Every night, Reginald tossed and turned in his bed, covering his ears with his pillow, but the slurping and sipping and smacking just wouldn’t stop.
He never said anything, though; the rent was too good to risk a conflict.
He eventually began to wonder about all the “Missing Pet” posters.
This story was based on a title suggested by @ugotpauld.
In addition to selling Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One in print, I have also announced that it will be available digitally, as a PDF and an ePub.
Now, due to some helpful guidance from a friend of mine, I’ve created an edition of Volume One that will be supported natively by the Kindle, and will be available to buy from the Kindle Store. That ups the digital availability of the book at launch to three different formats (PDF, .ePub, and .mobi), so no matter what kind of e-reader you have, or whether you just want to read it on your computer screen, you should be accommodated.
The .mobi format of Volume One will sell for $4, the same price as the other digital formats.
She shrieked as a horrible, misshapen little creature squirmed out of her grocery bag and flopped itself, half-formed lungs heaving, onto the floor.
Kill it! cried her husband, but pity stayed her hand.
A bond formed between them,
and though it was built on only moments,
it lasted;
it remained.
This story was based on a title suggested by @vxicepickxv.
“Oh no!” cried Granny Gramgrams as she watched the weather channel. “If it rains on Saturday, it’ll completely spoil the holiday picnic!”
“Don’t worry,” Sonny confidently assured her. “With my gigantic turbo fan, I can blow all the clouds away.”
That weekend, Sonny’s fan pushed Earth into an irregular orbit.
This story was based on a title suggested by Larissa Thiessen.
I get stepped on. Water runs over me. My skin tans in the sun. Snow crunches on me, and the wind rolls me around.
Then one day a bright face comes. He picks me up and takes me home.
Then I’m dropped off again in the desert wastelands I’ve roamed.
Austin Howell is a Junior in high school in the beautiful city of Colorado Springs. When he graduates he plans to become a Youth Pastor and pursue a job in ministry. Writing is one of his favorite things to do!
Austin is part of a creative writing class from Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that wrote fifty-word stories and submitted them as a group.
It is such a simple word, with such a simple meaning.
We use, we abuse, yet we almost never misuse. It sees such pervasive usage, yet it so often goes unnoticed. It is overlooked, under-recognized, completely ignored.
But despite such use, it hasn’t appeared here until now: it is “and”.
Anthony Diaz is part of a creative writing class from Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that wrote fifty-word stories and submitted them as a group.
I remember the soothing sun kissing my exposed skin as the soft tide ran over my toes. The feeling of summer will forever be in my mind, as will the memory of you and your haunting, blue eyes.
Like the season of summer, all good things come to an end.
Rachael Scharp likes to write, especially poetry, and summer is her favorite season.
Rachael is part of a creative writing class from Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that wrote fifty-word stories and submitted them as a group.
Every Monday, I post a story submitted by a reader. These stories have proven to be very popular. In fact, four of the ten highest rated stories from the past 365 days were written by guests.
But today is going to be a bit unique: instead of a single guest story, I’ll be sharing three stories!
Here’s why: on January 11, in a span of about ten minutes, I received more than fifteen story submissions from a Creative Writing class at Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It blew my mind and made my day. I’d love to share all of the stories I received, but that would probably overwhelm the site, so I had to just pick a few. It was really hard for me to pick just three, but I think everyone will enjoy these stories, while I selfishly keep the rest to myself for now.
Thank you so much to the class and the teacher for sending your stories my way! I hope you all had fun with the assignment, and I’d love to see more stories from all of you in the future!
P.S. I’ve been trying to get in touch with the teacher of the class, but I haven’t managed to so far. If you see this, send me an email at tim@fiftywordstories.com! I’d love to hear more about what led your class to undertake this challenge together.
She had a burning but unrequited love. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so she transformed herself into a microorganism and crawled up his intestines.
She discovered some deep fried fig newtons in there, which intensified her affections.
She lived in his heart until he died.
Based on a title suggested by Dan Hingston via Facebook.
It’s finally ready!
After months and months of hints, teasing, waiting, and delays, the release date for Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One has finally been set. The book will be available on January 31, 2011, and will cost $12 (plus shipping) in print, or $4 electronically.
Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One is a perfect-bound, six-inch by nine-inch book containing 58 pages of original content.
Volume One contains 100 of the best stories I wrote on this site during my first year of work (February 22, 2009, to February 22, 2010). But I’m not just selling you a bunch of stories that you could read for free: most of the stories in the book have been improved in some way, whether that means the adjustment of a few words, a change in title, or a major rewrite. I’m really pleased with the improvements I’ve made to the stories contained in this book, and I think you’ll notice an upgrade in writing quality, as a whole. The book also includes bonus content in the form of some of my best nanofiction (stories written to fit within a single Twitter post), as well as a “Tips and Tricks” section that contains a plethora of pointers designed to help you write your own microfiction, based on my experience over the past two years.
There will be three ways to buy Volume One:
1) You will be able to order a copy of Volume One in print for $12 plus shipping via Lulu.com. There will be a link to my Lulu storefront from the FiftyWordStories.com Store.
2) You will be able to purchase and download a Volume One ebook bundle directly from the FiftyWordStories.com Store for $4. This bundle will include all three available ebook formats (PDF, ePub, and mobi), as well as a high-quality image of the cover. I’m not going to force anyone to pay multiple times to get the ebook in multiple formats.
3) You will be able to buy a Kindle-viewable version of the book directly from the Kindle Store for $4. I realize that it seems a little strange to offer this when you can buy all three formats bundled together for the same price, but a lot of people feel comfortable buying from the Kindle Store, so I want to make that option available. I recommend buying the bundle, not only because you get all of the formats together, but also because I receive more money that way, instead of surrendering a large part of my proceeds to Amazon. However, if you contact me and I am able to verify that you bought the book from the Kindle Store, I will send you the other formats, as well.
This book represents months of work in story selection, rewrites, formatting, layout, and cover design. I’d estimate that I’ve put close to a hundred hours into Volume One, not including the original time it took to write all the stories. I’m so close to pushing it out the door, and I’m really proud of the final product! I hope you enjoy it.
I’m planning a bit of extra fanfare for Launch Day, and I’ll keep you updated on what that’s going to look like during the lead-up to January 31.