Please, Mrs. Griffiths, may we write more than 4000 words? In light of that question, can anyone doubt my status as literary miracle worker? It's true I fielded that question just a few weeks ago, as I gave the final instructions to my 13 & up students on how to complete their entries for the first-ever …
Continue reading 5000 Words Creative Writing Contest Winners!
Rick flinched as the doctor tweezed a sliver of marble from his eye. "Stay still if you want to keep that eye," the scruffy sleep-deprived doctor mumbled. Without a trace of mercy, he pried open Rick's eye and plucked out the tiny splinters. If the doctor was impressed by Rick's herculean efforts at not blinking, …
Yoga can be a religion. But so can Netflix. Not that I'm converting, but I've never heard of a yoga practitioner who donned a suit of explosives and took out a plaza... Yoga people, the religious sort, are usually wiry, elven, stoic folk who don't talk much and never eat. Being only elvin, I'm more …
Made it to Z, folks! *thunderous applause* When I decided to participate in the A to Z Writing Challenge, I was apprehensive-- not at the thought of putting out words at firehose pressure, but at the thought of my perfectiosis regarding those words. I've spent more hours on a handful of words that will get …
(fiction entry for Cracked Flash Fiction, 300 word max) It was too late to turn back-- for all of them. After they trudged (like sheep, Drue pointed out) under the glowing turquoise arch, the symptoms began almost immediately. Spike said they'd been x-rayed. It wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last. Every …
As soon as I had an open room (Katae went to college), I began teaching a writing/literature class in my home. I called it 5000 Words because I promised the students would write a minimum of 5000 words over a six-week period and that they would do it with a smile. My credentials were a …
It was 1981. Even reasonable people feared impending doom by a nuclear duel between the USA and the USSR. The Cold War had everybody wondering how to prevent the total extermination of humankind when the sabers stopped rattling and started their deadly slicing. Fallout shelters were born. My 6th grade teachers came up with an …
True Story. Science class in the ninth grade. Film day. The lights are off, the bubblesque TV perched atop a rolling stand soothes the room with flickering glow. Students slink down into their chairs, rest their feet on other chairs. For a few sacred moments, school is not a jungle. We put our masks away because …
Tory was an easy baby, the easiest child, the hardest teenager. I think each phase caused the next. You see, Tory was so breathtakingly sweet that losing her to the atmosphere was that much more bitter. By atmosphere, I mean adolescence. When a rocket re-enters earth, there is a gap in communication while it makes …
The Solution The reflection of his summer whites blinded the navy man. He closed his eyes to shut them out, to shut out the harrowing workday he'd just finished. A naval hospital ER had sounded so exciting in the recruiter's office. Now, slumped against the smudged trolley window, he tried to lose himself in the …
KL Griffiths 