Short Story Tip: How to Measure your Words

A good short story is exactly that: short- an array of emotions, action and character complexity wrapped into a thousand-or-two word narrative.

Short but powerful words grip readers by the throat and makes them interested enough to read the next sentence to find out what happens next. Following a strict word count requirement forces you, the storyteller, to be more creative and view your piece with a fresh set of eyes.



When "cutting" your piece, you need to ask yourself: did I describe an unimportant detail too much? Did you make the reader focus into something else because you used lots of words on a single story element?

Measuring your words means removing unnecessary description and cliches so that you are left with the bare minimum: the essentials. This is especially crucial in a short story where plot advancement is most important.

So how do you measure your words? How do you strip your piece so that you are only left with the juicy parts of the story?

Stay Away From Your Story

When you have a rested set of eyes scrutinizing your work, the redundancies stand out among the sea of words and you grimace at the sight of them. Remove the words that feel awkward and leave that part alone. Restructure the words if it is a crucial part of the story.

Restructure

Don't be afraid of restructuring or removing an entire paragraph for rewriting. Most of the time, when you reconstruct a part of your piece, what comes out is a clearer, more concise and more readable piece.

Take Note of your Audience

Who are your audience? Do they need to know the details of a particular character or event? If your audience can't understand your words, they will simply skip them. Your efforts will be wasted, so you might as well remove them.

Oh, and lastly, belated Happy Valentine's Day, folks!