“Why I Don’t Keep A Daily Planner” by Stace Budzko from Hint Fiction:
Written on his calendar the day of my father’s death, these words: Call son.
This is another very short flash fiction piece similar to Ernest Hemingway’s, “For sale, baby shoes, never worn”. Both pieces leave the reader curious and able to create their own context for the story. Although very few words, the story tells dozens of different stories. It makes the reader question the relationship between the father and the son. It also raises curiosity about the significance of the note on the calendar. This short flash fiction piece comes from the book Hint Fiction which consists of short stories all 25 words or fewer. This piece, however, is not as famous as Hemingway’s baby shoe story. Stace Budzko is a lecturer in the Department of English at Emmanuel College in Boston. Unlike Hemingway, Budzko is certainly not a famous American novelist. Although different types of writers, both pieces demonstrate amazing and short flash fiction pieces.
I heard the Ernest Hemingway short story a very long time ago, and it also stuck with me like the one by Stace Budzko. Reading such an impactful story as short as these really drives in the lesson that a story does not have to be long to be the best it can be. A shorter piece of fiction is sometimes even better than a longer one because of the level of detail and emotion that has to fit into each phrase, compared to a longer one. The feeling that both of these short stories gives you is beyond what most longer stories do; you really feel it hit your heart the second it sinks in. I definitely agree that leaving a story shorter than most gives more opportunity for the reader to ask unanswered questions from what he/she read, which I love.
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