Little known secret. :-)Also: I totally thought it was a G.
Anyway. A month or so ago I discovered a pretty awesome website. Basically it's a forum for writers to share their stuff with other writers and workshop it and stuff. And if you don't write you can read the first page of unpublished novels and short stories and if you like it you rate it well and at least theoretically things that everyone rates highly are more likely to eventually get published. Not sure how legit that part is, but reading the submissions is fun and it's nice to find a place where I can workshop my stuff. Assuming I ever write anything ever again . . . :-( The good news is I finally have the beginnings of a couple of potential ideas after, like, two years of writer's block - yay!! We'll see what happens . . .
Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway. In addition to the ratings and workshopping they also have contests and stuff. Which is kinda awesome. And the one they were doing last month was a flash fiction/fictionette/short short contest. For those of you not looking up the conveniently-provided-for-you definition (slackers!), basically we're talking about an uber-short story. Like, 1000 words or fewer. And the fewer the better, as long as it still tells a complete story. Two quick examples - first a pretty famous one (supposedly) by Hemingway:
For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.
Man, I wish I could write like that!! And here's one my fiction professor quoted to us a few times when we were writing fictionettes:
And when he woke up, the dinosaurs were still there.
Nice, eh? Granted, these are pretty extreme examples, but you get the idea. So, coming (finally) to the point - I decided somewhat on a whim to enter the contest. Absolutely did not expect to win . . . and I didn't . . . but I did get a lot of positive reviews, and an overall rating of 4 out of five. Yay!!! Anyway, I've decided to be somewhat self-centered (well . . . it's kind of hard not to be from time to time when you blog . . . ) and post it here to let all of you rave over it as well. ;-)
Seriously though, I'm pretty sure it'll be a bit of a hit with a certain demographic.
And now, without any further ado (about nothing, something, or anything), I present my lovely little bit o' flash fiction:
I Should Regret This More
by Lacey :-)
The first thing I learned at my new job: it takes approximately one day to get fed up with the stupid questions.
“Why is it raining?”
“Is that wait time accurate?”
“Are you sure?”
The second thing I learned at my new job: the quantity and stupidity of said questions is directly related to the popularity of the theme park. Meaning I got the cream of the crop.
“Do you work here?”
“No, I just enjoy confusing tourons.”
The third thing I learned at my last job: Did I say that out loud? will not help your case.
Ta da! I'm really quite proud of myself . . . more for finally writing something at all again after such a ridiculously long time. It felt good. :-) You can start raving now. :-P
Completely unrelated: adding another summer project - I'm thinking of painting the kitchen cabinets. My initial idea a couple of months ago was to paint them the same color as the walls, but the more time passes the more I agree with Luke - as in . . . "yeah, not so much . . ." So now I'm debating what color to do. Options right now are white or the absolute palest blue they have at Walmart - which is pretty darn pale. But I'm open to other suggestions too. (And if you've forgotten/never known what our kitchen looks like, pictures are here.)
I get the distinct feeling I'm a little too ambitious with my plans for this summer.
P. ost S. cript
Wipeout is back!! Hooray!!!
my opinion re: the cabinets is that it is much harder to paint them and make them look decent than you think it's going to be and I predict that halfway through you will seriously regret doing it.
ReplyDeleteReally? I just figured you slap the paint on more or less the same way we did the walls last year . . . :-(
ReplyDeleteWell you have to take the cupboard doors off and paint them and then put them back on. otherwise you get paint in all the hinges and it looks very sloppy.
ReplyDeleteHuzzah for writing! Jolly well done, and very funny too!
There is a LOT of prep work into painting cupboards. They have to be cleaned with a cleaner that takes of all the kunk from cooking, probaly years of cooking and not throughly cleaning. Then sanding, priming, and then finally painting. You have to get the right door back into the right place, or it won't fit. Love Grandma
ReplyDeleteBlargh. Well there goes that idea.
ReplyDeleteso what else are you going to do this summer, you said you wanted something to do. You can do it, just don't rush it. Love Grandma
ReplyDeleteSo you know, I love "I Should Regret This More." Demographic: hit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for flash fiction that's less than a hundred and forty characters, http://twitter.com/VeryShortStory is kind've lovely.
Grandma ~ I don't think management will pay for all the necessary materials/time spent, sadly. And it just seems more practical to save the money. When we have our own house I'll paint those cupboards. :-)
ReplyDeleteIan ~ Thanks! You do fall squarely into the demographic I was thinking of. :-D
You forgot a few other questions
ReplyDelete"Is this a show?" (no, the fact that there's a 25 foot tall sign proclaiming this to be an 'Extreme Stunt Show' doesn't give anything away)
and "Where's the Entrance?" (remember that 25 foot tall sign I was just telling you about? Now, granted, I'm not sure, but it seems logical that the sign would mark the entrance)