I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time

In October, under gentle pressure from my blogging peers, I hosted a month-long MicroStory contest, inviting people to leave in the comments a story of a length short enough to be tweeted with the hashtag #MicroStory.

Although there were no conditions on the content of the stories (other than the condition of length being tweetable) I suggested an optional theme of spookiness to the stories, because of October’s association with Halloween. Spoooooky…

Most of the entries went with that suggestion.

Here are the first, second, and third place winners, in nail-biting reverse order:

THIRD PLACE

Third place goes to Haylee, a veteran of writing teeny-weeny stories. You can read more from her at aloadabobbins.com. (She even published a collection of her very very short stories on Amazon, you can find more info here.)

Her tweetable entry:

“What big teeth you have!” giggled the girl. “Awesome costume, so realistic!”
“It’s…all my own work” he replied, snarling…
#MicroStory

SECOND PLACE

Coming in second is Richard from velociraptor256.wordpress.com – he just announced his intention to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

His entry:

“I never realised vampires needed so much concealer.”
“Well, when most of us were human, smallpox was still a thing.”
#MicroStory

FIRST PLACE

And the winner of the very-first MicroStory challenge from me is… okay, my grammar is already wrong, because we have winners, not a winner…

Tied for First Place: Sue Ranscht and DoodletLLC

Sue’s entry (she provided the very first submission in the contest):

“Trick or treat!”
“I have a choice?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll take the treat.” A boney hand reached out.
“No! I get a treat! No! No–”
#MicroStory

Doodlet’s entry (which she says is her first “tweeter” ever):

Brooklyn. Desolate Subway Platform. Except for the Rats. Stop. Listen. Shallow Breathing Edging Close. Walk Fast with Confidence. Shift to High Alert. Run. Now.
#MicroStory

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Congratulations to all the winners and to all who participated, either in submitting stories, casting votes, or just leaving comments. It was all appreciated.

As I explained in my kick off post, there is no prize other than bragging rights and the joy of the challenge. If I was as classy and cool as Nicola Aukland, who hosts WEEKLY Six Word Story contests, I would have worked up first, second, and third place graphics for the winners to post on their blog. Instead, you are welcome to make fun of me. I deserve it for my slackness.

This was fun, seeing people write MicroStories.

I hope in a very small way, I’ve inspired people to keep crafting these little poetic, zen-koan style stories.

With luck, I’ll do this again soon.

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All MicroStories on this page belong to their respective authors, I make no claim to them and am very grateful for their contribution.

© Patrick Sponaugle 2016 Some Rights Reserved