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!”
– 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
I love these.
“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.
From the comments on slash-dot: