Comments on Death by Scrabble by Charlie Fish
- wonderful, my best story ever! thanks for sharing...I love playing scrabble and simply addicted to it.
- Hilarious, I play a lot of on line scrabble, so I am aware of how the time can fly by. If I hit a losing streak, the inner child can definitely rear his ugly head.
- absolutely hilarious, and a ring of truth for those that are addicted to scrabble. A losing streak can really bring out the inner child in a lot of us.
- great story! i performed it for my oral interpretation class and the class and my professor were cracking up! And it's hard to get people to laugh at 8 am in the morning!
- It's safer to play on line. You can't see the person who is beating you (your younger sister) and you can't kill her tho you would like to when she scores 81 points.
- well done.
- VERY VERY good story, i never play scrabble game before. I have to read this story several times for me to understand it.now i have to find out how the scrabble game work.
- I love it. All the ingredients of a great short story
- I LOVE IT !!!
- I M A G I N A T I V E ...
- A brilliantly written piece - full of suspense, I could almost feel the hot sticky heat and hear the whistling of the kettle!! Well done - you are very talented
- Oh my god!! Incredible. Thanks man.
- Wonderful rhythm to this story. Beautifully constructed and really fun.
- I loved this story, and so did my Creative Writing class!
- Awesome
- I absolutely loved it! Thank you.
- I've read this about ten times now. Still funny. I had to share with friends. Thx!
- quick read, funny, simplicity in the language. better imagery?
- so tedious that I could get through it...
- At the expense of being the fly buzzing the cup of tea, this funny storywith cinematic imagery could have been somewhat less violent. A goodand quick read, nonetheless. Juliana and Richard L'Heureux
- This story is genius. I guess I'm the only one so far that caught the fact that you choked on a B, just liked your cousin. There is a comment somewhere down there saying that line was unnecessary, but it stuck in my mind the rest of the story, and made the ending all the sweeter. Excellent job.
- i laughed so much I cried. Very funny!
- It makes me laugh, i can just imagine the same thing going through the wife's head.
- very cinematic the images are evoked nicely i could picture the scene. There was a clear structure with an interesting climax i loved it it made me smile
- I saw the main character choking on the tile coming. I would have put the wife placing the word choke down on the board just as they're collapsing or something. Other than that very well written.
- like the atmosphere. Maybe it is better to stay single. James Emmans
- I really enjoyed the way you structured the story around the words played in the game. This is the Jumanji of Scrabble. Be Well, Jan
- really funny story, except that you get it in the end - not so satisfying. Needs a rewrite where the wife gets everything she deserves.
- I love it, very funny story
- EXCELLENT!
- near brilliant!
- Very funny! I could actually picture the scene.
- i didnt know it was fiction until the "quake" part. Damn it! Good story--you're not alone though...many people hate their wife.
- Love it! It made me laugh!
- Excellent Short Story, Id like to read more of your writing.
- very nice peace of writing, but slightly twisted.
- great story,, my wife and I play each other all the time, and while I would never entertain thoughts of harm to her, therer have been heated discussions and a harsh word or two as a result of a particularly nasty round. It started when she proclaimed herself to be a great scrabble player, not knowing i myself had copious experience. My army buddies and i would play two or three games in a row on our time off while in Iraq in '05. So i beat her. Handily, I may add, for the first three times we palyed. She has since caught up with me and we are about even to this point. Its been awhile, and we havent fought in ages....maybe its time for another game. -TM
- I laughed throughout your story. My partner and i have recently started playing scrabble and he is growing to HATE me more and more with every game. He cheats, he puts me off and even tries to put me down. The story captures the rage and downright hatred i feel being transmitted from the other side of the scrabble board, its a great little story. Im linking this to him but dont think he will read the comments, but if he does...YOU KNOW IM BETTER THAN YOU AT SCRABBLE HA HA HA!!
- Intriguing- I have no other words
- Amazing. I can see an indie movie or a short feature based on this story. Funny as f*+k!
- I came across your story while looking for something short to read to my students - I'm an English teacher in a Czech High School. I loved the story and it makes a great lesson. I had to recreate the Scrabble game for the lesson and found a few little errors but was thrilled that it really does work out on the board. I hope you don't mind if develop a lesson plan around it and share it with my fellow teachers. It's been a real inspiration. Thanks
- I just read your short story "Murder by Scrabble" on eastoftheweb.com. Being both an author and an avid Scrabble player, I laughed out loud at the story. It was so thoroughly enjoyable that I printed it out for my sister (the one I play Scrabble with). I’m sure she’ll be calling me any second, laughing as well. Thanks for a great story! Warmest Regards, Gioya McRae-Henry - Mocha Mind Communications
- My brother, Kurt Bauer and his then girlfriend, now wife Tina Samuelson (Bauer) acted in a short film based on this story. It's also called "Tile M For Murder". Kurt told me where to go to see the film. I liked it so well, I read the short story. Kudos to both and I recommend seeing the film too. Kurt's biggest fan - his sister Lori
- Charlie, what a wonderful story! The ending was completely unexpected - I laughed for ages. It makes me want to play a game of Scrabble right now with the mother-in-law! You are wasted in the TMO. Helen
- As the story is written in the first person narrative I find it a problem that the character in the story continues to narrate events even though he has already died. As I'm sure your aware this isn't humanly possible. Unless in some bizarre way this human becomes like a cockroach and can continue to move its body parts long after it has died. If this is the case please accept my apology but as this has not being spelled out in the game of scrabble as everything else has I think we can agree that this explanation is far fetched. I offer you an alternative-don't try and surprise the reader with a twist in for-seen events, keep the original intention and kill off the wife. There are too many stories out their that give a red herring and pull out a surprise. be original and keep it straight forward. All my love and kisses legs Lowther (Internationally recognised super stud cyclist)
- Wonderful! I love scrabble! Great story! Lol! His wife watches him die of scrabble strangulation. My cousin loves scrabble I'll add this to my favorites!
- I love the story, actually I'm studying it for a seminar in my grade 12 english class. I found it kind of humourous (yes Im from Canada, we spell humour with a 'u'), that he could actually spell MURDER in the very beginning. It kind of reminded me of Hamlet, and his wife playing the role of Claudius. If you think about it he can. Was this on purpose? If you can answer these, it would be great for my seminar!!! Its an amazing story.
- Dear Mr. Fish, Firstly let me congratulate you on some very amusing stories you have posted in the fiction on the web site. There is one in particular that I like; The Death by Scrabble story. I am a student in my 3rd year of an animation degree at the University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey. I have been looking at that story with a desire to turn it in to an animation for my final film. The film would not be made for profit, so I'm afraid I would be unable to offer you anything other than your name on the screen and a copy of the film. Please let me know if you would consider letting me use your story as the inspiration for my film. Many thanks for your time, Katie Steed
- Dear Mr Charlie Fish, As the editor of Speak Up, an educational magazine printed in Italy, I'd like to reprint your story Death by Scrabble in our October issue. Though produced in Milan by the Italian company, De Agostini Periodici, Speak Up is an English-language publication. It costs 4.90euros (it is also published in Spain and Brazil, with a print run of approximately 50,000 altogether). I have written to you through the message system of the website as well, so please ignore the other message if you ever get it. I'm looking forward to hearing from you! And to receiving a snapshot of you to go with the story, just in case you say yes... Regards, Rosanna
- For the love of god, just kill the fucking whore...
- jolly funny. Thankyou. I know the feeling well.....
- Yeah, an interesting story.... just hope this isn't any sort of premonition for you and Emmy in twenty years!!!! Matthew J. Smith
- This was a good one. Cheers!
- I read all your stories and thought "Death by Scrabble" was excellent, although my girlfriend didn't find it as hilarious as I did. She refuses to play boardgames with me now.
- I wonder if she knew what she was doing. It seemed kinda odd to me that he found it coincidental that he used "CHEATING" *after* he cheated and managed to tie it in to the other words. A very interesting and inventive story.
- Excellent! Although I actually really like scrabble...
- Barked with laughter at: "the letters will tell me what to do. If they spell out KILL, or STAB, or her name, or anything, I’ll do it right now. I’ll finish her off." Good story! Could have been cut down a little, skimmed very slightly in the middle, but other than that, funny! I did wonder if you had the Scrabble board out while writing, so that you got the words in the right place. Good for you if you did, nothing like research for a story! Was a little disappointed with the end. Would have personally liked to see it stop at: "I gasp with surprise and vindication - and the B that I was chewing on gets lodged in my throat." Will look forward to more of your work. :o)
- A nice, breezy read. I thoroughly enjoyed though I thought that he would die in the end. And as someone has already mentioned, you could cut down this story slightly to make it tighter. Cheers!
- One of the best stories I have read on here for a long time, and the amount of work you must have put into it is astounding. Well done. Oh one quirk, lose the death by on the title. You know whats coming and that lets it down a bit.
- It was an interesting story, and I enjoyed the majority of it. There were two things I really disliked though: This line -- "My cousin Harold swallowed a bee when he was nine, his throat swelled up and he died." I just thought it wasn't needed. During the entire story the guy's mind only goes from hating the heat, hating his wife, and playing Scrabble. It just didn't fit. And I was also a little disappointed at the end. I was hoping the Scrabble game didn't actually cause these things, and it was all in his head. It would have helped explain his vicious hate for his wife more, because it would have proved he has a lot of weird thoughts floating around in his brain. Other than those two things, I think you wrote it well. Nice structure and an intriguing story. Sometimes you wonder what his wife is thinking the entire time, while he is thinking all of those bad thoughts. I didn't really notice spelling errors either; that's always a plus. "I steal a blank tile from the letter bag when she's not looking, and throw back a V from my rack. She gives me a suspicious look." -- I also thought this line was funny, because I didn't expect him to cheat during the game. Just thinking about some 42 year old guy cheating in a game against his wife is funny, and shows just how much he wants to beat her.
- Nice concept, well written, but I think it could be about half the length and just as effective. I got the point after the first couple of paras and then skimmed the middle 'till I reached the ending. Don't think I missed much. The idea is good but it needs a little more *something* - maybe more on why they hate each other - to make it work for me.
- Heh, heh. This is good. I like it. The pace is nice and easy going. Reads well. But I don't like your opening sentence. Mainly because you repeat it again in the second paragraph. Personally, I think opening with 'I hate my wife' is quite a grabber. I found myself wondering if she was playing the same game he was. Especially when he came to realize that his words were having an effect on reality. She used sweatier and so on. Very good. Didn't notice any blaring mistakes, so I don't have much else to say. I really enjoyed this. Hope someone has something more helpful to offer.
- Damn! Why didn't I think of this. I love Scrabble, but I love my wife, too. So that answers my question. But really, this is some terrific writing.
- The whole time I was wondering which of the two would die. Out of curiosity I would like to know if the wife had guessed at the power of the game. My twisted little mind came up with a scenario where the wife purchased the board from a voodoo doctor just to murder her husband. Anyway, no real problems I can see. The pace was just a little slow. I don't like scrabble that much and reading a bunch of stuff ABOUT scrabble seemed a bit boring to me. The only thing to keep me reading was the husband's thoughts and the tease of a death at the end.
- I hate Scrabble so came to this with a negative outlook. However, I enjoyed it; it's a good example of brevity. A complete story with every spare syllable compressed out, and a twist in the tail to boot. Nice style. John
- Author's comment: Regarding the comment below, I looked back at the notes I made when I was planning the story and he could not have played "murder" because his rack was AMMRRUW; so if he used the "d" in "jinxed" he would be missing an "e", and vice-versa. You are correct in pointing out that the actual text of the story does leave this a bit ambiguous, though. Just because I am incredibly anal about Scrabble, I have since edited it so no-one will make any sense of these comments anymore. It may interest you to know (but I doubt it) that the game in the story is a perfectly possible and realistic game, except for the very last move - the wife must have cheated to play "choke".
- It's an interesting story and I liked it but... During his second play, he could have played the word "murder" if he had used the "d" in "jinxed". Any form of play this early in the game should have allowed access to the letter "d". Lee Ann Carr, Bedford, VA
- I LOVED your story. Very, very imaginative. Bravo! I like playing scrabble, so you drew me into the story immediately. And then mid-way through the story the game takes on a very sinister but satisfying twist.
- Very "INTERESTING" story for - 64 Points, 14 for the letters and 50 extra points for using my 7 letters of INTEING adding it to REST ;-) Regards, Judi Silva, Copy-Editor and Contributing Writer www.bollyvista.com. Read 'The Ashram'
- Author's comment: This is an idea that was stewing in my brain for a long time, and I finally overcame a period of writer's block by committing it to paper. I envisaged it as a kind of 'Twilight Zone' episode, although a friend of mine suggested it should be called 'Tile M for Murder'. Various films have been inspired by this story: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.
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