If you enjoy fiction but just don’t have much time to read, you will love Very Short Novels. David Hodges, writing as David B. Dale, describes his blog as “Character, conflict, emotional impact. And sentences! Everything you want in a novel, without one extra syllable.” David has done something truly unique with his blog. He boasts that he is “the inventor and only known practitioner of the 299-word Very Short Novel.” The skeptic in me copied the first story and pasted it into Word. I did a word count. Exactly 299 words! The second story was also 299 words! In fact, I tested several stories, and none of them contained one extra or one missing word.

Technique aside, I decided to read a few of the stories. Though brief, each conveyed a powerful tale – a quick snapshot of a much larger story. I was impressed. In particularly, I enjoyed the Mustache trilogy. My Mustache is the story of a man who decides to shave the mustache he has always sported. His Mustache is the same story told from the wife’s perspective. And My Son’s Mustache is the story yet again – this time expressed in the voice of the man’s mother. One story being told three different times by three different people illustrates a simple truth – very few things in life are matter-of-fact.

David has done a fantastic job of keeping the blog up to date. He has been posting several stories per week since September 2006. If you like the first story you choose to read, be sure to peruse the archives for more Very Short Novels.

Categories: Reviews, Writing & Books