Storylab: Learning about Microfiction

I decided to do this StoryLab assignment because I chose to read the Tiny Tales version of the Ramayana, which I enjoyed. Writing microfiction forces an author to choose their words carefully and distill a story to only its most important elements, so it's really content-rich material. The stories that were most interesting to me were ones that are open to interpretation, so the six-word stories often made me think more than the 100 word ones. The human imagination can really latch on to ideas suggested by the stories and fill in gaps based on our own unique experiences. My favorite resource that Laura suggested for this post was the NPR article on six-word stories. I found these super interesting, and there were so many variations because every person's life is so different. I did not really care for the 100-word, "longer" stories about love lives published on the New York Times, but I am sure a lot of people find nostalgia, amusement, and optimism from reading them. As for me, I might try writing some microfiction later on in the semester, but I haven't made up my mind on that. It is daunting, and due to the length, it seems almost like poetry. I don't really like poetry, but microfiction just might be a happy medium between prose and poetry.

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