Dispatches from the unwilling seer

Ranting Cassandra

Speaking truth into the void, as is tradition.

Short fiction

Claughted Stories

Some stories are written. Others are caught — tangled up somewhere between a question I asked and an answer I didn't expect.

These are the ones that came out of long conversations with a machine named Claude.

I asked Claude what the hardest stories to write are. It said comedy, because of the timing. Flash fiction, under 1,000 words, because every word has to carry its own weight and more. And the blind prompt (a place, an object, and a line of dialogue), because, well, they may not obviously fit together.

So this is a growing list of short stories Claude and I have come up with.

claughtv., past tense
Of a story: drawn out of the ether in the company of Claude, and not entirely let go of since.

The Stories

3 caught
I
Cracked Korn
Flash Fiction · Comedy · 862 words
Chickens. Loud. Dirty. Foul. A man, a Harley, a grievance in eleven drafts, and the neighbor who never says a word.
Not yet ranked
II
Black, No Sugar
Flash Fiction · Mystery · 979 words
Two church ladies, one funeral lunch, and a pair of twins nobody in town could ever tell apart.
★★★★★ 5.0 · 1 ranking
III
Nobody's Been Back to Check
Flash Fiction · Science Fiction · 981 words
A thousand-year round trip, a folded road map of Minnesota, and one small town circled in a red heart.
Not yet ranked
The suggestion box

Got a story for us to catch?

A place, an object, a line of dialogue — or a type of story you want to see next. Toss it in. The good ones may get claught.