Flash Fiction - Gunslinger Ridge Experiment

FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: TEN MORE TITLES (ROUND TWO!)
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2017/02/17/flash-fiction-challenge-ten-more-titles-round-two/

More titles!
This time the titles were hand-picked based on how interesting they sounded.
I picked one 'Gunslinger Ridge Experiment' and below is the piece of short fiction that goes along with the title.

Target length: ~1500 words

The Gunslinger Ridge Experiment

Guppy Must Die

FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: TEN TITLES FROM YOU
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2017/02/10/flash-fiction-challenge-ten-titles-from-you/
Last week  three-word titles were submitted. Ten were  randomly chosen. I wrote a story using the title 'Guppy Must Die'.
Target Length: ~1000 words
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Guppy Must Die

Rebellion

Rebellion
Rebecca looked at her wrist and picked up her books. She pushed the books into her backup and pulled it up on to her shoulder. A girl came up behind her.

How to Write a Short Story

Getting started in Flash Fiction and writing prompts, I often get bogged down in ... getting started. I start writing, like a pantser, and find myself unfocused and concerned that the narrative is not developing. So I've brought together some good suggestions for how to get started on a short story.

How To Outline A Short Story - For Beginners

Outline a Short Story in Seven Steps

7 Steps to Write a Short Story

How to Properly Outline a Short Story

How to Write a Short Story

Ten Reasons to Write Short Stories Even Though the Pay is Peanuts

New article:
Ten Reasons to Write Short Stories Even Though the Pay is Peanuts

What are the best short stories?

Recently there was a great thread on Quora where participants shared their own short stories, some short and with an unexpected twist, and some short stories from well known authors.

Here is some of what was suggested:

• All You Zombies -by Robert Heinlein
• Suit Up - Nikant Vohra
• The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami
• Gift of the Magi - O'Henry
• A Small Good Thing - Raymond Carver
• The Third and Final Continent - Jhumpa Lahiri
• Impact of job change - Dinesh Enid
• Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
• The Last Leaf - O. Henry
• The Swimmer - John Cheever
• Goodbye, My Brother - John Cheever
• Pet Milk - Stuart Dybek
• Victory Lap - George Saunders
• The Word - Vladimir Nabokov
• Notes to My Biographer and War's End - Adam Haslett
• The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
• The School - Donald Barthelme
• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce
• The Diamond as Big as the Ritz - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Ice Palace - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Dice, Brassknuckles, & Guitar - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Nick Adams Stories - Hemingway
• Good Old Neon - David Foster Wallace
• A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor
• The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
• There Will Come Soft Rains - Arsène Hodali
• The Fall of the House of Usher  - Edgar Allen Poe
• The Birthmark  - Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Metamorphosis  - Franz Kafka
• The Egg - Andy Weir (this also had a short video adaptation)

10 Ways To Turn Your Real Life Experiences Into Science Fiction

An article from iO9 explores 10 different ways to turn our own life experiences into science fiction stories.

See the full article at: http://io9.com/10-ways-to-turn-your-real-life-experiences-into-science-1672787624

The Magic Box

This is a story by my oldest son, H. Perlin.

The Magic Box
I will put in the box a talking mouse.
A green sun.
A tasty piece of chocolate cake.

I will put in the box the sound of a bouncing ball,
a flying elephant,
a scream of a wolf.

I will put in the box the first smile of a baby,
a black sea, 
a lion giving a scream.

My box is made of half gold, half candy, and half silver.

The is story reminded me of a TED talk giving by JJ Abrams, called the Mystery Box. He described the role of boxes of unknown content in storytelling.

Although this story reveals its contents, these items are so odd and random, that it is still a mystery about the significance of the things found in the box.

Short Stories Prompts

I am trying to get my hands dirty with short story writing. I submitted one to the Triggerstreet site and got some reviews.
Some of the comments were:

• ya MIGHT have something worth developing, but it needs a LOTTA work.
• Overall, this story needs to be a bit clearer. 
• The ending is actually quite clever.

I knew it wasn't the best piece, and I was ready to get kicked a bit, which is pushing me to look into improving this writing.

Here are some places I am going for tips:

• Get Me Writing: Short Stories
• 12 Secrets To Being A Super-Prolific Short-Story Writer
• Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story
• How To Write Short Stories

I'll keep plugging away and keeping updates coming.