My First Ever Micro Short Story!

good morning, cyberspace!

Today’s post is hopefully going to be severely, SEVERELY short, but — as I have slowly begun to understand — this is completely okay. I’ve been saying it numerous times lately, and I feel like it’s finally beginning to sink in (even if it’s sinking in a little slowly.): SHORT BLOG POSTS ARE PERFECTLY OKAY.

So today we are going to be doing just that! Partly because the blog post I’ve been working on all weekend (and sorely neglecting everlost for) was a total fail, which left me once again at Monday night without anything to post for this morning. And also partly because I don’t want to spend all of today writing the new blog post I’ve chosen, which is basically a giant update post on ALL OF THE THINGS everlost. That’s going to take a lot of time and graphics, and though I’m really excited to begin writing it, I want to spend today working on my book.

Because, as I said, it has been severely neglected over the weekend, and I now need to write 3,000 words in one afternoon just to catch up.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHA. HA. I’M FINE.

But I am getting distracted here. For today’s post, I want to focus not on everlost, but on a micro short story that I wrote last week.

Now, most of you could probably never guess this, but I — The Ultimate and Supreme Kenzie Bean — have never entered a writing contest before. Like ever. unless we are counting a Webkinz writing contest, but i am definitely not counting that, so you should probably not count that either.

. . .

I know. It’s shocking. I am a writer who has never entered a writing contest. Such blasphemy. Much wow.

But I suppose I should say had never entered a writing contest before, because last week, I actually did the thing. I entered a contest. I wrote something that actually fit within the required word limit (and can we just take a moment to give me a rousing round of applause for that because WOW, SMOKEY JOE, I ACTUALLY STAYED UNDER A DESIGNATED WORD COUNT OH MY WORD I’VE PEAKED), and even though I accidentally hit the ENTER key LOOOOONG before I was ready to actually submit (curse you instagram and your weird formatting ways), I ACTUALLY ENTERED A CONTEST!!! ASDFGHJKLASDFGHJKL!!!

It was glorious. It was amazing.

It turns out I lost.

But you know what?? I’m perfectly okay with this. Because even though I might have lost the contest, I still feel like I won, because a) Brittany Wang* (the lady hosting the writing contest with Reedsy), actually PUT MY ENTRY ON HER INSTAGRAM STORY, WHERE SHE WAS LISTING SOME OF HER FAVORITE ENTRIES????????? And I mean like WHOA, MAN. THAT WAS CRAZY. It kind of made my entire week, tbh. But also b) I ACTUALLY WROTE A SHORT STORY THAT WAS LESS THAN 200 WORDS.

And as someone who wrote a 200,000 word novel. . .? GUYS. THIS WAS HUGE FOR ME.

i mean it was actually quite small, but LOLOLOLOL whatever. #PUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUNPUN!!!

So I mean, yes, it turns out that I was not the winner of the grand prize, and yes, this was just a tiny disappointing, but for being the first time I’ve ever entered an actual writing competition. . .? I could not have asked for a better outcome.

Not to mention that I’m still absolutely in LOVE with my entry!!! (and I know that’s probably a little weird for someone to say about their own writing, but. . .it was just so much fun to write??? I kinda love it??? I SEE NO FAULT IN THIS. XD ) The prompt for the contest was particularly fun. All you had to do was pick an existing book title and write a 200 word micro short story based solely on that title, and while I had a lot of titles vying for my attention, the one that I ended up picking was, in fact, my absolute favorite book from my smol childhood:

The Princess and The Goblin by George MacDonald.

Now, if you have never read this story before, I 10/10 recommend picking it up as soon as you possibly can, because it is the absolute most adorable, creepy, wonderful story I think I have ever read. (and YES, I do say this about every single book that I read but SHHHHHHH it’s the truth with this one). But even if you haven’t read it before, that’s perfectly fine. My micro short story was simply inspired by the title of it, and has absolutely nothing to do with the plotline of the actual book.

WHICH MEANS EVERYONE CAN ENJOY THE MICRO SHORT I’M ABOUT TO FLING AT YOUR FACE!!!

But before I dive right in and slap the short into this post, can I just take a minute to rave about how amazing micro short stories are??? I’ve never written anything under 200 words that I could say was completed. Whenever I write short things like this (and though I say “short”, my “short things” are usually much longer than 200 words), I’ve always come away with about three billion plot bunnies for full-length novels, and — if I’m particularly lucky — a trilogy with two or three prequels and a spinoff series featuring the villain as a child.

So after writing this micro short, it came as a complete and utter shock to me that my mind was not swirling with a thousand new ideas for a full novel. This micro short — for the time being — was all there would ever be of this story in my head. I had a word goal, I met that word goal, and with only 197 words, I said everything that possibly needed saying.

It was both a startling revolution and a wonderful discovery, and though I have yet to write another micro short story since last week, I can honestly say that I’ll definitely be pursuing this form of writing again in the future.

But alas. I believe that this has been enough of me rambling. I promised myself a short post today, and so a short-ish post I shall write. So without any further ado, allow me to present to you my very first ever micro short story!!!!

why do I use this GIF so much. . .

* okay, so I 10/10 recommend checking out Brittany Wang’s sites. She has a YouTube Channel, an Instagram, a Twitter, a blog, and probably a ton of other stuff that I haven’t seen (you can find most, if not all, of the links at this site right here), and I’ve sort of been low-key stalking her on Instagram and YouTube ever since my mom told me about this thing she was hosting called #EditThatDraft. I absolutely ADORE her content, and she has this absolutely amazing YouTube video that has inspired me to create a story bible for everlost (MORE ON THIS NEXT WEEK!!!!), so yes. Go follow her. Do it.

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A MICRO SHORT STORY

by The Kenzie

(Inspired By The Title of The Princess And The Goblin)

“You won’t forget me…will you, Mr. Goblin?” Felicity’s lips pinched into a frown as the creature perched beside her whipped his large, knobular head back and forth with so much force that his thick ears flopped wildly against the sides of his face. “Oh, but you must forget,” she reprimanded him. “It’s the only way. As long as you remember me, I won’t be able to forget, and as father said, ‘princess’s must not have imaginary friends’. So you see, you must forget me, Mr. Goblin. It isn’t fair if you don’t.” The tiny girl’s lips quivered, and she twisted her fingers into the soft blankets pooled into a lump at the foot of her bed as she fought to blink back tears.

The goblin watched her for a moment with dinner-plate eyes — one cobalt blue, the other the color of sea foam — and finally shook his head at her once more, this time more gently. “No, Princess,” he whispered, his words clipped and snakelike in typical goblin tongue. “A princess may be forced to forget those she loves for the sake of her kingdom, but I — whether real or imaginary — shall remember you forever.”

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

TALK TO ME, PEASANTS!

And there you have it, folks! A short post written by Yours Truly. Or rather. . .it was sort of a short post? Kind of? It’s still over 1,000 words. Aha.

BUT THAT’S PERFECTLY OKAY, PEASANTS. Because this was the post I was apparently supposed to write for today, and even though I was a little late in writing it again, I still wrote something that made me happy. And to be honest, I think that’s the whole point of blogging.

SO! Now that I’ve rambled incessantly at your faces for the past fifteen minutes, it’s time for you to ramble at me. Let’s talk about some writerly things, shall we?

Have you ever written a micro short story before? (and if you have NOT, I highly recommend just taking an hour or so to write one. it does WONDERS for the creativity gnomes living inside your brain!!!) Do you enjoy entering writing competitions, or do they fill you — like me — with all of the nervous butterfly jitters??? (because holy guacamole i had some jitters. . . aha. I SWEAR I’M FINE.) Have you ever read The Princess And The Goblin? WILL you ever read The Princess And The Goblin? (the answer is yes. yes, you will read The Princess And The Goblin. obviously.) And most importantly. . .

DID YOU LIKE MY MICRO SHORT STORY?!?!?!?!?!!?! (cause I do. . . XD )

As always, let us talk about ALL OF THE THINGS!!! down in the comments below!

And until next time, my beautiful crumblings. . .

*flings cookies in the air and disappears*

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photo credit: Vince Fleming

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