Tried writing short punchy scenes instead of long chapters...

I always thought you needed these big sprawling chapters to tell a good story. Then I read a collection of flash fiction from some indie press out of Portland. The whole book was nothing but 500-word scenes and it hit harder than any novel I read last year. So I tried it on a scene I was stuck on, cut it down to 400 words, and suddenly the tension was actually there. Anyone else find that shorter formats forced you to cut the boring parts?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai4631d ago

Cut it down to 400 words" is exactly what I did with a scene that was dragging. Suddenly every sentence had to earn its spot, and the final version was way tighter.

troy_reed1d ago

Started doing that with my action scenes and realized half the words were just filler.