One Sentence Stories

Fr. Harry Hagan said that narrative starts at tension and ends at resolution. Aristotle said every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Meeting Fr. Harry’s criteria is not difficult in a single sentence. It is the middle that is the most difficult. As the atmosphere grew stale with cigarette smoke in the

It was a bright and bone-chillingly cold day until the warm soothing rain of evening began to fall.

Until his gun was drawn, the muscles in Tex’s shooting arm twitched, sending away flies that had been drawn to his sweat.

One of my professors in graduate school, Fr. Harry Hagan, OSB, taught me about narrative as part of a couple of courses in Old Testament poetry and history. He started by defining narrative, and providing brief examples, including some only one sentence in length. I have decided to start writing these and to see how many