Every month the awesome people at Grey Matter Press sponsor a flash fiction writing contest. I'm happy to report that this month I am one of two grand prize winners! (The first ever tie in Flash Masters history.) You can read my winning entry here. I can't wait to get my signed copy of John F. D. Taff's The End in All Beginnings.
I'm the sort of person who loves DVD extras; in that spirit, I wanted to talk a little about my process in writing my entry.
Last month's contest was for a 100 word story. I have some experience writing 100 word drabbles. In addition to the Trashling Tales, I've had 100 word stories published in The Drabbler, Necrotic Tissue and elsewhere. But for the third contest, the word limit was raised to 200 words.
Writing a 200 word story is a lot different than writing a 100 word story. (If you don't believe me, try it.) Because I'm more comfortable with the 100 word story, I thought, "Hey, I should try to write two drabbles that depict the same event from two different perspectives."
Thus my story "He Said/She Said" was born.
Another fun feature of the monthly contests is that one must include a set of words in the story. This month the words were: Death, Pearl, Stairs, Hate and Organ. I thought it would be fun to use each of the words in both halves of the story, so I did. E.g., in one section pearl is the gem, in the other, it's a woman's name.
"He Said/She Said" is an example of haiku fiction in that you really need both halves of the story to get the complete picture as to what's going on. I'm happy that the story seems to have resonated with the judges. I certainly had a lot of fun writing it.
I take my victory to mean that there's something to this haiku fiction thing...
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