of the most important questions asked in that class, and I'll remember it until I die, was:
"If you take the same story, and cut it in half or lengthen it by half, does it become a completely different story?"
Have fun. ^_^