At last, I found some Ai-Naidari stories! They are required to be, must be, flash fiction. 500 words or less. That's two paperback pages. Less than two.

Writing short fiction has always been extremely hard for me. The shorter, the harder. Novels? Easy-peasy. That's just a matter of endurance. But tell me I've got to cram it under 10,000 words and I start writhing.

And this? 500 words or under? To fit an entire story and an understanding of an alien culture in under 500 words?

Insane. Just insane.

(So why do it?)

Narrator: Because it's one of our forms of fiction.

haikujaguar: Hey, you didn't tell me tha--oh. Right. I should have known that if you were giving me a strict set of rules, it was because the rules defined something important. It's Kherishdar, after all. So, a form of your fiction.

Narrator: Yes. We call them incense stories... because incense tints the air of an entire household, and yet the source of the perfume is so insignificant you may overlook it. What is implied by an incense story is greater than what is written.

haikujaguar: Oh. *blink* Why didn't you tell me that yesterday?

Narrator: You didn't ask, aunerai.

haikujaguar: You call me an alien... why do you talk to me as a caste-rank equal?

Narrator: Are not both terms accurate?

haikujaguar: Ahh... well. I don't know if my audience is as rarified as yours. But I thank you for the courtesy. Incense stories, huh.

Narrator: They have other names. Do not yours, sometimes? But that is my favorite. Come, find your notebook. There are more to tell.

haikujaguar: I need food first. But you can dangle a few of them in front of me while I eat.


What an incredible, incredible learning experience. I think I'm enjoying it. It's a little like... trying to fit the ocean into a pail while you're doing it, but when you're done, you see that every word really counts. I thought writing short stories would teach me brevity, but I think it took working in Marketing and doing word-by-word edits on white papers that had to be absolutely no longer than this many pages before I started grokking just how you could fight over the meaning of a single word.

Whoddathunk it. Go go Marketing folks!


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