This week’s Friday Fiction is inspired by a post I saw last week on Jay C Wolfe’s blog. The challenge was to write a 55 word story in which the first line has ten words, the second has nine, the third eight and so on, ending with just one word.
I wanted to have a go at doing this myself, because it sounded like an interesting challenge. I’ve used Sara’s prompt for this week – Winter – as a starting point.
Let me know what you think. If you have a go at this yourself, tell me how you got on (and even link it up here if you can).
She carries her load through the wind and driving rain,
to her family, cosy and warm in their den,
hoping that it’s enough to feed them all.
They rely on the vixen for food,
so she’ll not sleep this winter.
Food is hard to find,
but she will try.
Until Spring returns
and brings
life.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN. IF YOU’D LIKE TO LINK UP YOUR OWN FICTION POSTS, JUST FOLLOW THIS LINK.
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Nikki Young Writes 
It was an interesting challenge and I’m really pleased you brought it to my attention as I found it really useful – like a writing work out! You’ve done yours slightly differently to mine in that my lines were all complete sentences (with a bit of creative licence!) and this gives yours a more poetic feel I think. I love the last three lines of this and think they work really well in this format. Well done! I might try this again – or another challenge!
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I agree, it is an exercise for those writing muscles, as it’s hard to make your idea work once you’ve thought of one. We need a new challenge now!
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excellent story within the parameters! i may try sometime…
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It’s a good writing exercise – you really have to get your thinking cap on. Let me know if you try one.
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Love this! I especially like how it reads like a poem, since you didn’t use full sentences for every line. Interesting approach to the challenge. Well done! Glad you enjoyed the exercise! 😉
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Thanks. It didn’t start out to be poem-like but when you keep running out of words for your sentences, it ends up going in directions you didn’t expect! Thanks for the idea. Looking forward to trying some more of yours.
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Brilliant. It sounds like a challenging prompt that you rose to with such graceful flourish. Thank you for sharing!
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It was, but in a way, I liked the restrictiveness of the word and line count. It means you have to make every word matter – which is really hard to do.
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Quite a challenge but one which you’ve pulled off brilliantly. Loved reading it. X
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Thanks. It helped starting from a prompt, otherwise the possibilities could be endless.
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I didn’t realize there was a challenge…oops!
I posted the 1st chapter of the romance novel I am working on. 🙂
http://www.triskelereviews.com/
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There isn’t a challenge. You can put whatever you want on there. I merely used a challenge as a basis for my post!
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Ah, okay! 🙂
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Wow, well done. I love the image of a fox striving through the winter. When I saw the challenge I thought it looked quite tricky, you’ve made it look easy!
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Really! We have a family of foxes living in a den right out the back by our kitchen. We see the mum and dad every day and witnessed the little ones when they came out for the first time. They are an inspiring little family.
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Wow you really wrote that beautifully. 🙂 Always good to work to a challenge. #theprompt
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Oh, I like the sound of this challenge, I think I might have to try it. I love yours, I like that it became a poem. Brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing with #ThePrompt x
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Yes do. It’s a fun challenge.
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I really like this. The shortening lines give your piece an interesting rhythm – quite a melancholy one, but then that’s contrasted perfectly with the final word being ‘life’. The result is definitely something that sits between poetry and prose. Fab! X
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Thanks. I don’t often do things like this, so it was interesting to try it. In fact, I may try other similar challenges now!
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What a challenge! I’m going to have to give this one a try at some point. I love what you came up with. x
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Hi, I’ve just come to your blog via Sara Mummy turned Mom and I am so pleased I did! I love your Winter piece above, especially the last sentence. Brings a bit of hope on this cold, grey day.
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PS I’ve just followed you on Twitter and just wanted to mention there’s a typo in your profile “fiction” – I hope you don’t mind me pointing it out, thought you’d probably like to know. Don’t mean to cause offence though!
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Thanks. Sorted and thanks also for the lovely comment.
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I thought this challenge sounded so interesting when I saw it last week. It’s amazing how you can tell a complete story in such few lines of text. I found myself being drawn into the story and empathising with the vixen immediately. Fab! x
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This is such a great challenge – and I love the way it looks on the page as well as the words you have written. A great piece of writing. Thank you for linking to #Prose4T
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I love this! It reads like a poem and actually has a really good rhythm, and what a good idea, I never try writing challenges but I’m going to have to give this a go!
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Thanks. It was a fun one to try.
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