I've long been a fan of short fiction, be it flash fiction or, in more recent years…
Microfiction.
This craze came about in the social media age (with some accounts growing to 100,000+ followers), and it seems demand for these bitesize tales continues to grow. So much so that, for several months last year, I threw my tiara into the ring and exclusively tweeted 2-3-line fantasy and sci-fi stories.
It was a fun experiment.
People liked them — even when the Twitter algorithm didn’t.
I'm even thinking about scooping up my best microfiction and packaging it into a little e-book, but that's a side quest for another day.
Between sweating out in the writer's corner with Book #5 of TDR and shooting up caffeine in every vein that will take it after a streak of sleepless nights, courtesy of Master Liam, it’s safe to say I’m stretched thin at the moment.
But do you know what got me scurrying down the microfiction rabbit hole?
A six-word story by some chap from suburban Illinois named Ernest Hemingway:
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
🥶
Talk about chills. Talk about punch. Talk about raw, visceral emotion. Up until my strained eyes laid upon this timeless piece, I never thought it was possible for a writer to achieve such a feat with so few words.
And I, for one, am more grateful to Mr Hemingway for shattering that limited belief.
Had I held onto that foolish view, I may never have gone against the grain in fantasy — a genre known for its 600+ page tomes — and written what has become The Divided Region.
Because unlike 90% of novels in this genre that can take one weeks to wade through, you can read each instalment of TDR in 3-4 hours. And given how it seems everyone is strapped for time these days with work, kids, and sucking their shakes through paper straws, perhaps I might have unwittingly stumbled on a gap in the market?
Time will tell on that one.
In any case, if fast-paced fantasy tales that are loaded with chills, punch, and raw, visceral moments appeal to you, then you’ll find your fix here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/divided-region-starter-bundle
DJJW