Tag Archives: Writing

The sword is mightier than the pen is

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Map pictureWhen the mighty Genghis Khan was busy conquering half the world and the Vikings were spreading their genes far and wide, you can be sure they were ably assisted by some pretty deadly metal. It seems unlikely they sent a polite note first, asking if the inhabitants could be sure to be in on Wednesday between nine and four.

Vlad the Impaler may well have possessed razor sharp prose and a wonderful way with a metaphor, but it was the thought of something long and sharp where the sun don’t shine that really brought tears to the eyes of his victims.

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Last of the summer shorts

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Short shortsThere are a number of formats for short and ultra-short fiction online. A while back I decided to experiment with ‘my own’ format – fifty-word fiction. I quickly discovered this is not a new format at all (big surprise) and has been around for quite a while.

I wrote these as exercises, curious to see what could be achieved in so few words. Some might potentially blossom into fully-fledged short stories. It was certainly a challenging and quite enjoyable exercise, less daunting than delivering several thousands of words strung together with some vague degree of coherence. Continue reading →