Six long’ens!

Keith's Ramblings

For Six Sentence Stories where the given word is Second.

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.pi58yX5MTOh dear, I think it’s a bit too long, my publisher said fifteen thousand words and I’ve more than doubled that, so a bit of trimming’s required.

Out goes the second chapter, it’s not really necessary, nor the third, or the sixth, good, it’s shrinking fast and with a descriptive title I won’t need the opening paragraphs; in fact, I might as well strike the whole first chapter, yes, that works.

A few words less in those flowery phrases won’t really alter the story, but that will leave some of the sentences a little uninteresting, unnecessary even, so they might as well go and if I add a picture of the hero I won’t need to describe his appearance. 

What’s left, chapter four doesn’t make sense without three, I could even remove five as two’s deleted and as for the ending, with so much gone I might as well dump that too. 

Now let’s have a look, oh, it’s all gone, every word and all that remains is the title and a picture, so I need to have a second go and make sure I keep count this time.

Once upon a time (4 words) there was a man called Eustice (that makes 10 words – 14900 to go!) and he lived in………….oh, forget it!

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Thanks to Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge for hosting.

36 thoughts on “Six long’ens!”

  2. Denise Apr 20, 2023 / 12:34

    Oh how I wish some authors had done a bit of editing. Just finished a book with some atrocious dialogue that could have just been eliminated. Or maybe as you did, just start over, lol.

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  4. Christine Goodnough Apr 20, 2023 / 14:56

    You’ve earned the Red Pen Editing Award for this one! I can see this happening — and should have, in some cases. 😉

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  7. clark Apr 20, 2023 / 19:32

    Hey! There’s an idea “Fiction Minus One”*
    A hardcover book (ain’t goin with no cheap paperback format) a Title and, instead of blank pages, a voice to print app and display!)

    I’m sure the long-running Music Minus One people won’t mind!

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    • Keith's Ramblings Apr 21, 2023 / 17:26

      You could have something there, I might just pioneer it! I’ll make sure you get a mention on the cover.

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  11. Frank Hubeny Apr 21, 2023 / 02:18

    I hope he took a backup before he started deleting stuff. Sometimes a picture and title are worth fifteen thousand words.

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  14. Nicole Horlings Apr 21, 2023 / 20:08

    Hahahaha! Great one, Keith!
    I’ve definitely gone well over the word count when writing 99 word stories for Carrot Ranch prompts, and sat scratching my head for quite some time wondering how to cut those stories down to the limit.

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    • Keith's Ramblings Apr 24, 2023 / 13:30

      Me too with Friday Fictioneers 100. It’s too easy to turn a colourful story into a monochrome essay.

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