I was first introduced to this idea on Jeffrey Callison's Sacramento NPR radio interview show called Insight. He interviewed Jason Sinclair Long about his blog "Flash Fiction 365". You can hear the interview here.
The challenge is to write a micro-story each day. The length of the story is determined by throwing a pair of dice, preferably of different colors. One color represents the tens digit and the other the ones digit. So the story can be from 11 to 66 words. Of course some lengths are left out using this method. You could also use one die and throw it twice. Or use a die with 8 sides. Or you can do what I did and create a random number generator in Excel. This method doesn't miss any of the numbers. Mine will return a random number between 11 and 99. I am happy to share the formula if you email me.
The title is not part of the word count. Most word processors have a word count function that is very useful. You can start with a title or add it later or you can have someone suggest a title. Even though the original idea is to write a story, I plan to include poetry and perhaps essay.
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Saturday, May 08, 2010
Story: 150
Words: 96
Title: Synthia as Herself
Could this android really become human, pondered Dmitri, one of Synthia’s creators, or does she simply imitate humans? It was an old question and one that was argued at length during her design phase. But her recent behavior had Dmitri revisiting that sophistic debate.
Synthia, he asked, are you fundamentally different than humans?
There was that now typical android delay and then, of course, I am an android.
I know, but do you think of yourself as an android or a human?
I think of myself as myself, conscious of myself, and distinct from all else.
Words: 96
Title: Synthia as Herself
Could this android really become human, pondered Dmitri, one of Synthia’s creators, or does she simply imitate humans? It was an old question and one that was argued at length during her design phase. But her recent behavior had Dmitri revisiting that sophistic debate.
Synthia, he asked, are you fundamentally different than humans?
There was that now typical android delay and then, of course, I am an android.
I know, but do you think of yourself as an android or a human?
I think of myself as myself, conscious of myself, and distinct from all else.
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