Hint Fiction

[Rossos Atrapes]

Hint Fiction Celebrates the Extremely Short Story (http://www.npr.org/2010/11/12/131276783/-hint-fiction-celebrates-the-extremely-short-story)


Can you tell a whole story in 25 words or fewer? Inspired by the six-word novel attributed to Ernest Hemingway — "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" — Robert Swartwood has compiled a new anthology of bite-sized fiction.
The stories in Hint Fiction are short enough to be text messages, but the genre isn't defined only by its length. It's characterized by the way the form forces readers to fill in the blanks, Swartwood tells NPR's Scott Simon. Most fiction hints at a larger story, he says, but the brevity of these stories really challenges the reader's imagination.

"This looks fun! Anybody want to try this here?" he asked.

[Jason Russard]

This looks hard to me, but I would say Id look forward to reading some.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The ring sparkled as she dropped it into the garbage disposal and flipped the switch.

My first attempt :p

[Salem Ave]

Not something I think I would be any good at, but...


"For sale: baby shoes, never worn"

That is really powerful, for so few words.

[Dragon]

These sorts of stories usually turn toward melancholy, since a story needs conflict but six words is too short to offer resolution.

But you can sneak more information into the title, like so:


ON THE BIG BANG

"Whoops," said God. "Hope no one notices."


or


THE TIME TRAVELER WHO MISCALCULATED THE DATE OF THE K-T EXTINCTION EVENT

"Oh bugg--" SPLAT!

[Rossos Atrapes]

These sorts of stories usually turn toward melancholy, since a story needs conflict but six words is too short to offer resolution.

But you can sneak more information into the title, like so:


ON THE BIG BANG

"Whoops," said God. "Hope no one notices."


or


THE TIME TRAVELER WHO MISCALCULATED THE DATE OF THE K-T EXTINCTION EVENT

"Oh bugg--" SPLAT!

HAH! I was thinking that myself. Hint fiction could be likened to really short prose poetry in that sense. A good example of a title bringing a story together would be Langston Hughes' Suicide Note:


The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.
The poem by itself is somewhat a complete story, but the title is something of a twist that M. Night Shyamalan could only dream of. Take out the poetical breaks, and you have a piece of hint fiction.


A Regret

She was gone; and all he would be able to remember of her was her pretty smile.