You can read or download this short story here: The Quarry by Christopher Peter

The Quarry is an example of something I’ve never tackled before: ‘flash fiction’. This is basically a very short story, usually defined as having an upper limit somewhere between 300 and 1,000 words. Now personally I’m in awe of anyone who can write a proper story – with a beginning, middle and end – using fewer than 500 words or so. (As opposed to a piece of descriptive prose that doesn’t really go anywhere.) I struggled a bit to keep The Quarry to a shade under 1,000 words, even though I set out to make it short.

But flash fiction is an interesting genre, and makes for a good writing exercise. Your prose really has to be as tight and economical as possible. Words cannot be wasted. Adjectives and adverbs must be used sparingly or not at all. You essentially have to use only the words you really need to tell the story, and no more. And yet you want it to live and breathe, to read like a story and not a train timetable.

Anyway, I hope you like The Quarry. As usual, any comments – good, bad or indifferent – are very welcome.