Short and sweet

Can you write a story in one sentence? Seems hard, doesn't it? Well, there's actually a website, onesentence.org, where a story is in only one sentence. One example: "We visited him in the hospital over 100 times during the last 14 years, but the one time we didn't go was the one time it counted." Click on the website for more of such stories.


I favour writing that is succinct, which according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary means compact precise expression without wasted words. A writer well-known for his "spare, tightly written prose" is Ernest Hemingway. His published works include The Sun also Rises and A Farewell to Arms.

Succinct writing takes practice. For those of us who need to work on our writing skills, take a look at 400 Words, a magazine of short-short non-fiction. As the title suggests, people who send in their true stories must do it in 400 words. (Note: this website is not current but the point here is to learn a thing or two about writing succinctly).

Closer to home is the British Council's A City of Short Stories - Kuala Lumpur. The challenge here is to write and submit a story about life in Kuala Lumpur in not more than 1,600 characters. I couldn't resist and have three stories featured. Have a go. It's really fun. Just click here.

Let's, of course, not take being brief to the extreme.