If you read my previous post, you would know that I attended a masterclass with Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life. During his talk, Fishman gave us a challenge: write a short story in only 100 words. At first, I was very intimidated. I have written a 500 word short story, but never 100. But later in the day, during Spanish class actually, I decided to take on this challenge, and this is the result.
----
I pulled the gun out of my bag. Dad just shook his head.
"What are you doing, Mira?"
I took a deep breath. "I'm taking my life back."
"What are you talking--"
"No!" I shouted. "You have beaten me my entire life. That's 30 years, Dad."
"Mira, you're not thinking clearly--"
Then I shot him.
The cold metal slipped from my sweaty hands and fell onto the cracked concrete, landing right next to him.
I could justify my mistake; the man tortured me for 30 years. But all it took was 30 seconds for the pain to end.
----
I don't know where I got that idea... I promise I'm not some crazy killer!!
It's hard to believe that was only 100 words, right? I thought this exercise was really interesting. Fishman said this would make us revise and edit our work, which is important skills you need in order to write good quality work. I think this exercise did just that. It made me get rid of unnecessary words and recreate sentences so they explained things in the best way possible.
This exercise is for people who have trouble describing situations without confusing the reader and writing unnecessary things that are irrelevant. I will definitely be using this in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment