Fifty Words? How To

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The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This essay includes works of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

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1. Basics.

It seems so simple.

All you have to do is write a story that is fifty words long. No more. No less.

The title, which should not be long, is not included in the fifty words but any title longer than a couple of words wouldn't be in the spirit of a fifty word story.

The site I write for has a minimum length of 750 words so I have to produce sets of 15 fifty-word stories. Writing one fifty-word story is fairly easy. Fifteen of them is more of a challenge.

Even a fifty-word story needs a plot to work effectively. The plot must be very simple and direct. Boy meets girl is a good choice. There is little space for development into conflict and resolution.

It is a good idea to include a twist in the last sentence, to take the reader's expectation of the ending and turn it around.

2. Mechanics.

2.1. The first draft

A fifty word story is easier built up from fewer words than cut down from more. Writing a one hundred word story and reducing it to fifty is probably harder than starting with thirty words or so and building to fifty.

Here is an example, starting from thirty:

We decided to keep chickens. We bought a dozen hens and a cockerel.

Months later we still had no eggs. We asked a farmer.

His verdict? Our cockerel is gay.

That is thirty words. It is the basis for a fifty-word story. It isn't perfect. It isn't fifty words and there are enough words available for some more interest, so I added a new sentence of eight words:

Every morning the cockerel woke us at dawn.

But why did we decide to keep chickens? I added:

so that we could save money and help the environment

to the first sentence. That made 49 words. I could add one more word -- Three at the start of the third sentence, totalling 50 words.

Eggs

We decided to keep chickens so that we could save money and help the environment. We bought a dozen hens and a cockerel.

Every morning the cockerel woke us at dawn.

Three months later we still had no eggs. We consulted a farmer friend.

His verdict? Our cockerel is gay.

There is still some things wrong.

The reader should have to wait for the punch-line. The words "Our cockerel is gay" should be on a separate line.

The first sentence is 15 words. That is too long and too complex for a fifty-word story. Short terse sentences work better. Perhaps it could be broken up and re-ordered:

We wanted to save money and help the environment. We decided to keep chickens.

The two short sentences total 14 words. I have saved a word. I could just add a word at random, an extra adjective, but in fifty-word stories, words are precious. Each one must be there for a reason. So, why not rewrite the second sentence?

We would produce our own eggs.

If you can, the easiest way is to write something very close to the fifty words as the first draft. This would become easier with practice. By the time you have written a fifteen times fifty-word set you should have a reasonable idea of what would be fifty words, and what would not.

The final version now reads (fifty-words excluding the one word title):

Eggs

We wanted to save money and help the environment. We would produce our own eggs.

We bought a dozen hens and a cockerel.

Every morning the cockerel woke us at dawn.

Three months later we still had no eggs. We consulted a farmer friend.

His verdict?

Our cockerel is gay.

2.2. Word count

I copy and paste the draft into a Word document I have called 'fiftycheck' and then use 'tools' to count the number of words after each draft or revision. I delete the counted document and return to the draft to adjust if necessary.

I count the words up to twenty times before the draft is completed. Using Word is much easier than counting on the screen.

2.3. Editing

Once you are happy with the draft it is a good idea to leave it for a day or two while working on something else, perhaps another fifty-word story.

Look at the story you have written. With so few words it is important that every word is there because it has to be. Could that word be replaced with something stronger? Could that phrase be deleted and replaced with a couple of words, leaving a few words to use elsewhere?

Editing a fifty-word story is similar to editing a poem. Perhaps a fifty-word story IS a poem.

3. Story Ideas/Plots

If you have difficulty finding story ideas or thinking of plots, then fifty-word stories will be hard work. One of my 750-word submissions will use fifteen plot lines.

If you have no idea how some authors produce so many stories, avoid fifty-word stories. You could use a lifetime's ideas in a few sets.

If you have more ideas than time to write them, fifteen short stories will relieve the pressure and let you concentrate on writing longer stories with more involved plots.

4. Recommendations

If you think that you could write fifty-word stories then try. It may turn out to be no more than the writing exercise that is the usual reason for fifty-word stories. Even so, the effort might help you with normal length work, showing that complex sentences and extended metaphors are not essential to convey a mood, a location or a story development.

The hard part is to move from writing one fifty-word story to writing fifteen. You may learn and practise the technique but there is likely to be a point at which you run out of steam. It may be the fifth, the eighth or the twelfth story. If you are really stuck, save the file and leave it for a couple of days, weeks, months or until you have a story you KNOW will fit into fifty-words.

If you can't get beyond one or two stories, post them as poetry.

When you feel comfortable with the format there are other possibilities. You could write fifteen stories around the same characters as fifteen episodes in their relationship. You could even write fifteen fifty-word 'How To's.

I'm not the only person capable of writing fifty-word stories. Any author should be capable of attempting them. Have a go. Good Luck!

Examples

Here are three examples of my fifty-word essays on "The Nude". Think about how you might want to change them. Could they be improved within the fifty-word limit?

1. Celebration

The nude body is wonderful. Throughout history artists have attempted to show the nude they saw.

If you love, celebrate the delight of your lover's body with what art you have.

Your talent may be with words, with paint, with a camera, or just with loving touch.

Tell your enjoyment.

2. Acceptable if Art?

The Victorians loved art works showing nude women but needed the justification that the nudity was artistic.

Artists such as Alma-Tadema met the need with nudity in antique settings such as 'In the Tepidarium'.

Had it been contemporary it would have been obscene. Classical and Art, it was beyond reproach.

3. Modern is rude

Modigliani painted nudes in his own particular style but represented real, not idealised, women.

His paintings caused a scandal when exhibited. Unlike Alma-Tadema's classical purity, his paintings showed nude women in contemporary domestic settings.

Nudity couldn't be modern without being pornographic. Yet Paris was the home of the dirty postcard.

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