So anyway, it's been a while. I'm actually writing today because I am considering trying out a new creative experiment, and I'm hoping to get your feedback on it.
I'm thinking of trying to give my creative brain a reason to start producing artistic work again by commiting myself to writing short, short stories, maybe weekly or so.
When I say short, I mean micro. Or even nano. Possibly Facebook status/Twitter tweet-able.
While I was in university, a creative writing course I took had us submit what they called 3/4s, complete stories of exactly three lines or sentences, often in response to a quote or strong image that was cited with the story (the four, if I remember right, was because they were to be submitted four at a time in the case of the course). I'm wondering whether I could achieve such stories still. And whether I could do them without necessarily attaching a referenced image or text. And whether I could even pull of one-line stories with any grace.
What do you think?
As a bonus, I'm thinking this could be kind of a new way (for me at least) of using Twitter and FB status posts. I want to get deeper into Twitter, and so far I haven't been able to find a strong motive to do so besides its popularity with others whose opinions I value. I figure this could possibly help with that too.
I just bought a set of "rory's story cubes" -- nine dice each with six pictures, which you roll and use to create a story. I also saw a product from loony labs called "nano-ficitonary" which is a similar idea, but cards with characters, settings, etc, which you use to propel stories of (I think I'm remembering this right) 72 words or less. They don't currently have the game in stock, but they have the blanks, which they are giving away when you pay the cost of shipping (I believe it's $6); they say you'd need 12-15 packs for blanks to make your own deck.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea, and I also think that i might try it :)
Thanks! :D You've inspired me to start working with pictures and stuff again. Now that I've gotten a couple done, I feel like I can work with concrete images without feeling as if they're a crutch.
ReplyDeleteInitially I worried that if I just started using pictures as "inspiration", my stories wouldn't stand alone without them. But I realize that just because I start with an image doesn't mean I have to post the image WITH the story to make it make sense.
I'm curious how the game nano-fictionary itself would be played. I mean, is there more to it than making up the 72 word stories? What do you do with the blanks?
The blanks are normally used to a expand a deck (which consists of character, setting etc. cards) but since the original game is out of print you can use the blanks to either duplicate it (the regular deck is described online) or to make your own version of the game with your own ideas for elements to incorporate. I'll probably do a combination of the two.
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