Micro Fiction Short Story

I continue writing this slog of a blog to hone my writing skills. No, seriously, stop laughing. It’s true! Okay, maybe that’s not the case with the weekly, award-shunning Mite Be Funny cartoon every Sunday. But this forum keeps my writing skills sharp as an eraser.

For an added test of my writing skills, I entered a contest for a 100 word micro fiction short story at www.nycmidnight.com. I learned of that website from the person who plagiarized my Elvis story for one of their other writing challenges. I thought the 100 word limit with a 24 hour time limit and writing to prompts would be interesting.

The prompts I received were that it had to be of the horror genre (Yes!), include the word “tell,” and involve riding a skateboard. Easy peasy. I got not one, but two stories written. My wife and I rejected the first story, because I had misread the directions and thought I needed to include the phrase “riding a skateboard” in the story. I had incorporated that phrase, but in sort of a stilted, clunky way. Why do I have to read and follow instructions anyway? Isn’t this the US of A, land of the free? Don’t take my freedom away to write whatever the hell I want to write. Must be a writing contest run by Socialist Democrats.

Anyhoo, I liked the second story better as it seemed more horrific to me and the ending was more clever (cleverer?). So, what do I do with the first story after I tightened it up a bit? Give it to you, I guess. I mean, if you read the normal drivel in this blog, you’ll read anything, and this will be a definite upgrade. So, click the “Continue reading” link to get to the unused story.

Sk8tr Boy

Jake began his afterlife with vivid memories of the fatal crash. Driving while high to the skatepark to hang with his bros, Jake turned into the parking lot too quickly. There were a series of collisions with people, cars, and finally a tree. Jake couldn’t tell he was in his afterlife, but he saw some skateboards, ready to ride. “Maybe this is heaven,” Jake thought as he chose a board and began rolling along. Jake soon found himself skateboarding directly toward his own car that he appeared to be driving. “Aw, hell,” uttered Jake. “Exactly,” came a rejoinder from the heavens.

I know, I know you want to ask, “Jim, are you insane? That’s micro fiction gold and a certain award-winner.” Well, that may be. I’m no stranger to winning awards for my book of short stories. But this is just Round One of this contest. If chosen to continue past Round One, there will be a Round Two in June to advance through to get to a Final Round in July before I can collect my major award. I’ll keep you posted on progress and share the Round One story I did submit at an appropriate time. Write on!