The Great New Min Min Challenge:
In less than 250 words write a story starting “CANCELLATION”.
Click here to hear the author read his words:
Cancelled
It’s Christmas Eve.
Charles de Gaulle airport is packed with about a million people all desperate to fly south.
The blizzard still prohibits any take-offs.
Outside things are no better; the streets of Paris are gridlocked.
No one is going anywhere.
Worse still, there is no sign of a break in the weather.
We watch every news bulletin, every news channel, with increasing anxiety.
It seems as though everyone in the world has a phone pressed to an ear.
What is happening elsewhere, in the UK, in the USA, in China?
I get a call from my son, only fifty miles north of here.
‘Did you get away yet,’ he asks.
I can barely hear him above the background chaos, at his end, and at mine.
‘You’ve got an hour, absolute tops,’ he says. ‘Maybe even less.’
‘These things are indestructible,’ he is shouting now.
‘We can’t stop th…’
Sound Bite Fiction 
Really enjoyed this Six.
(on my typical dual levels: Reader and Writer)
For me (the Reader) there is nothing more critical, especially for Sixes, than to engage the Reader with the first sentence, if not the first words.
Setting and some ‘slightly-off’ action sequence right out of the gate, achieves the first. Then, with each sentence, building the suspense right to your final hook, this little number does what, imo, all good flash fiction should do: make the final unanswered questions irresistible to the Reader to apply their imagination.
Nice
On the writer-in-learning:
I’m totally deconstructing (or trying to) how you built-up the dread, ramped up the peril that is implied in each sentence but never explicitly stated.
muy coolito
a movie came to mind, ‘Cloverfield’ in which they did a similar thing… obvious hazard in the beginning, gradual reveal as the movie progresses, holding back how the peril was way worse than we thought in the beginning until the final scene.
Good Six
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Let me start by saying, Clark, that I always love a comment that is longer than my story!
But seriously, thanks for this, I feel a piece of writing is worthwhile when it provokes thought in a reader, as this has clearly done with you.
It is always my intention to make the reader use their imagination, so I try to employ a show-don’t-tell approach which does tend to require a level of either intelligence or, at least. application on their part.
Reluctant though I am to hard sell to a friend, why don’t you purchase (about a dollar, I think) my e-book The Second Request, available on Amazon directly from this blog.
It is short – less than 10,000 words – and written a few years ago now, but probably a good introduction to the points you raise.
Cheers, Clark, and thanks again.
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The building tension is palpable and the twist frightening.
Another gem from the master of misdirection.
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Yeah, you’d think these ‘ALKIs’ would give us a break at Xmas, hmm?
Jolly inconvenient to face an invasion in bleak midwinter!
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Hypnotic music at the beginning and end (Moody Blues, no?) and your voice, somewhat resigned yet agitated today. There’s definitely more than a snowstorm going on in this story. It pulled me in. Chilling and provocative, C.E. An excellent write!
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Thanks for your always kind words, Nancy.
Music is Forever Autumn by Justin Hayward (of Moody Blues), which is a clue as to what is going on!
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Of course! Forever Autumn. Oh my … is it any wonder I was so drawn in by your words? Your voice was different today, C.E.; I’m sure that was intentional and not coincidental. An inspired piece!
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I am painfully aware I’m no Richard Burton, Nancy, so I had to try something!
Thanks again for your support.
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Can’t decide if this is about a Snowmageddon, or some other kind of unstoppable invasion. Love the tension you’ve built, the question unanswered.
Nice church bells, and was that also a clip of Moody Blues I heard? Nice addition!
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Hi Liz, and thanks.
Clues are ‘These things are indestructible,’ and the music, which is Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues) and Forever Autumn.
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Dramatic and eloquent. Hooked me in.
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Cool comment!
Thanks, Doug.
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