A few weeks ago I came across a flash fiction
competition. A whole story in 500
words.
500
words! For a beginning, a middle and an
end. Since I write mostly crime fiction that means Commit – Investigate –
Solve.
Yeah right.
Figuring that it couldn’t be done, I put the idea
aside to look for something else. The something
else was a short story competition. In
writing that story I created two new characters that work for short bursts. Don’t really know why, this is remarkable for
me, usually getting under 5000 words a challenge.
I
decided to write how these two met, and managed it in 752 words. Then I wondered if I could use this as an
exercise to see if I could get it down to 500 words. So I got out my red pen and started cutting.
Out
went one unnecessary support character. Out went a bit, but importantly not
all, of the socialising between my two leads. I had to get rid of a tell
or two turning them into shows, which didn’t help the word count, but helped me
figure out what to keep and what not to.
Some conclusions had to be jumped to but I still had to provide the
evidence for them. I got economic with
my vocabulary and finally got it down to 500 words. Yay!
Then the scary bit. I gave it to my husband to
critique. I know lots of spouses get
used in this way and mine is particularly useful for pointing out things like
- You can’t spell (really can’t)
- That sentence doesn’t make sense (grammar errors)
- How did that happen? (logic gaps)
So he
pointed out things like two sentences had to be rewritten because I'd forgotten
to show the reader how the characters got to that point. So changes were made and the painful word
count regained.
Then came
the really scary part - I sent it to my sister to critique. I know, she’s
my big sister – how harsh is she going to be?
VERY!
This woman publicly stated
on FB that she wanted to hate my writing.
She was actually really useful because she told me where the story grated
for her - mostly the conclusion jumping - and that told me what I had to make
better. So I did.
Another rewrite,
another edit to get to the word count, but I got there and I thank to both my
'editors' for their contributions.
Then I read it again.
Then I re-read it. Didn’t find any more amendments I wanted, so I
sent it off to the competition.
That night in bed, I
suddenly remembered the perfect word I’d been looking for, but settled for
something less.
The
moral, if there is one, is: nothing is impossible (unless you don’t try).
Oh, and
if you have time, always leave a piece overnight then read it again before
sending it off.
Bye for
now.
PS –
Guess how many words (including these)
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