Words In The Dark

Twenty minutes is not a lot of time. Less than a sitcom. One of the regular exercises in a writing group to which I belong is to receive a random writing prompt and turn it into a short story. When I receive my prompt, I have no idea what it will be about. All I know is that in twenty minutes I’ll be reading a story to my peers, a story that doesn’t yet exist. A story that I’m about to write. I unfold the paper or open the box and receive inspiration. That is where these stories come from. There isn’t enough time to do research or interviews. No time to plan an elaborate plot. Ernest Vincent Wright once, as a challenge, tied down the e key on his typewriter and wrote the novel Gadsby without a using single e. My overwhelming constraint in crafting these stories is time. How to touch a heart, capture a soul or inspire a reader in such a short period? That is what these sixteen stories are all about.