This is like déjà vu all over again.
When something becomes successful or popular, the haters slink out from under their rocks to start their dissing.
It happened months back when this whole thing started, and it’s happening again.
And to be honest, I think it’s hilarious.
You can’t please all the people all the time, and when the haters make their appearance, I always feel like I’m doing something right.
Anyway, I’ve realized I’m taking for granted the fact that many new visitors to this site don’t already know about Hint Fiction and the contest we had a few months back. This is all new to them, and while I don’t really expect everyone to go back and read the very first essay (or this post, or this essay, or this interview, all which give insight into Hint Fiction), I figured it would be nice of me to lay out a brief history of the form and the idea behind the anthology.
So here goes:
Ernest Hemingway once wrote a six-word story that went “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” A complete story in just six words.
Only there’s a school of thought that doesn’t see it as a story. Why? I don’t know. People are weird that way. But I was curious at just what point a story stops becoming a story, how short it has to be, and so I wrote an essay about it for Gay Degani at the Flash Fiction Chronicles. I said that these stories only give a hint of a much larger story, and that because of that they should be called Hint Fiction.
Please understand that I said all of this facetiously. I never intended for any of it to catch on. I certainly never intended to get a book deal out of the thing. But hey, I ain’t complaining.
Why 25 words? Well, why not? I’ve always found the classification of stories baffling. From novel to novella to novellete to short story to flash fiction to sudden fiction to micro fiction to nano fiction to drabbles to dribbles to now Hint Fiction. Who came up with the set word counts? Why does being within 1,000 words (or even 100 words) declassify one form from being another form?
Sadly, in this writing world in which we all live, classification and labels are key. People can’t just be writers. Oh no. They have to be literary writers or science fiction writers or mystery writers. They must be labeled, oh yes they must, and like the authors, the stories must be labeled too.
Really, it’s all very silly when you think about it. Like I’ve said before, as a rose is a rose is a rose, a story is a story is a story. Only, unfortunately, it’s not.
Wait, you say, but isn’t this art? Why should we limit art to anything, especially 25 words?
To which I respond: Take a freaking chill pill, okay?
Seriously, some people get uptight about the smallest things. Overthinking and overanalyzing way too much, and this is coming from a guy who overthinks and overanalyzes way more than he should.
Why 25 words? Why not 20? Why not 30? Can’t a story of 30 words be considered Hint Fiction? Sure, I don’t see why not (this story is 29 words and it definitely suggests a larger, more complex story), but you’ve gotta put your foot down somewhere, and besides, 25 words seemed like the perfect number (especially since a drabble is 100 words and a dribble is 50 words, making hint fiction 25 words just made sense).
And I’m hesitant to call Hint Fiction art, too, because once you call something art it becomes pretentious. But again, that goes into the whole labeling and categorizing foolishness …
Then what about this thesis? you say. Why does this anthology have to prove anything?
To which I respond again: Take a freaking chill pill, okay?
Listen, this all goes back to the very start, to the idea that there are people who don’t buy these tiny stories as stories. To them they’re punchlines or jokes or aphorisms. And that’s their opinion, and it’s very difficult to change people’s opinions. But with this anthology, I didn’t want to include a slew of stories 25 words or less for the sake of being 25 words or less. My editor was in agreement. The top 20 finalists of the Hint Fiction contest were not authors just putting 25 words or less on a page. Each of them had to tell a story.
But again, that stubborn school of thought that refuses for whatever reason to see these stories as actual stories.
So I thought — okay, then let’s try to prove that these ARE stories. How? Well, quite simply I came up with four basic principles of what, for me at least, a story should do:
- It should obviously tell a story
- It should be entertaining
- It should be thought provoking
- And, if done just right, it should evoke some kind of emotional response from the reader
So I ask you — if a story of 2,500 words or more can do all that, why can’t a story 25 words or less?
Admittedly not everybody is going to see it that way. There are those who get the idea of this book and like it, others who don’t and think it’s stupid. That’s to be expected.
(One major author I’d contacted about possibly submitting to the anthology said she didn’t agree with the book’s premise; her agent, however, thought it was a terrific idea and even suggested some of his other clients who he thought might be interested in submitting.)
Ultimately though, the idea here to just to have fun. My goal is for the writers to have fun working on their stories, and the eventual readers to have fun reading them. Granted, not every reader is going to love every story. I’ve found that a reader will love Story A and hate story B, while another reader will love Story B and hate Story A. Just like everything else in life, certain things appeal to us, other things don’t.
Hint Fiction, above all else, is an exercise in brevity. It shows writers just how important word choice is, and hopefully this will reflect in their other writing.
So now I leave it up to you — questions, comments, concerns, leave them in the comments section and I’ll try to answer the best I can. After all, I don’t have to defend myself like this, but I want everyone to see where I’m coming from, where I hope to go with the book, so that each person planning to submit can get a fair shake.
I read the interview when it was originally published online. And I remember it said something like; in a time where people are interested in texting and twitter hint fiction should be a big hit.
But I disagree with that. There are a lot of smart people who use twitter, including yourself, but really I think the people who use twitter, text and whatnot would rather read a Marian Keyes or Sophie Kinsella novel, because those kinds of novels explain every detail and leave nothing to the imagination.
I feel a large amont of people won’t take the time to figure the larger story within hint fiction, even though hint fiction is ambiguous and has a lot of possible stories.
Personally I hate hint fiction. I actually think it should be called hate fiction. Or clue fiction. Or fict hintion. Or S.E. Hinton. The whole thing frightens me. It smacks of originality. Wit. Verve. It’s like flirting. Never got it. If I want fiction I’ll read Nicholas Sparks. Or a greeting card. Or a MACHINE WASH ONLY tag. Or a description of a DVD on a Redbox machine. Now that’s an idea. Hint fiction vending machines. Airports. Bus terminals. Okay, I like hint fiction now.
I just discovered hint fiction via another lit blog and I fell in love with the concept immediately. However, you are correct that some find it difficult to accept. My wonderful editor who was putting her final touches on my upcoming short story collection gently complained about one of my stories that clocked in at 100 words (I paste it below in case you’re curious). She said: “It’s not really a short story, is it? It’s more like a poem.” So, she suggested that I use it as a poem to begin the collection or put it at the end of the book. In other words, she wanted to segregate my little story sort of like an unruly child who has to sit all alone at a small table away from the adults. Sadly, I hadn’t heard of hint fiction before nor of your blog so I couldn’t send her “authority” that my story was actually a story. At least it’s staying in the collection (and I do love my editor, don’t get me wrong…this is the fourth book of mine that she’s edited). In any event, thank you for supporting all stories, big and small. Here’s my “offending” too-short story:
“Los Hermanos”
In the wake of morning’s love, los hermanos commenced building el pueblo from the ground up. By noon’s smile, the tight, happy cobblestone streets veined through el pueblo like breathing roots around strong, worthy homes, churches and schools. By afternoon, la gente, who now bustled through el pueblo, grew restless and vile. “This pueblo is too perfect,” they said. “We have no reason to strive!” So, la gente razed the strong, worthy buildings. With gory fingers, they dug up each happy cobblestone. And in evening’s horror, la gente snarled as they buried the weeping hermanos with el pueblo’s bloodstained rubble.
I haven’t read everything you have on the site, but I think it bears mentioning that even longer-form fiction often — some may say always — leaves hints about a larger story beyond the words on the page. As many of my favorite songwriters repeatedly claim, there doesn’t have to be just one meaning for a song. What the reader (or listener in their case) brings from their own experiences will color their perceptions and interpretations.
While hint fiction may seem like poetry in its economy of words, the archaic yet historically recent definitions of poem and story are really just names imposed on forms of writing that have some traits in common, either in structure or purpose. If stories are good, whether they be personal reflections or flights of fancy, does it matter what forms they take? Everyone has their own answer, of course.
On a partol can’t tell you our mission, darness all around, the smell of explovies, everyone dead or wounded. No medals or awards just sadness.
If it’s fiction I love it, because fiction is real truth. What we actually remember is filtered by time, and that is fiction before it goes thru fingers and onto the page. (Sorry 32 words)