Wednesday, November 2, 2011

You Can Limit My Words, But Not My Imagination!

Once again, the seasons have cycled, and, as autumn winds down, the much anticipated announcement of the Boise Weekly’s “Fiction 101” writing competition has appeared – a call for submissions of succinct stories, of truncated tales, of prose painstakingly pared to precisely one hundred and one words.  It is an exercise most vexing to the verbose; a bane to those bereft of brevity and curse for those clear of concision.

Choose carefully, one must, one’s adjectives and adverbs and other adjuncts, for the wisdom of words lies not in lavish loquaciousness, but rather in the raw rendering of phrases few but fiery.

4 comments:

Niamh B said...

I love how they mention the 10 dollar entry fee twice and then try to argue they are not looking to profit... as for "No Poetry Please" - puhlease!!

I assume you'll be winning it - no pressure now

The Dead Acorn said...

Well, I've shown that I can write a block of exactly 101 words ... figuring out something to actually say is the difficult part for me.

Maybe I'll write some prose that just happens to be in iambic pentameter, and in which every other sentence just happens to rhyme. That'll show 'em.

Anonymous said...

I would love for you to win this competition, Acorn! Perhaps I will whip up a paragraph or two and after you've stolen them ... well, you just might have a chance.

The Dead Acorn said...

Yay! Crazy's back!