After the Fall
NYC Midnight hosts eight writing challenges throughout the year. Their Flash Fiction Challenge is a 500-word story in 48 hours.
Their contests draw thousands of writers worldwide to participate in a multi-round, scored elimination.
Writers are grouped into cohorts who receive the same prompt.
After a successful 3rd-place award with The Monsters We Know, I was invited to write for the second round.
For the second challenge, my cohort had roughly 50 writers this year, and we received the prompt: Sci-Fi, Getting a Dental Implant, a Bathtub.
Per the rules, I can’t say much about the submission, but here’s the public synopsis: a lonely Wisconsin retiree receives a dental prosthesis.
More in a few months! Judging is due by November 29, 2023.
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So, it’s the evening of Nov. 29, 2023, and I’m waiting for the results.
After the Fall is a short story about Euler Hermes of Waukesha, Wisconsin, who slips in his bathtub and requires a replacement tooth.
Set in the near retro-future, the tooth is an AI-powered entity, Wi-Fi enabled, and talks to Euler through bone conduction.
This was a second-round story, so I wanted to defy convention and do something that stood out. I wanted a likable character that had a positive transformation at the end, and I wanted to turn convention on its head and tell - not show - this story.
Ahh. Now, if you’re a writer, just reading that probably makes you cringe but listen: literature is full of stories that are told, not shown, and in particular, fairy tales and folklore are told.
When we learn about the old woman in the shoe, we don’t learn much about her or the shoe or her kids; honestly, it’s not important. What’s important is how she starved her children the whippings she bestowed before they went to bed. That’s what we’re supposed to remember.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a snippet from Little Snow White:
Snow-White grew up and became ever more beautiful. When she was seven years old she was as beautiful as the light of day, even more beautiful than the queen herself.
Bam. Quick. In-Out. Snow White was a kid, grew up, and was more beautiful than the Queen. Bang, that’s it, that’s all you need to know.
The basis of the story is delivered in two sentences. Perfect for flash! Hey, thanks, Brothers Grimm, and those guys’ stories are still with us after three centuries.
It’s like striking a table with a tuning fork - it’s that clear - and that’s all the story needs.
I feel Flash Fiction is a form that wants to be told. We don’t have enough time to describe the world around our characters, so we must leave the details to the reader. There are many ways to do this, not just my way, but I wanted to provide the least amount of information possible per paragraph. I wanted to be as direct and succinct as I could.
So, to me, the piece reads like a Wes Anderson movie: character-scene, character-scene, character-scene, until I wrap the story and exit. Results are in today (Nov 29, 2023); we’ll see if it worked!
Welp! The results are in, and I wasn’t in the top five. It’s a tough competition but always a joy to try.
