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Writing a 2k Word Story is Really Hard
Posted by: andychilton
For the first ever Zing Thing challenge, I found it hard to stay on the beaten track and keep that plot rolling.
In NaNoWriMo and SoCNoC, blatant padding, detailed description, dares, random plot bunnies and lots and lots of filling is desparately required to finish a 50,000 word novel in a month.
But here, for the first Zing Thing I realised that, to complete the cycle of a whole story in 2,000 words, none of the above techniques are going to help.
Imagine then a story that consists of a 500 word description of a mold covered chocolate mouse, 500 words stating how Mick Jagger wouldn't be able to hula-hoop through a life-size maze, 500 words of your MC complaining to her belly button that "life just ain't fair" and 500 words of a Father telling his Son that Queen's earlier albums were better than their later offerings.
That's just not going to be a story though any of those could be essential parts of a longer novel.
No, this was different. Almost every sentence has to count. No long rambling paragraphs, no throw-away scenes and definately no dares. To keep the story moving, you have to take the story forward with everything you say - and it is that, which makes it hard.
As always, nothing you do first time will be perfect but that means you get a second chance to make it better at the editing stage. You may even decide to take a 3rd and 4th shot at it too. Either way, hopefully what you end up with is a nice, well-rounded and complete story.
Labels: short-story zing-thing
29 Jul 2007 19:39:30
Comments
On 29 Jul 2007 20:36:06 Kerryn said:
Lol! Did you really write 2000 words in SoCNoC as you described here? It is definately ringing a bell or two.
On 09 Aug 2007 19:32:08 Travis said:
Well - a short story is going to be that way, BUT, you don't have to have a perfectly lean and mean story in the first draft. In fact, the first draft can be bloated and that's ok. Getting the ideas how and then cutting it down to something sexy and slick is how I approach even a short story.