Fragments: 50-Word Fanfic

[roseembolism]

A while ago on Metafilter, I found a discussion of a 50-word short story contest. The idea was to get a complete short story or vignette in 50 words or less. It's a useful exercise to do, as it encourages one to distill a plot down to a minimal amount of wordage, while giving the audience a sense of a complete story.

I couldn't resist applying this to fanfic, though I normally don't do fanfic. And so, this is what I came up with.


The Solution is Worse than the Problem
"Foolish, Harry, coming here with no allies."
"Not really, Voldemort. I have a spell to destroy you."
"You don't even have a wand. You can't cast Dumbledorf's spell."
"It's not Dumbledorf's: a redhead girl taught me this." Harry began the incantation: " Darkness from twilight, crimson from blood that flows…"



They'll Wish They Had the Old Enemy Back
"Here's your toy.": said the man with the pointed hair and the widow's peak, tossing the gold ring to the flaming eye. He grinned nastily, as his hair began to glow. "Now maybe it won't be boring to kick your ass."

Sadly, for Middle Earth, he soon was bored again.


So, does anyone else want to try?

Comments

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

You know, it's been far too long since I've seen "Slayers" -- I saw that line about the redhead girl and thought evil Willow. But then evil Willow had dark hair, so...

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

If I could have worked in "hyperactive redhead" I would have. Then again, if I could have worked in more of the incantation it would have been nice as well.

But then, that's kind of the point of this sort of exercise- what elements can one trim away, what choices must one make in order to make the story concise.