Phoebe Kate

One of my passions is writing flash fiction, generally defined as being no more than 1000 (or 500, depending on who you’re asking) words long.  Can you tell a complete story in such a compressed and confining format?  Most definitely, I think.  You just need to remember what your old high school English teacher told you – Make every word count!   And keep in mind that what you don’t say is every bit as important as what you do say.

I’ve become addicted to 2 websites that prove that less is more.  PostSecret has become well known thanks to morning talk show publicity and four popular books.  I don’t know if I’d look forward to going to my mailbox every day if I knew over 1,ooo postcards with anonymous people’s private thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, horrors, humiliations and sins would be there waiting for me, but I’m glad Frank Warren doesn’t mind being the world’s official Father Confessor.  The results of his 4-year project are fascinating, both from a psychological and an artistic perspective.

Similarly, One Sentence publishes, in its own words, ”True Stories, Told in One Sentence,” again consistently demonstrating that brevity is not only the soul of wit, as the old saying goes, but the essence of engaging, insightful writing.

–phoebe kate