Alright, I’m sure that last week garnered some interesting stories, although I probably haven’t seen most of them. Hopefully this week will be just as good. So, you all know the rules: You must write a story of at least a hundred words, and not more than five hundred (if you want to post it as a comment – if it’s just for yourself, then it can be as long as you want). The story must be about the theme given in this post. So, if the theme I give you is Life, don’t write a story about the lord of the underworld. If the theme is War, don’t write a story about a farmer planting his crops. Themes are very broad, so it really shouldn’t be hard to stay within a given theme, but I teach, so I know that some people have trouble with this.
Your theme: Unnatural Silence
So, I have to admit that this was somewhat inspired by an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, I would very much like to NOT see that story line written out in the stories submitted.
Broken Mirrors 
My go: Lucky charm.
As always, constructive criticism is welcome. I do have a specific question today, on foreshadowing. I found myself doing it automatically, then I asked myself whether it’s too obvious, and whether in a 100 word story one might be better advised to drop it?
oops, left out the link: Lucky charm.
Delft, in a story of only 100 words, or even a story of 1000 words, I don’t see much point in foreshadowing. The beauty of foreshadowing as a suspense building tool is that it builds over time. When a story is short enough to read in a few minutes, there isn’t much time for foreshadowing to do its work. That’s just my opinion though, I’m sure other authors will have other opinions.
So do you think it would be better if I left out the first sentence? “It would be alright.”
I wrote it automatically as part of my nameless protagonists inner monologue, but then wondered as it does immediately let the reader know that, no, it will not be alright.
Honestly, I don’t think it matters either way. Just so you know, technically (as someone recently pointed out – because I use it a lot), technically ‘alright’ isn’t a word (though it is on the verge of becoming one). As an inner monologue the phrase isn’t necessarily foreshadowing. Yes, it could be alright. However, it could also go horribly wrong. The phrase comes from the protagonist’s viewpoint, and he is not omniscient. So, it could easily be seen as the protagonist’s attempt to convince himself that everything will be ok, or some people could see it as a foreshadowing. In this case, I would leave it in and let the reader decide how to see it. It serves to portray the personality of your character more than anything else.