101 Words

101 Word Short Stories

Ahead of the Curve

32 Comments

By Lena Budko

When the bombs fell, my friend Erin had been telling me one of her disaster dating stories.

Erin was one of those women who are always ahead of the curve: the first one to get a boyfriend, the first one to get a job, the first one to buy an apartment. By the time she was thirty, she had two kids and a stellar career where she’d already hit the glass ceiling. When I got married and had a baby, she was divorced and back on the dating market.

So when the bombs fell, naturally, she was the first to go.

The Power of Imagery with Nina Schuyler

September 12 & 13 on Zoom
Enrollment closes Thursday, September 3 at 7:00 PM Pacific

If your descriptions are vivid but your stories still feel thin, this workshop is for you.

Join award-winning author Nina Schuyler to learn the difference between description, which tells a reader what things look like, and imagery, which carries plot, character, and meaning at the same time.

In just two days, you'll learn to choose images that hold emotion without naming it, pair them so each one deepens the other, and build patterns that gather meaning as the story moves.

Learn More and Enroll

Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. Cathryn says

    Hello Lena,

    A perfect piece of flash writing exhibiting both dynamite plotting and skillful sentence structure. The tie-in of the beginning and the ending is a clever writing technique.

    Kudos to you,
    Cathryn

    Enjoyed the lightly sarcastic, envious narrator’s voice, too.

    Reply

    • Lena says

      Thanks so much! Good to hear you didn’t expect the ending, it’s so difficult to surprise an experienced reader/writer.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *