Just Joking

Stories are getting shorter and shorter these days as our schedules get more and more full–we’ve begun reading our stories on coffee sleeves and business cards and the ever-popular Twitter, in 140-characters or less.

Nathan Lilly, editor of the now-infamous Twitter magazine Thaumatrope, just posted a great essay about the essence of lightning fiction:

In my comings and goings, introducing people to the twitter fiction concept, I’ve often heard it asked: “How is it possible to write a story that short? If a story must contain an entire plot then how can you compress all that into just a few sentences?” My answer: “Can you tell a joke?”

I’ve always said the mark of a good storyteller is the ability to tell a joke. Why the heck do you think we have so much fun at conventions?

Check out the rest of Nathan’s essay (and how I am dubbed a master of the one-liner) here.

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My five Thaumatrope stories: here

Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome serial (#DrGnome): here
With illustrations by J.K. Lee: here