There is a famous short story attributed to Ernest Hemingway.  It is, all totaled, six words.  Here it is:

For sale:  Baby shoes, never worn.

That’s it.  The beauty of this mind and soul searching short story is the stuff of literary legend.  Every writer would like to write with that kind of clarity and depth.  Alas, Hemingway probably didn’t write it (or at least so says the experts–click here for more) but I like to think he did.  It certainly represents his minimalist styling and why let truth get in the way of a good story.

Last week I worked on a short story which I wrote for the Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition.  The maximum length for the story was 1,500 words.  That’s not many words, friends, but I wrote it for the challenge.

It has been hard to get back into the short story genre since I spent so much time on my novel in the past six months.  The novel format allows for exploration, character development, side-bars, sub-plots and greater description.  The short story requires laser-like focus.  In that regard a short story is more like a sermon, which is why I may have been driven to short stories when I first began writing.  For comparison, this particular short story I wrote would be about a 7 minute sermon.

I think it is a good story, though.  I really only have one main character and his conflict is within himself, so there are no bad guys.  He is contemplating suicide in my story but I had to get him to that point quickly.  Then I have to introduce means quickly and the resolution has to be very brisk.  Whenever I write something for publication or potential publication, I am usually working on some specific skills to improve my skill set.  Here is what I was working on for this particular story:

Point of View–It is mostly an internal monologue of the main character (who is nameless).

Pacing–If one only has 1500 words to work with, then the pacing must be swift and certain.  I found word choice and strong verbs to be my best ally here.  Hemingway would have been proud, maybe?

Proportion–I can’t spend 500 words describing the gun or how it feels in his hand or the back story of why he has his father’s 1911 in the nightstand to begin with or why he shot it two decades ago.  Instead, by keeping it tight in the narrative, hopefully the reader’s mind will create his or her own back story.  The weapon is not the story, so it must be shrunk to fit, even though it might be interesting.

Humor–Writing a story about suicide is not hard.  Writing a story about suicide that has humor is hard.  I was very pleased when one of the beta-readers, for all of whom I am so thankful, reported back that she liked what she called “the dark comedy” feel.  I knew then that I hit at least one target.

I can’t tell you much more about it, other than the name of it is The Rug and until the competition is over it belongs to Writer’s Digest.  Afterward, I will likely release it for purchase or if I win (he crosses fingers) you can buy it from them.  I may submit another one for the competition as I have a half-finished story about a geriatric murder.   In the meantime, I am starting this week my long promised origins story for the Deep Cove Monster series.  Because my publishing group wants longer entries, my main working goal for this story is to write it at 15,000 words.  If I do that, then I will not need to bundle it with anything else.  Once we creep up to 15 or 20,000 words it is less a short story and more of a novella.  I hate novellas.