A few days ago I visited Erin Morgenstern’s blog. Erin is the writer of The Night Circus which I think is one of the best novels ever written.Her ability to imagine another world and write about it is amazing. The best reading experience is when you read a book you wish you had written yourself. I wish I had written The Night Circus and of course that made me curious about Erin. So I was amazed when I discovered that she publishes so-called Flax-Golden Tales every Friday. As it is Friday today I would like to dive into that concept. Erin writes short stories of ten lines. Ten lines people! This actually means that you could write a short story in two minutes. It makes writing so spontanious and accesible. I am in love with the concept and I am considering practising my imagination by writing one every day for a while.
Just because it is possible to write a short story in two minutes will not mean that it is good (as Erin’s are!) but I think the idea of using such small tales as a breathing room from all the writing that has to be good, at least at some point, and just write something for the fun of it. I think it could be quite interesting to write a number of tales without revising them and then at some point to be able to look back at them and review which subjects and writing styles one was preoccupied with at that time. It might even open doors into an unknown territory of writing that you wouldn’t even have discovered if you only write on your large and serious projects.
So maybe it will be a weekend project for some of you to write your own tale! It is a lot of fun! Erin’s tales are accompanied by photos by Carey Farrell so if you’re into photography as well (as I am!) then you could incorporate this into your tales as well.
