Writing Prompt: Flash Fiction!

Flash Fiction is a very short story with a word count from a handful of words to 1,000 words. It’s a complete story in any genre you so choose to write in. They, like regular stories, contain a beginning, a middle, and an end with a fully developed plot and at least one main character.

I challenge you all to write a flash fiction story with a cap of 1,000 words. I’ll be writing mine on Wattpadd, and I’ll put the link in this post when I’m done with it.

Please, feel free to share links to your own flash fiction stories. These can be f;an fiction as well as your own work with your own characters and story line.

Most of all, HAVE FUN!!! This is something that’s supposed to be fun, not stressful!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Kafka-Metamorphosis

I recently was given a book that is a collection of short stories written by Franz Kafka. It’s a Barnes & Noble Classics version published by Barnes & Noble Books, Copyright 2003. The Introduction, Notes and Further Reading were all done by Jason Baker while the translation of the short stories from their original German was done by Donna Freed. Like I did with my version of Candide, I skipped over the incredibly long Introduction section as well as the World of… section.

Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Germany in 1883. He was not well known until close to his death and defying his last request, Kafka’s friend, Max Brod spent the rest of his own life getting the rest of Kafka’s work published, including three novels, The Trial(1925), The Castle(1926) and Amerika(1927).

I’ll review each short story in the collection starting today with Metamorphosis – just because it’s the first story in the book.

I was caught by this story and couldn’t stop reading it. It’s a sad story about a young man named Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman and his family: Herr Samsa, his father who later becomes an employee of a bank, Frau Samsa, his mother who later begins sewing lingerie for private clients and his sister, Grete, who becomes a salesgirl at a store.

Poor Gregor, after spending many years slaving away at a job he hated all so he could help the family – he was the only one employed at this time – wakes up one morning as a giant creature. The way he’s described, I’d say he’s a doodlebug, but a charwoman calls him a dung beetle so I’ll go with that.

Kafka shows most of the action from Gregor’s POV as well as using 3rd person narrative to tell the story. The story tells you what happens to poor Gregor and his family once it is discovered he is no longer human.

I won’t give away the story, but I will caution you to take it like it is. Jason Baker says his fiction doesn’t make sense. I see it as a vignette – a snapshot of something that happened to a man and his family – like a scene from a one act play. Sorry, it’s hard to explain. I was confused by the story – it’s just a story. But it does show how familial obligation and self identity were treated during Kafka’s time.

In short, I liked the story. It’s not very long so reading it wouldn’t be a major waste of time if you don’t end up liking it. Me, I’m going to read another short story soon.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Personal Update – Feb. 15

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. 🙂

The Dentist and I – Still an ongoing dance with this. I had misspoke on a previous post talking about this. I was to see the dentist on the 12th of Feb, not see him in 21 days – sorry about that. So anyway, saw the dentist and still waiting to get the inserts put in my denture so the pins will have something to snap onto. Dr. Shirley(a man so no snide comments please) wants to make sure the bone is solid around the pins so the pins won’t come out the first time I eat something like ribs. I don’t want the pins coming out either – getting them in in the first place was not something I want to repeat.

Writing – I am working on a short story I plan to submit to FunDead Publications. I love the name of the company, don’t you. Punnish Gothic lol. I got an email that had information about submitting entries for their upcoming anthology and after reading the guidelines, I decided to try my luck.

Not long after I read all of that, I was on Facebook trolling about. I saw a meme that had the little story about Nobody, Anybody, Somebody and Everybody. It was cute and a bit amusing. Once I read it, I decided to name my story Mr. Nobody. I don’t normally name my stories first, usually I write them and then name them. Now, I had a name but no story. Over a period of nearly a week, I mulled over the story, coming up with openings, partial plots and not liking anything. I almost chucked the idea entirely.

Then, as I was crocheting and playing a farming game, an idea came to me. I did some research to make sure it was feasible, or at best, believable – something else I don’t normally do since my work is typically fantasy so all those things get thrown out the window(along with the kitchen sink at times). So, here I am musing over an idea, and I remember seeing the picture of an old house I liked the look at some time ago. I dug up the picture, and the beginning of the story began to form. Yay me!

Still, I had nothing concrete so I kept thinking things over while crocheting. I like to work stories out in my head, scenes anyway. I had characters starting to show up and talk to me. Then, out of the blue, an ending came to me. It gave me the shivers how clear the entire thing was to me. So now, I have a bit of a beginning, some players ready for parts and a great(to me anyway) ending. I am still working on how to get from Point A to Point B and then to Point C. Stories always have three points: a beginning, a middle and an end. I’m still working on it. I have until March 11 so I have time.

Crafting – I mention crocheting because it’s the main thing I like to do. I have tried, half assed, and at times, barely assed, getting them sold online. I have decided I’m tired of worrying about if it’s going to work or not. I am going to do my best to start and run an online shop selling my handcrafts as well as those of others when I’m big enough. I am a great fiber artist, and I want to show the world what I can do!! Wish me well!!

And that is all I have to report at this time. Golden Knight is still being edited in spurts. I don’t write when I don’t feel like it, and I haven’t felt like it in a while. Perhaps, with the short story, I can kick start my writing urge and get GK done so I can get it to my Beta Readers. We’ll see.

See you all on the flipside and don’t forget to bring your towel and sonic screwdriver!