Superimpose

He doesn't look like a gymnast.

He's all button down shirts and frazzled grey hair that frames wire spectacles and a professor down to the frayed tips of his shoes, but he was a gymnast once, or so he tells us, and I believe him because he smiles a lot while he's chatting before class.

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This image has been in my head for a few days. I think it will make an interesting story.

But which story? A story of a gymnast that became a teacher, or a student who has to reconcile their image of said teacher? Probably the second one, so I can file it under non-fiction.

There are two people that have been extremely easy for me to write about; one was a college friend named Bill and the other one has been Minnick. I don't know what it is that makes me see a character in a real person - there are plenty of people in my life, past and present, that could have interesting stories. So what made these two stand out so much?

I don't really have any answers for that. I can draw comparisons between them, and they are alike in some ways, but it's not really enough.

I guess... they just have this sense of life about them. With Bill, it's a sort of potential - he's going places. He'll have stories to tell one day. And with Minnick, it's the other way around - he's been places. He already has lots of stories to tell. And I just love writing about them, or at least my impressions of them.

But I've run off topic - I was trying to make a point about how at odds this notion is one of my professors having been a gymnast. I can kinda see it, but not quite. The man just looks every inch the archetype of what a college professor is supposed to look like. If I had never met him before and was shown a picture and told to guess what he does for a living, my first instinct would be "English Professor."

He's told us in the past that he once worked in a steel mill and for some reason that image never resonated as strongly. Maybe because that was a job and being a gymnast wasn't. I don't know.

Sheesh I'm rambly tonight XD

Prosopagnosia

It’s odd that people have entire lives. We know that they do, but it’s an obtuse knowledge; we’re always surprised to recognize someone at the grocery store. An invisible network of intersecting lines that meet in unexpected ways – it’s strange to realize the universe is not yours. Or rather, that everyone has their own universe.

 Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder that impairs a person's ability to recognize faces.

On Brevity

Someone once asked me how I go about writing flash fiction. I thought some of the 55 word examples from today's writing session would make good anecdotes:

 You can see that this one is pretty messy - I had to do a lot of rearranging and chopping to get what I wanted. At some point I realized I had exactly the right amount of words I needed, but it was all in the wrong order. You'd think it's just a simple matter or reorganizing the sentences and you'd be wrong - doing so also changes the tenses of certain words and changing the tenses can effect the wordcount. The first section was right, but the rest had to be kneaded out slowly.

The final product:

Logic dictated that he had to die eventually. By bullet or bullet train, he didn't care. An end was an end.

He'd heard of this condition before - Quantum Immortality. One multiverse incarnate that would live forever. Him. It was just his luck that he would be saddled with eternity.

He sighed and reloaded the gun.

This one meanwhile, was a much smoother process and came pretty naturally. The squiggles around the middle where where I had placed parentheses in case I decided to add in an extra word in that spot (which I did end up doing, so good call).

There is no scientific name for the delay between lightning and thunder. The light flashes across the empty fields of gold followed by the crash of sound racing to keep up, to catch its always faster partner. The thunder never quite reaches its elusive lover.

I guess what I'm trying to say is come back.

The thing about this art form is that you just have to pick up the knack for it - I have and now I can't stop XD If you're looking to try it out for yourself, I'd advise to just do it; don't start with a word count, just try to write the shortest story you can while still retaining things like detail and character. Try to condense a story into three to five sentences.

That's how I began and after about 25 or so, I started getting into the swing of it and another 25 had me getting pretty good. After you've done that for a while, then you can go for the super stringent word limits without much fear.