A Short Form About Short Form

Recently, I have been dabbling in writing short form. At first, I thought, how hard can it be? I’m a writer, 150 words are child’s play.

I quickly learned I’m more verbose than I thought. I recently wrote a piece about my pup. I started it on my phone and then reopened it on my computer to find it was over 200 words, not the 150 I was hoping for.

I quickly deleted an extraneous anecdote and hit refresh thinking problem solved only to find I was over 30 words.

Then, the fun began, I started combing every sentence looking for ways to cut words and shorten phrases. It was a puzzle.

In the end, I was able to keep the integrity of the piece and I liked it even better.

What has your short-form journey looked like?