Pt. 1

A bunch of kids found a butterfly and named her Kizzy.   Kizzy’s wing was broken, so to put her out of her misery, they stabbed her 3 times with a pin, and buried her under a tree. 

Pt. 2

After burying Kizzy, the kids climbed to the top of a nearby hill and saw a field full of beautiful butterflies. All the butterflies had a broken wing.

Pt. 3

Upon seeing these creatures from afar, the Butterfly King remembered the wrath which possessed similar animals; the very ones that caused the carnage amongst his subjects. “Never again,” he whimpered.

Pt. 4
"The Kitchen Aid kind of broke. Butter was flying everywhere. So much for cookies."

Pt. 5

“Yer gonna pay for that.” She saw the officer at the edge of the demo kitchen, handcuffs ready. “Just coz’ it sez Home Depot don’ mean it’s YOUR home.”

                

Artist Statement

Writing the tiny stories was more complicated than I anticipated.  Apparently finding something I wanted to say, and finding something I was able to say with the restrictions placed upon us, were two different things.  Creating interesting stories, with only 30 words available, seemed daunting.  How I ended up writing my stories may not have been the best method in hindsight.  I would think of a story, write it out, and then take out the most unnecessary parts, till I was within the limit.  A possible better way to have done this would have been to start with the most minimal aspect of the story, and add on parts till I reached the world limit.  This method would have made my stories more full to me, and I would guess I would have been more satisfied with them. 

The aspect I liked best about the tiny story project was collaborating.  I like collaborating, because it makes me feel more freedom to explore a wider array of options, then when I’m working alone.  Even to me this sounds opposite of what it should be.  The reason I feel this way is because I have a back board to hit ideas off of, in the other person I’m working with.  And in return I get to be their backboard.  This process allows for a bit of checks and balances, which for me, can help produce the greatest product possible. 

                For the majority of my tiny stories written, I was really influenced by the archetype of thriller stories.  Everyone else in my group was guys, and I figured this would be something that appealed to them.  I would put the characters in hopeless situations, and leave it for the next person in the line to hopefully get them out of it, comment on it, or plunge them into something deeper. 

        In the essay we read for our class, D.J. spooky talked about exabytes. The University of California Berkley understood it to be 5 exabytes of data approximately equals "all words ever spoken by human beings.”  I would never be able to go through every exabyte of data available to me, nor would anyone else.  This knowledge made my perspective of this assignment shift a little bit.  By telling my story in as few words as possible, I’m making it so much more accessible to so many more people.  It’s like a vine. Think of how many of those you can watch a day.  If I had a strong message I wanted to share with as many people as possible, and it would reach more people through a vine, then a full length feature film, I would probably chose the vine.  I got an opportunity to do that this week.