Write 99s, 99-Word Stories, The Firefly Group

Try Your Hand!

Anyone can write a 99-Word Story. Let yourself be inspired by the humor, irony, and emotion in your life. Get in touch with your central message and start writing. Put it on paper then edit. Carve away the excess to reveal the essential story.

When you hit the magic 99, to me. I'll publish it here for the world to enjoy. And who knows, maybe it will also appear in the next volume of Say It Quick!

Here are a few stories written by people like you.

Ask For (very) Little and Ye Shall Receive
Our Kodak printer died after 15 months. The display indicated “paper jam” and no tinkering and troubleshooting from technical support personnel could convince the printer otherwise.

Kodak declared our printer a dud and offered 25% off the purchase of our next Kodak printer! How kind of them! I then e-mailed Kodak with a simple request: please pay the return shipping charges so that their defective printer does not end up in a landfill.

Kodak has now declared me a “preferred customer” and has just shipped a free replacement printer. Go figure!
--David Mitchell, Montreal, Canada

What Makes Happiness?
Hola Karina!

I've just returned from a week building mud huts in Honduras. Hola Karina! The happy bell-like greeting echoes in my mind. My new Honduran friends live in conditions I would only tolerate when back woods camping. Yet they are happy and greet me as a family member with hugs and smiles. So open and warm, unencumbered with the trappings of my stressful, gadget filled world.

If I shed all my material stuff, would I obtain that level of happiness? Or must I shed different, less materially oriented, stuff?

I wonder. What stuff makes happiness?
-- Karen (Karina) Smith, Tempe, Arizona

It was my first year as a Boy Scout and I was so excited to put on my uniform and go door-to-door for our fall fundraiser! We were selling light bulbs!

My box seemed nearly as big as I was. Wobbling up the walk at the very first home, the door opened and a large St. Bernard, every bit as enthusiastic as I was, bounded up the walk and onto me…spilling me and bursting nearly my entire load! The concerned owner bought my entire box, hooray!

Even a day that 's gone to the dogs can lighten your load!
--Kevin Hall, M.D., CapitolMed

While driving my daughter home from work, I realize I only have 12 minutes of her attention. When we get home she'll go straight to the internet to connect with her friends. Once connections are made, she'll be out the door only to return after I am in bed. 12 minutes.

"How was work?"

"Hey, I wanted to tell you I talked to someone about your car and… are you listening to me?"

She has already received and sent innumerable texts on her phone and is annoyed that I am interrupting her. We argue. 2 minutes left.

Damn cyberspace!
--Dianna Remer, Sioux City, Iowa