There is an interesting website called One Sentence that invites submissions of life experiences expressed in just one sentence.

I’m quite enamored of the short-short story genre, and so I was quite attracted to this site. I have submitted a story, and will likely do a few more, not so much to gain approval and compliments, but because I enjoy that sort of “burst” creativity and the opportunity to practice it.

You can also “grade” unapproved stories, which the site owner seems to say will influence her/his decisions. Having reviewed thirty or forty submissions, I have three words:

I am appalled.

Here are a few examples:

Texter-speak. Major errors in grammar. Lack of knowledge as to the functionality of the shift key. Run-ons. Lack of agreement between subject and verb, or references, or tenses. Emoticons, for Joe’s sake.

No wonder the state of literature and film is so sad. Not only are the old classic authors dead, but their prospective replacements cannot for the most part create a single proper sentence, much less a novel or a poem or a screenplay. Out of the submissions I’ve read, fully 80% contain some sort of mechanical error. Of the 20% that don’t, perhaps 2 or 3 had any sort of interesting content.

Appalled.