Selling Short with Micro-Writing

Have you ever heard of micro-writing? One form of micro-writing is "the practice of writing in microscopically small letters." (The Art and Science of Microwriting. Retro-Forteana blog, January 6, 2013. Blogger.com) If you think about this, you come up with what fits on a microdot, right?

Well the micro-writing I have in my mindset is brevity of thought and no more than approximately 550 words--roughly two typewritten pages using 12 pt. and double spacing. Many busy writers might consider this small quantity a modicum. Right it is because it doesn't fit into the schemes of a short story, novelette, or novel, like something on the market. Of course, you could produce an anthology of micro-writings!

What micro-writing isn't exactly is poetry; yet anyone using micro-writing could be inventive enough to add small poetic phrases that would become part of the micro-story.

What is micro-writing? It is about "'keeping it short.'" Read Kat Zhang's online article, "The Art of Micro-Writing" on her The Katacomb blog at Blogger.1 This outlines the essential nature of an extension of micro-writing that I have practiced. All sellable writing pertains to them: brief and well-written sentences, such as clear and pronounce syntactical structures, and your information must be clear and accurate as possible. Kat presents her examples in A and B format so that you can compare the differences of establishing a finer writing attitude.

It doesn't end there, however. To me micro-writing is about telling a little story and demonstrating human idiosyncrasies, even in parody. Here are some samples of my micro-writings completed at my Facebook account:

        1) March 7, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/theron.kuntz/posts/224042554406864

        2) April 15, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/theron.kuntz/posts/247171648760621

        3) June 24, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/theron.kuntz/posts/283360245141761

There are certain characteristics about these micro-writings. All three are briefly written, use science-fiction as a theme, employ elements of past entertainment as parody, mimic pluralistic culture, and evolve within short time periods. As far as structure is concerned, initially I started by using an inline title that was bold text. The succeeding micro-writings were, however, announced by a brief introductory sentence that could be italicized because it's someone else speaking other than the cast of characters. Each micro-writing uses the scriptwriter's or screenwriter's dialogue technique that indicates the character currently speaking.2 Only a generic form of character recognition is used to identify the stories' characters. Square brackets are employed to show background actions within each scene. These particular micro-writings are considered a serial, a series of acts or synchronous scene structures.

To practice or adapt your current writing skills with micro-writing techniques, the writer must be willing to make exceptions while focusing on other writing or graphic genres, such as the comic book technique of framed scenes and the general methodology used in the presentation of the playwright's script.3 Even though practitioner's of micro-writing are not comic book writers or playwrights, employing their styles will assist micro-writers at developing basic composition. These are guidelines, however. I employed them to refine my relational texts and avoid "he says" and "she says" denotative writing structure. Although there is not much visual resolution achieved in micro-writing, a micro-writer's presentation will be important for a micro-story's dynamic portrayal. The correct choice of words, a properly placed metaphor, a stereotypical image, a parody, an allusion, or establishing an aphorism, paradox, and satire, will help micro-writers in generating their productions.4

Briefness, clear and pronounced structures and information, telling a story or event, such as an anecdote, using figures of speech, and one-frame-at-a-time perspective forces a writer to produce in low maintenance and in an efficient progression. You will become a micro-writer par excellence!

Footnotes
1  January 17, 2001. Zhang, Kat. The Art of Micro-Writing: http://katacomb.blogspot.com/2011/01/art-of-micro-writing.html The Katacomb. Blogger.
2  Accessed on 8/25/2014. How to Write a Script: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Script wikiHow.
3  Accessed on 9/03/2014. Comic strip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip and Screenwriter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriter Wikipeida.
4  Accessed on 9/03/2014. Figure of speech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech Wikipedia.