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Bonsai Fiction

This document outlines the structure and guidelines for writing Bonsai Fiction, a short story form with 11 sentences of 150 words or less. Each sentence has a specific purpose related to introducing characters, their actions, reflections, and emotional responses. The name alludes to the practice of refining stories through revision in the same way a bonsai tree is refined. Writers are encouraged to continuously tweak and refine their stories to aim for perfection through small adjustments to words, syntax, and verbs.

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Neil Scarth
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43 views2 pages

Bonsai Fiction

This document outlines the structure and guidelines for writing Bonsai Fiction, a short story form with 11 sentences of 150 words or less. Each sentence has a specific purpose related to introducing characters, their actions, reflections, and emotional responses. The name alludes to the practice of refining stories through revision in the same way a bonsai tree is refined. Writers are encouraged to continuously tweak and refine their stories to aim for perfection through small adjustments to words, syntax, and verbs.

Uploaded by

Neil Scarth
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LETS KEEP THIS SHORT.

Lets call this form Bonsai Fiction (derived from Bob ThurbersAnatomy of a Micro Fiction). Bonsai are philosophies of life. Each story has eleven sentences and each sentence has a purpose. Bob Thurber suggests 150 words in length (no more than 300). Sentence 1: Introduction of time, character, place and main prop. Sentence 2: Character in action with main prop. Sentence 3: Physical and mental characteristics of character, and present situation. Sentence 4: Characters reaction to event, and proposed goal. Sentence 5: Character in action, moving towards goal. Sentence 6: Character in action with main prop. Sentence 7: Characters sensory reaction to main prop. Sentence 8: Characters reflective delay (looking at

and seeing the place). Sentence 9: Characters proposed new goal. Sentence 10: Characters reflection. Sentence 11: Characters emotional response, in summary, understated. The name bonsai fiction alludes to the practice of refinement. Come back to your story and keep tweaking: a word here, a slight rearrangement of syntax there, some tightening of verbs perhaps. Maybe I dont mean tightening: maybe I mean aligning . . . You get the idea. Keep aiming for perfection. Perfection doesnt ever come. Keep aiming for it anyway. Tweak away.

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