Prose, Not Verse

The other week someone asked the Hint Fiction account on Twitter what differentiates Hint Fiction from poetry. The reply was pretty simple:

What differentiates most free verse poetry from any prose story? The form itself. Hint Fiction is prose, not verse.

I'm sure there will be some who will argue this. I'll be the first person to admit that I don't know much about poetry, despite having taken a few poetry classes in college -- or I should say English classes that spent some great deal of time on poetry. Personally, I'm not a fan of poetry. I have really nothing against it; it just isn't something I like to read. If I come across a literary journal or some magazine and it has fiction and poetry, I will almost never read the poetry. Again, I have nothing against it. I know there is some really great poetry out there, that some writers do amazing things with verse, but it's just not my cup of tea, just as fiction is not many poets' cup of tea either.

And so free verse poetry? I'm sure there's more to it than simply appearing as verse. I've sometimes thought about taking a very short flash fiction piece, breaking it up into verse, and calling it a free verse poem. And I'm sure that's possible and has been done many times. But I also feel like it's cheating the form out of what it's supposed to be and what it can accomplish.

But anyway. The reason I mention this is because the question got me thinking. I've always considered "Corrections and Clarifications" to be my very first Hint Fiction piece, but it's really not. Because many years ago, back in 2002, I wrote a haiku hybrid.

To help set the stage, I was friends with Jack Fisher, the publisher and editor of the horror and dark fantasy magazine Flesh & Blood. I was also seeing this girl who -- to protect the guilty -- we'll call Wilma. Jack had told me a lot of funny stories about the crazy stuff writers put in their cover letters (something I would soon encounter once I was hired on to the magazine). So one night when I was at Wilma's place and we were on her computer for some reason (I think something was messed up with her e-mail) I thought it would be funny to send Jack a submission but sent as a crazy writer person. I glanced at Wilma who was holding this big stuffed red dog I'd gotten her as a gift, and wrote a quick three lines in the e-mail, titling it "Wilma" for some reason, and then writing something along the lines of "Thank you in advance for accepting my poem" and sent it.

A day or two later, I was chatting with Jack online and managed to ask if he'd gotten any crazy submissions. He had an idea what I was hinting at and said "Wilma?" I wrote back something like "Ha! Yeah, thought you'd appreciate that." And he replied something like "Funny thing is I actually really like it."

So he ended up accepting it for the magazine, though we agreed to change the title to something more suitable. Jack was even crazy enough to put my name on the cover (done by Chad Savage), which I didn't complain about at all:

Once I came on as Senior Editor at the magazine, the haiku hybrid became the basis for a little marketing idea I came up with that I called Easter Egg Haikus. Basically, in each issue we'd feature a haiku written by a well known horror or fantasy writer. We wouldn't include the writer's name on the cover or even on the table of contents. It would be a hidden treat, like what was all the rage on DVDs back then. Some of the writers included Douglas Clegg, Tim Lebbon, Steve Rasnic Tem, T. M. Wright and Ramsey Campbell. I think there were one or two others but I forget who they were now, and besides, Jack ended up deciding to shut down the magazine a year or two after I'd quit (my quitting had nothing to do with him shutting down the magazine, mind you, as he already had a lot of help; it was just time for it to end).

So anyway, despite the poem being in verse, I'd say it still hints at a larger, more complex story, huh?

"Plush"

Holding a stuffed dog That was not alive--- Until it ate her face off.

Now it seems like I have an extra copy of this issue. Who wants it? First person who says so in the comments section gets it.

Hint Fiction's First Blurb

From Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of HOUSE RULES:

"The perfect story collection for all of us with too little time on our hands is a brilliant reminder of the magic that happens when you string the right words together.  A must-read for anyone who is or wants to be a writer."

This Is For All My Peeps Out There

My hint fiction piece "Peep" appeared last year at The Northville Review. Quite recently I wrote a reflective piece for the Northville Notebook, where contributors give notes on their work.

And if you haven't had a chance to check out my story "Multiplicity" yet over at Every Day Fiction, please do so. As I'd predicted, for the most part it got slammed in the comments section, which is fantastic. It seems readers are split right down the middle: either they "get" it or they don't ... or maybe there's nothing to "get"?

Finally, I just learned that both The Silver Ring and Through the Guts of a Beggar are now available at Barnes & Noble.com. The Silver Ring is listed for $0.00, and Through the Guts of a Beggar is listed for $0.99. And even better, you don't need a Nook to download them!

Baby Shoes, Who Cares?

Last week I received an interesting and well thought out e-mail from Simon Thalmann regarding Hemingway's six-word story. In fact, the e-mail was so interesting and well thought out that, with Simon's permission, I'm going to reprint a good chunk of it here:

I've been thinking a lot lately about the "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn" piece by Hemingway lately in light of one of your recent posts, and while it struck me as intriguing when I first heard the story as an undergrad I can't help but wonder now, as a father myself some years later: Do you think the piece would be worth anything had it not been Hemingway who wrote it?

Again, while initially the short may seem tragic, a simple second look show it's actually quite, well, boring, for lack of a better word. For truly, what does the fact that a pair of baby shoes haven't been worn really say? It doesn't say anything. Anything inferred says more about the reader than the story. For instance, my wife and I are headed to a "Mom to Mom" sale tomorrow where people sell all their baby stuff. I imagine quite a bit of it will have signs saying "Never worn." Does that mean all their babies were killed or stillborn or that there was some tragedy to speak of that kept their babies feet uncovered? Absolutely not. It just means they were never worn.

Incidentally, I'm not sure how it was in Hemingway's day but now new parents are deluged with gifts at the birth of a child, and shoes -- especially if you get multiple pair -- are practically worthless. You may try a pair on the baby to see how they look once or twice, but the fact is they grow so fast and the shoes are such a hassle to deal with and serve no purpose that I imagine the majority of baby shoes could actually be considered "Never worn."

Additionally, if "Never used" were always taken to imply tragedy, the classified section would be the most depressing part of the newspaper.

All this is to say I hope Hemingway really didn't consider this his best work. "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Green Hills of Africa," and his short stories at least count for something.

Simon brings up a lot of good points. I'd addressed them quickly in my reply via e-mail, but want to go more in-depth here.

For starters, no, I do not believe the six-word story would be so highly regarded if it had been written by anybody other than Hemingway (or a writer of Hemingway's stature). Sure, if some lesser known writer had come up with the story, it probably would circulate around writers' circles, but it wouldn't be held is such high esteem (and SMITH Magazine wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is). But this happens all the time. Take The Road, for instance. I can't imagine that book not only being one of Oprah's picks but also winning the Pulitzer Prize if it had been written by anyone else but Cormac McCarthy. The man has gotten to the point in his career where he can pretty much write anything and people will think it's a masterpiece.

As I've mentioned here before, the greatest strength of Hint Fiction is also its greatest weakness, in which the effectiveness of the story replies heavily on a reader's own life experience. So yes, Hemingway's story could be taken many different ways, not all of them so dark. In fact, when I student taught I used this story to teach inference, and one of the students suggested that maybe the baby had been born without legs. Well ... not the most likely reason, but plausible.

Still, I think it's simply human nature to view things negatively, so when someone sees that story, they instantly think stillborn and death.

Finally, we need to keep in mind that there is no written account anywhere that says Hemingway is in fact the true author of that story. It's all legend, just as the fact he claimed it was his greatest work is legend. But say he did write the story, and he did claim it was his greatest work. I'd have to side with him. Because back in Hemingway's day, nothing like a six-word story had been done before. Sure, people had written novels and short stories, but a six-word story? If he did indeed write it (and I'm inclined to believe he did), then he was in fact the very first person to do so. So yeah, considering that it was such a new and innovative way of storytelling, I'd have to agree that it could be considered his greatest work.

But of course that's just me. Simon, like I said, raised some really good points. What do you think?

And The Winners Are ...

First, I want to thank everyone again for helping spread the word and participating in the contest. We had a great turnout this year, with just over 350 stories submitted, which isn't too bad considering the contest was open for just two weeks. There were a lot of great entries and it was hard to pick a top 12, but pick I did and then those were sent to James Frey who picked three winners and two honorable mentions. Before I get to that, though, here again are the prizes:

• The first place winner will receive $100; the second place winner will receive $50; the third place winner will receive $25. The first place winner will also receive a slew of  journals and anthologies donated by a handful of publishers:
  • a copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction Two, donated by editor Camille Gooderham Campbell
  • a copy of The Los Angeles Review, donated by fiction editor Stefanie Freele
  • a copy of Sententia, donated by editor/publisher Ryan W. Bradley
  • a copy of Space and Time, donated by editor/publisher Hildy Silverman
  • a copy of [first year] an mlp anthology, donated by editor/publisher J. A. Tyler
  • a copy of PANK, donated by editor Roxane Gay
  • a copy of Fox Force 5, donated by editor/publisher Barry Graham
• My own publisher has also been kind enough to donate ten copies of Sudden Fiction Latino, edited by Robert Shapard, James Thomas, and Ray Gonzalez. A copy will be awarded to each of the winners and finalists, as well as to some random contestants.

There were 217 eligible contestants. Numbering each and using the True Random Number Generator, the five lucky random contestants to be awarded a copy of Sudden Fiction Latino are:

• Subhakar Das
• Jean Kinsey
• Jenn Alandy
• Jenn Haddock
• Sara McGrath

Now, without further adieu ...

First place winner:

.com by Charles Lennox

In the address bar I type her name, first and last. I try:

.com

.org

.net

The page cannot be displayed.

Second place winner:

ANOTHER NEW VASE by Christopher James

She found a place for the flowers. She thanked him for the necklace. It matched the last one. When he lifted her jaw she froze.

Third place winner:

LOVE STORY by James Cho

I'm washing glitter off my neck. She's in the bedroom. I tell her to clap her hands so I know she's not stealing anything.

Honorable Mentions:

• BABY SKIN by Allison Gibson
• PINK SLIP by Linda Simoni-Wastila

Congratulations to the winners and honorable mentions! And thanks once again to everyone who participated. Please keep in mind that Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer hits bookstores this November, and there will be more giveaways and surprises before then, so to stay in the loop, check out Hint Fiction on Twitter and Facebook. Until then, take care.