Daily ritual: The skin comes off.
I found it difficult to summarize the story in six words that encapsulated the whole thing. The sentence only goes over the story at a surface level but doesn’t even begin to grasp the symbolism or what the story truly means, I just don’t have enough words to even begin doing that. I prefer my true length of the story simply because it holds so much more meaning, and slightly less interpretative. I do find this a bit helpful though because it can help me shave down unnecessary pieces that distract from the true meaning of the story.
Doing this exercise, I had a hard time finding the true essence of my essay. I don’t think that my paper needs to be any longer than it already is, but cutting it down felt really hard. Using only six words to tell my story meant cutting out all of the tensions between the siblings in the story and the nuances of having their parent’s ignorance.
A family blindsided, their son disappearing.
We all hide behind a mask.
I enjoy the mystery of this six-word story. However, it serves the audience to describe compelling characters and give a plot with stakes to invest in. It’s fun as a writer to explore the characters and world you’re trying to bring into focus. I look forward to what the message will turn into as I continue to develop this story.
The coffee-stained introduction of lifelong friends.
This story needs much more detail than then six words can convey. The emotion and history I want to share about the two characters requires more in-depth exploration of their lives. While six words could be powerful in many cases, it is not the right fit for my story.
What’s missing takes up physical space
My story needs more space simply because this message can’t be powerful without an example. I crafted my set up and plot around this idea, and the character’s add a nuance to what this means when referring to people, death, and grief.
Lost—then found—then lost again.
My story may not need to be quite as long as it is not, however, in order to tell my story I still need a multitude of pages. While I could tell the basic plot of the story in a short amount of words or paragraphs, like I’ve done here, in removing all the pages I currently have I lose something I set out to do with my story, that “something” being the depiction of a change in and paralleling in mannerisms framed around a moment that merges the past and the present in such a way that my character has a notable shift in attitude.
A goodbye–unfinished–under gray skies.
This sentence summarizes my story, conveys the lack of resolution experienced by the narrator, and introduces the tone of the setting. What it fails to do, and why I need more room to tell my story, is to explain the relationship between the setting and the emotional tumult, or, in short, why the color of the sky is important in a given moment. I think the detail that I am able to employ in the page-and-a-half length of my story is vital to illustrate those things, as well as helping to characterize the narrator.
Haunted, selfish, wants to be alone.
I wanted my story to be the length it was so I could continue to develop this story and allow there to be a little mystery as to the behavior of the character. I wanted to give this character room to breathe and explain herself, which this six story prompt does not do. I also wanted to properly display others reactions to her.
Twin grapples with sister’s unsolved disappearance.
This feels like a headline to a news story: it offers a preview or ultra-condensed summary of the topic of the story, but also leaves readers with many questions, wanting to know more (which is not what a complete story should do). To tell the entirety of this story, I need all my pages to expand on how he (the twin) is “grappling” with this, the circumstances of his sister’s disappearance, to convey the way he changed since the event, how he has stayed the same, how the event has impacted his life, his reflections on it, how it changed his relationship with his parents, how it changed his understanding of his sister, and so on.
Spinach teeth, fearing death, funeral sex.
I don’t know that I need all those pages to tell this story. I feel like the story could expand or contract but in order to gain some understanding from the reader I feel like there is a level of familiarization with the character that necessitates more than six words. The 6 word version may be enticing or comical but it fails to encompass the whole undercurrent of the story.
Graduating, jealous of a campus statue.
A short story like this captures the central point of interest in my essay, but really, a story can be any length. I could make my essay six words or six pages, and it would only significantly affect the level of detail and narrative development I’m able to squeeze in. I like my chosen length because I feel like I have enough space to go at a natural pace; I can develop the relationship with the statue, meander just a bit, and include some casual thematic dialog. I don’t really want extra pages of unrelated dialog or narrative reflection or new characters or subplots.
He gazes at me standing there.
Daily ritual: The skin comes off.
I found it difficult to summarize the story in six words that encapsulated the whole thing. The sentence only goes over the story at a surface level but doesn’t even begin to grasp the symbolism or what the story truly means, I just don’t have enough words to even begin doing that. I prefer my true length of the story simply because it holds so much more meaning, and slightly less interpretative. I do find this a bit helpful though because it can help me shave down unnecessary pieces that distract from the true meaning of the story.
Doing this exercise, I had a hard time finding the true essence of my essay. I don’t think that my paper needs to be any longer than it already is, but cutting it down felt really hard. Using only six words to tell my story meant cutting out all of the tensions between the siblings in the story and the nuances of having their parent’s ignorance.
A family blindsided, their son disappearing.
We all hide behind a mask.
I enjoy the mystery of this six-word story. However, it serves the audience to describe compelling characters and give a plot with stakes to invest in. It’s fun as a writer to explore the characters and world you’re trying to bring into focus. I look forward to what the message will turn into as I continue to develop this story.
The coffee-stained introduction of lifelong friends.
This story needs much more detail than then six words can convey. The emotion and history I want to share about the two characters requires more in-depth exploration of their lives. While six words could be powerful in many cases, it is not the right fit for my story.
What’s missing takes up physical space
My story needs more space simply because this message can’t be powerful without an example. I crafted my set up and plot around this idea, and the character’s add a nuance to what this means when referring to people, death, and grief.
Lost—then found—then lost again.
My story may not need to be quite as long as it is not, however, in order to tell my story I still need a multitude of pages. While I could tell the basic plot of the story in a short amount of words or paragraphs, like I’ve done here, in removing all the pages I currently have I lose something I set out to do with my story, that “something” being the depiction of a change in and paralleling in mannerisms framed around a moment that merges the past and the present in such a way that my character has a notable shift in attitude.
A goodbye–unfinished–under gray skies.
This sentence summarizes my story, conveys the lack of resolution experienced by the narrator, and introduces the tone of the setting. What it fails to do, and why I need more room to tell my story, is to explain the relationship between the setting and the emotional tumult, or, in short, why the color of the sky is important in a given moment. I think the detail that I am able to employ in the page-and-a-half length of my story is vital to illustrate those things, as well as helping to characterize the narrator.
Haunted, selfish, wants to be alone.
I wanted my story to be the length it was so I could continue to develop this story and allow there to be a little mystery as to the behavior of the character. I wanted to give this character room to breathe and explain herself, which this six story prompt does not do. I also wanted to properly display others reactions to her.
Twin grapples with sister’s unsolved disappearance.
This feels like a headline to a news story: it offers a preview or ultra-condensed summary of the topic of the story, but also leaves readers with many questions, wanting to know more (which is not what a complete story should do). To tell the entirety of this story, I need all my pages to expand on how he (the twin) is “grappling” with this, the circumstances of his sister’s disappearance, to convey the way he changed since the event, how he has stayed the same, how the event has impacted his life, his reflections on it, how it changed his relationship with his parents, how it changed his understanding of his sister, and so on.
Spinach teeth, fearing death, funeral sex.
I don’t know that I need all those pages to tell this story. I feel like the story could expand or contract but in order to gain some understanding from the reader I feel like there is a level of familiarization with the character that necessitates more than six words. The 6 word version may be enticing or comical but it fails to encompass the whole undercurrent of the story.
Graduating, jealous of a campus statue.
A short story like this captures the central point of interest in my essay, but really, a story can be any length. I could make my essay six words or six pages, and it would only significantly affect the level of detail and narrative development I’m able to squeeze in. I like my chosen length because I feel like I have enough space to go at a natural pace; I can develop the relationship with the statue, meander just a bit, and include some casual thematic dialog. I don’t really want extra pages of unrelated dialog or narrative reflection or new characters or subplots.