Have you ever taken part in a story challenge? Last week I made my students take part in a 50-word story challenge. They loved it and wrote some very interesting stories. The story, as with any story, had to have a plot, a beginning, middle and end. My students did far better than I could ever have hoped to when I was their age. Not only did they share what they had written with the class, they even accepted criticism, positive and negative, from each other. I wonder if I could have handled someone my own age ripping apart my story and calling it boring. Not these students. They took it all in their stride and thanked their critics for the feedback.
Does writing a story in so few words sound difficult? I found it very difficult.
I struggled to do it but once I succeeded, there was no stopping me.
Here is one I wrote called ‘Lunch In Fridge’
‘Beautiful Rose is sleeping. Her busy ‘globetrotting on a broomstick’ stepmother has made sandwiches (Rose’s favourite: cheese, pickles and mushrooms) and fruit salad: strawberries, green grapes, cherries and a blood red apple. She has packed it all in Tupperware, stuck a Post It saying ‘Lunch In Fridge’ and flown away.’
Can you recognise the fairytale elements I used here and anticipate what might happen to Rose?
And here’s another of 55 words, also on my favourite theme of re-writing fairy tales.
‘Crunch crunch crunch’. Baba Yaga was gnawing on a bone. “The problem with maidens is that they ask for too much. This one, for instance, asked me for a mirror. Now another one is asking me for a glass slipper.” Rumplestiltskin, her son, nodded wisely. He knew maidens and their demands only too well.’
Does anything seem familiar in this tale?
You might even find that the story challenge technique is useful for making study notes. After all, note making is all about writing down a lot of information in a concise and meaningful manner. It will help you decide what is relevant and what is repetitive.
This may be especially important when you write essays in English and History.
Remember, more does not always mean better. Short crisp sentences that convey a concept are far better than ones than ones where one idea repeats itself endlessly.
Ernest Hemmingway was once asked to write a story in six words and this is what he wrote.
‘For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.’
Now, that is a story heavy with meaning.
Are you all ready for a 50-word challenge or are you in the thick of examinations right now? If you are up to it, respond to this in fifty words only: The scrap of paper.
(Yasmine Claire teaches high school students and attempts to write twisted-inside-out fairy tales. Write in to claireyasmine@gmail.com)