Extended explanation of rules:
Submit you own fully independent, completed, original stories to this, would be, “list of short-as-possible-stories”
Explanation:
Add, underneath the previous story, a story of your own, that you have written to be a full finished story containing or implying a full finished narrative, character development, sex, hypnosis, whatever GSS stuff, etc.
But, as absolutely short as humanly possible. No unnecessary adverbs or adjectives, long winded build ups, do everything you can you make the word count as low as possible, but still have a full, accomplished, juicy story.
Do not extend, edit, prequel, sequel or plagiarize other author’s stuff, i.e., editing, altering or extending an entry you did not write yourself.
explanation:
you only have access to the page as a means of adding you own fully independent stories.
It’s not an invitation to alter the material already there.
On a side note, as should be obvious, directly extending another story is against the spirit of the challenge, as, you are making a “shortest possible story” longer!
The rule to not edit/extend/alter other Author’s material doesn’t rule out Authors expressly giving permission for editors to do work on their behalf, nor does it rule out intentional collaborations or authors inviting other authors to use their material creatively.
i.e. “hey pat, do you want to get together and write a short story for The Dirty Spider’s Short story challenge?”
“I sure do, but didn’t they say don’t edit other authors work?”
“we would be editing each others work, we would be creating a short story together.
He clearly only means means don’t mess with the other stories submitted to the page unless the origonal Author invites you to do so. We, together, are allowed to submit a story and work on it ourselves… now lets write this really short story”
“OK pAt, lEtS do IT”
“I though you were Pat?”
Sequils and prequils that rely too heavily on exposition from their conjoined tales, are against the spirit of the challenge
example:
Story V: Home Alone
Kevin, who is 10 and a wimp, gets left at home at Christmas while his busy family rushes to make holiday plans.
While alone, Kevin discovers there are burglars who intend on robbing his house.
He defends his house successfully using an intricately installed series of booby traps and barricades which frustrate and foil the wound-be thieves.
He eventually gets them arrested and his family returns home to see him safe and the house in good working order.
Kevin is revealed and happy.
The end
Review: Not bad. 3 bulbs out of 5 and you made a full story with only 80 or so words, Kevin has a nice development arc and the thieves get their comeuppance, you are truely a master of writing a story as short as possible.
Story VI: Home Alone Two (inspired by, and submitted with the permission of, tDS, from his Story “Home Alone”
The same this happens again, except he’s flown to New York, and it’s in an abandoned dilapidated house
Review: WOW that was SO short, but who was “he”? and what happened again except in New York? do I need to read that other story you mentioned to understand this one? that’s kinda cheating.
Creative ways of cutting down on words are OK, but fully, self contained alternatives to standard ‘story writing’ is against the spirit of the challenge
i.e., writing not a short story, but “a poem”, or “prose”, or the transcription of a tv/radio speech without it’s contextualization in short story form.
However, with a cheeky grin, I gleefully urge anyone to push this as far as they wish.
Once there is even so much as a sniff of contextualization written in story form (free written descriptive sentencing in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, perspective) then the whole this is perfectly legitimate for submission.
example
Story VII: The Alert
“we bring you this bullitin; everyone is gone mad up town having sex, we think it’s aliens!”
“news just in; the aliens all died and people are back to normal, that’s all for now good night”
Review: wow very short, but not really a story, more like a written down bit an out of context TV announcement
Story VII: The Alert (Edit #2)
“we bring you this bullitin; everyone is gone mad up town having sex, we think it’s aliens!”
“wow” said Albert holding the remote. I better go and see, after all I just recently became single.Albert came back home kissing a man, the man said “I feel cured”.The Telly was still on.
“news just in; the aliens all died and people are back to normal, that’s all for now good night”
“Wow” said Albert, do you want to date me? “yes I do” said the man. cool. The End
Review: Wow very short! well done.
I love Albert’s story arc, and how you used the TV to deliver fast efficient exposition.