Yesterday I did something never before attempted by me.  I submitted a short story.  Truth be told it was an ultra short story.  Laurence Simon hosts a weekly challenge where people are invited to submit 100 word stories (mine is here) in two formats one text the other audio mp3.  I’ve visited his site a few times, listened to some of the podcasts and toyed with the idea of actually sending in something but never did till now.

Wow.  That.  Was.  Hard.

I read the challenge topic “Danger Zone” and instantly a thought popped into my head.  I said to myself a phrase I’ve read often by talented folks I follow on Twitter, “Do it!!” and before I could change my mind opened up a word processor and started typing.  Then came the real hard part.  I stopped, looked at what I had in front of me and felt it looked decent.  Hunted for, and found, the word count function — click — WTF!?! 123 words!!?

That can’t be right.  I mean, it sure didn’t look like that much on the screen. Worse still was now I had to figure out what to cut out and still leave the story an unbutchered mess.  That was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.  I’ve already had tons of respect for friends and family who have devoted themselves to getting their works published but as of now my Respect-o-Meter has been recalibrated to go well beyond it’s orginal 1-10 because 10 just isn’t enough.

It took me over an hour, yes, a freaking hour, I said, to get the story down to 100 words and still be a semblance of the original.  In hindsight I should have kept a copy of the original to include here along with the final version so you can tell me how I did.  So over an hour later of delete, delete, delete, reword, check count (113 — DAMN!!).  Delete, delete, delete, reword check count (104 — Double DAMN!!). Then there was that moment of happiness when hitting the word count button came back with 99 words which meant I could change “Serve with Integrity” back to “Mr. Serve with Integrity”.

Ok, now I had the story down to the required 100 words and it was time to record it.  I printed it out in a large font because that’s the format I had been provided written lines the one and only time I had recorded anything before.  If you’re wondering, it was to be a part of Tee Morris’s podiobook of “Billibub Badddings and the Case of the Singing Sword” So anyway, I press find were the built-in mic is located on my laptop, get kind of close to it, hit the record button start reading and before I’m 20 words in to my 100 word story know I’ll have to record it over.  What I didn’t know then is that I’d not only have to record it over but over and over.

And over.  And over.  And over.

At this point (for the sake of not tormenting you I’ve left out many “And Over”‘s) I had to stop because my laptop mic was actually picking up my kids in the next room.  So now, after recalibrating my Respect-o-Meter for podcasters everywhere, I wait till the kids have gone off to bed before trying again.  Oh, and again and again….

I can’t tell you how many takes it took but read my 100 word story because keeping count was getting depressing.  I mean, it’s an ultra short story that once recorded amounted to a scant 34 seconds.  How long would it have taken to record had it been 30 minutes??  Days?  Months?  Wow.

So what did I learn from it all?

I learned it was a ton of fun!  Even the frustrating bits like the perfect take ruined by feedback from I don’t know where were fun.  I learned using the built-in mic though convenient makes for low quality.  I played it back several times and though it sounded fine to me here, it sounds horrible in the final podcast.  If I do anything like this again I’ll have to try something different to make the recording.  Oh, and about doing it again — I’ve no idea when that’ll be but I do know it’ll happen.

To the writers and podcasters out there  – much respect is due as well as a hardy Thank You.

Considering doing something similar?  Here are three places to visit:

100 Word Stories

Great Hites

Every Photo Tells

– Orion

Thoughts, advice and such?  Leave a comment.