Critical Hits

The Journal of Gamer Culture

Very Short Stories

Andy Looney enjoys writing stories exactly 55 words long and calls them Nanofiction.

Well, Wired took the concept every further and asked a number of famous authors (mainly from Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Comics) and asked them to write 6 word short stories. They cite an idea from Ernest Hemmingway as their inspiration.

You can check out the whole list on Wired’s blog.

One of my favorites:

God to Earth: “Cry more, noobs!â€
- Marc Laidlaw

Reminds me of a part from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

“We apologize for the inconvenience”, God’s Final Message to His Creation, written in letters of fire on the side of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, Sevorbeupstry, on planet Preliumtarn, Galactic Sector QQ7 Active J Gamma. – c. 40

TheGame is Dave Chalker, a lifelong gamer, freelance game designer, Master of Arts, and son of Jack L. Chalker. Dave is the Editor-in-Chief of Critical Hits and so runs the place. He is the envy of geeks everywhere because he's dating e, the Geek's Dream Girl. (Email Dave or follow him on Twitter).

Comments

4 Responses to “Very Short Stories”
  1. Elena99 says:

    I love these.

  2. Original Sultan says:

    “It cost too much, staying human.”

    Probably my favorite. I immediately imagined a scene not unlike the end of House of the Dead, where the bad guy explains why he decided to become a zombie.

  3. Bartoneus says:

    From the comments on slash-dot:

    Heaven falls. Details at eleven.
    – Robert Jordan

    Fucker can’t even finish a 6 word story. Guess we’ll have to buy the sequel….

Trackbacks

Check out what others are saying about this post...
  1. [...] really good ones in there, both if you’re a fan of Azeroth or if you’re just a fan of really short stories. There’s even one that evokes Hemmingway’s [...]