Tough love
February is the month of love. Or lurrrrrrve, as we like to say it. So what better way to celebrate than to make you hate us just a little?
Don’t say you’re not going to hate us. We hate us already. This is a hard one
The good news is that this is probably going to be the hardest rewrite all year, but it’s going to give you some incredibly valuable information about your work.
Ready?
February’s assignment is: rewrite your story. You have a maximum of 100 words.
The whys and hows:
When you only have 100 words to tell a story that started out much bigger, you have to really get to the heart of the matter. We know. We’re dying inside. Our story started at 2,700 words and there are darlings all over the floor from getting to 1,000. But getting your work down to 100 words is going to force you to focus on what was really important to you all along. Rambling plots have to be reduced to decision points. Complex backstories have to be implied. It’s hard, but you can do it. Here are some tips, and don’t be afraid to ask for help in the Coffeehouse!
- Don’t summarize. You’re telling a story or conveying an important idea in 100 words. Don’t tell us about what you would have done with 1,000 words.
- Use active verbs. Instead of “she said softly” say “she murmured.”
- If you have to cut out dialogue tags, think about how the reader will still know who’s speaking.
- Don’t try to retell your whole story. Pick out the crux of the story and tell that. If you only had 100 words to tell Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you wouldn’t spend the whole time describing the cottage in the woods, right?
- Pick up where the action picks up. You’re not going to have room for a lot of backstory, but you can imply a lot using the way characters speak, what they’re wearing, and how they react to things.
- Don’t just cut articles (the part of speech that includes “the” and “an”). You’ll sound… like.. Shatner…
- It’s ok to have some really elegant sentences in there. You don’t have to sacrifice voice to length. Just be aware that you might crowd other things out. See above: focus on what’s important.
Anyway, this month is terrible and no number of tips and tricks will make that any better. We’re sorry. But when you’re through, you will know in your bones what was too important to cut in your story or essay. And knowing that is going to be important every month from here on in, right?
Good luck!
Loading InLinkz ...Hindsight!
In case you missed it, here's a look back (see what we did there?) at the exercises in our 2020 workshop.
January: Write a story or essay in 1,000 words
February: Write the same piece in 100 words
March: Retain just 25 adjectives and adverbs from your original 1,000 word story
April: Write your story or essay using only dialogue
May: Write your story or essay from a different point of view
June: Write your story or essay in 2,000 words
July: Write your story or essay out of chronological order
August: Record your story or essay and transcribe it
September: Write your story or essay using a different voice
October: Write a poem using your story or essay as inspiration
November: Write a version of your story set in an alternate universe.
December: Write the final version of your story or essay in 1000 words.
About the author:
Christine Hanolsy is a (primarily) science fiction and fantasy writer who simply cannot resist a love story. She joined the YeahWrite team in 2014 as the microstory editor and stepped into the role of Editor-In-Chief in 2020. Christine was a 2015 BlogHer Voices of the Year award recipient and Community Keynote speaker for her YeahWrite essay, “Rights and Privileges.” Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals and her creative nonfiction at Dead Housekeeping and in the Timberline Review. Outside of YeahWrite, Christine’s past roles have included Russian language scholar, composer, interpreter, and general cat herder. Find her online at christinehanolsy.com.
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
