I recently posted a story called “The Scent of Raspberries.” This story was originally about 1000 words and I wrote it for a class. The initial prompt was a complete short story with beginning, middle, and end in only 600 words. Well, as you could’ve guessed, I had to cut a lot from the original story which was good as some fat needed to be trimmed for sure but near the end it was getting to wear I was chilling some bone off too. If any fat was left, it was hidden in little crevices I couldn’t see.
Now, I’ve come to find the prompt for the next week’s assignment is to take the 600 words story and cut it in half while maintaining a complete beginning, middle, and end. This story will have nothing left! I struggled to cut it from 1000 to just over 600 words and now I’m gonna have half a skeleton left, let alone the trimmed fat. I can see the purpose of the assignment and the importance of needing to cut but this is going to be tough. I’ll have little more than the words beginning, middle, and end.
Have you ever tried to trim a piece down to half its original size? I can only imagine how much of a pain it’s going to be but I’m wondering what you focused on cutting. Did you cut adverbs? Phrases? Your darlings? Did you just nix large blocks for the sake of your sanity because picking the sentences that could stay was too difficult? That’s probably what I’ll have to do. It’ll be rough but it’ll get down. I’ll post the edited version when it’s done but I can’t imagine the stories will be nearly the same or have the same effect as you read it. A lot of what made it good will likely be gone for the sake of the assignment. Don’t worry, I’ll always hang on to the original!
Drew Schroeder 