If you read my recent post, Mudslide, you’ll know that it was only Part I of a literary challenge at Carrot Ranch Literary Community. Part II of the challenge is to reduce our original 297-word flash fiction story to 99 words. Not only that, but we have to write two versions, one in the original POV (point of view) and the other in a different POV.
I’d never done anything like this before. Cutting out 2/3 of my words taught me an important lesson: I use a lot of unnecessary words! Wait, let me rephrase that: I waste words!
But the even more important thing I learned was that POV matters, and of the following two versions, I have a favorite. Which do you prefer?
Third Person POV, 99 words:
Rachel sat upright. It was 2:15. She’d had that mudslide dream four consecutive nights since living with Jake.
She touched him; he slept. All she could do was consider her dream. Was it a warning? She rose and Googled “mudslide dream” with her phone.
Jake, up now, kissed her neck. Startled, she dropped the phone. Jake grabbed it; it buzzed. The caller’s ID: “SLIMDUDE.”
“Who’s ‘Slim Dude’?” he asked.
“My husband,” Rachel answered.
“Husband?!” Jake sputtered.
No reply. Rachel pondered that prison nickname, his tattoo. He‘d never stop calling.
He’d always haunt her dreams, scrambling up her MUDSLIDE life.
First Person POV: 99 words:
I sat upright. It was 2:15. I’d had that mudslide dream four consecutive nights since living with Jake.
I touched him; he slept. All I could do was consider my dream. Was it a warning? I rose and Googled “mudslide dream” with my phone.
Jake, up now, kissed my neck. Startled, I dropped the phone. Jake grabbed it; it buzzed. The caller’s ID: “SLIMDUDE.”
“Who’s ‘Slim Dude’?” he asked.
“My husband,” I answered.
“Husband?!” Jake sputtered.
I couldn’t respond. I pondered that prison nickname, his tattoo. He‘d never stop calling.
He’d always haunt my dreams, scrambling my MUDSLIDE life.
In my opinion, first person makes the story much more immediate and threatening. Jake startles me, I drop the phone, I’m terrified of SLIMDUDE haunting me forever. Yeah. Looking forward to the next challenge. Or should I simply say: Excited!
loristory 