February? Not Like This - Writing Magazine

My only New Year's Resolution this year was to enter one writing competition every month. I have some money to spare each month, so it's worth doing it; for the challenge, feedback and the possibility of payback.

February's challenge will be from Writing Magazine. The subscirber's competition is to start a story with the line "Not like this" and keep it to between 1,500 and 1,700 words. That's a pretty small window, but a solid, challenging target. 

That's it. Those are the only instructions. Everything else is up to the writer and I like it.

It doesn't surprise me that the competition page on the website says "You will have to work hard to stand out", because the first impulse is to go with obvious themes: a parent scolding a child; a child with poor language; the death of Switch in The Matrix. So yes, standing out is going to be a struggle.

Step 1: Find a solid opening.

How do you make that line in itself stand out? Do you start with something surprisingly soft, or do you go for something strong but perhaps predictable? Either way, it has to be an opener that introduces us to the protagonist and their character.

Step 2: Build the character to be "different".

There are only a few ways to build up a character in 1,700 words or less and make them memorable, reasonable and "likeable", not necessarily as a personality, but as a character that people will say "I like how you..."

Aim for this. Even if the character must ultimately be unpleasant, put something into their personality that the reader can hold on to.

Step 3: Break the character.

This character will have to have a flaw, something that becomes quickly obvious and is easily exploitable in the tight word count. Even better if the flaw can be exposed with the "Not like this" opener.

Step 4: Make it matter.

Exploiting the character's flaw and either saving or damning them for it must matter. Readers should feel that this character deserved what happened to them, good or bad, but maybe didn't "deserve" it.

There! That's the skeleton of this one. Time to build a character.

[EDIT] I made a big change to the story. I have found a character I like, and I'm trying to work in a twist at the end. I hope it works, but I know I'm still only developing my skill and my voice work.