Dabbling With 25 Word Stories

I vividly recall those competitions where you could win a prize if you sang the praises of a particular product in 25 words or less. As a teenager, I occasionally submitted, but no prizes ever eventuated.  My twenty five words apparently missed the mark. None the less, it was the challenge that drove my efforts.

Maybe this is why I love the 25 word story and its inherent challenge. It was through fellow blogger, Kevin Hodgson that I became aware of this new writing opportunity. It came to light through my involvement with Twitter.
The 25 word story asks the writer to construct a story using Twitter as the platform. The limit of 25 words is the first challenge. The next challenge is stay to within Twitter’s 140 character limit at the same time. Within the 140 characters you need to allow for the hash tag, #25wordstory.

Once I began composing these short, short stories, it became an addictive force. I find myself rehearsing just as I do with other writing outlets. It requires a deal of revision and editing to create a story that fits the given parameters. The challenge helps to drive the writing. It’s a constructive way to use a social medium.

 I see this working particularly well with adolescent writers. It presents sufficient challenge within a manageable time frame. The structure is supportive of the inexperienced writer. It reminds me of the comprehension strategy- ‘Gist’ where the reader must provide a summary of a text within the 26 word framework.

 Kevin Hodgson wrote this 25 word story, which is one of my favourites:

‘The writer bent words, snapped phrases over his knee, wrestled with elusive ideas. Finally, the character arrived.’

 I have dabbled with this myself. Here are 3 examples:

 ‘Early each day she stood on the scales and they misread her real body mass. Sadly, she failed to see the error of her weighs.’

 ‘The page lay white and bright before him. With pen in hand he faced down the blank sheet and began to doodle with rare intent.’
‘A rock singer, he dreamed of a hit. Even as he walked the street, he dreamed. Then fate intervened. His head hit the lamp post.’
I commend the 25 word story to you as an additional outlet for you and the writers in your care. I believe it provides a great mix of challenges. -Challenges which remain achievable for developing writers. With a little effort, it’s doable. From experience I know, how hard it is to stop at one. However, unlike chocolate, it does not involve a sense of guilt. Thanks again Kevin.











Comments

  1. Amy Rudd12 July 2012 at 11:52

    #25wordstory Oh, so I know the rest of the story! The writer arrives, records, counts, character limit reached, revises, recounts-a story told.

    Would this count as a 25 word story?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous26 July 2012 at 06:28

    I like this idea. I like how it forces you to revise. I will have to try this with my students. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not eve...
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers...
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intentio...
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to...
Read more

Exploring Themes in Poetry With Emerging Writers

Image
There is so much more to poetry than haiku and acrostics. Yet, so many young poets never get to experience the rich breadth of poetry beyond these highly structured forms. Why? Primarily, it’s about their teachers comfort levels with poetry. We often teach to what we know, meaning that being adventurous and taking young poets into new realms is not part of the poetic landscape for many. This sells young poets and poetry itself short. Last week I had the pleasure to again work with a group of young poets from Derrimut Primary School grade 5/6 in Melbourne’s west. We have been exploring patterns and repetition in poetry. We have explored personification as a literary device to develop the writing of poetry. We delved into the idea of writing through a mask to provide inanimate and animate entities with a voice. They told stories in words from their own perspective. On this occasion we again went to the edges and began to explore poetry through themes. We discussed a range ...
Read more