I love flash fiction, six word stories, three line tales and 100 word stories. These minimalist formats have helped me learn the art of telling stories without a lot of unneeded fluff. As they say, “Just the facts ma’am.” 😊
These days Twitter is all the rage, literally. We pop off loud (all caps), mean, obnoxious, inflammatory rants. Fortunately, the Twitter “powers that be” had the wisdom to limit us to 140 characters. Thank you Twitter goddesses!
As one who loves a good challenge, I thought, what if we tried to tell a story in only 140 characters, prompted by a photo or painting? Wouldn’t that be fun?
So, here is my challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a prompt, and your mission, if you choose to play along, is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less.
If you accept the challenge, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale. A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you atcharactercountonline.com.
I will do a round up each Tuesday, along with providing us a new prompt.
To get this challenge started here is today’s prompt:
And here’s my twitter tale:
It was a grim sight. The first victims of the plague had turned to stone, ghosts who held too tightly to the past, now doomed to repeat it.
kat ~ 17 October 2016
(139 Characters)
The rest of the story…a bit of background on today’s prompt:
I found this intriguing photo, taken by Marczoutendijk, at wikimedia commons. The bronze sculpture, by Peter Nagelkerkein, was unveiled in Nuenen Park in the Netherlands, despite the vehement protests of residents who considered it ugly. Interestingly, the painting that inspired the sculpture, called “The Potato Eaters” by Vincent Van Gogh, also met with resistance when it was unveiled. Seen as rough, dark and ugly, many believed it veered too far from the brighter impressionistic genre of the day. Van Gogh would later write to his sister, saying that he considered this piece, his first official painting, to be his best work.
Obviously, my story has nothing to do with peasants or potatoes. But that is the beauty of art. It’s that “eye of the beholder” thing. So, what do you see? 🤓
like mercury colliding... 
