Fifty-five-Word Short Story

Fifty-five-Word Short Story Writing Assignment

You are to write a creative short story containing exactly fifty-five words, no more and no less. Your story must contain the following major story elements: characters, setting, conflict, and resolution. The topic is to be one of your own choosing. Be sure to include a title. The words in your title are NOT a part of the fifty-five-word requirement.

Some additional rules to remember include the following:  Hyphenated words do not count as one word unless one of the hyphenated words cannot stand alone (e.g., “re-test”). Contractions count as a single word. Numbers count as words (e.g., “27” would count as a single word, although “twenty-seven” would count as two words). Initials and abbreviations count as full word. Acronyms count as single words (e.g., “USA” would count as a single word.) Punctuation marks do not count as words.

The story must be word processed, double-spaced, and with a font size no less than 14.

The following is an example fifty-five-word short story:

The Dance

He shuffles to my locker. Skinny Steve with the zits. Yuck! Probably wants to ask me to the dance. My last chance. Oh well. Better than being a wallflower, like Jenny.

Deep breath. “Hi, Steve.”

“Hi, Sue.”

“You wanted to ask me something?”

Even his zits blushed.

“I wondered… do you have Jenny’s phone number?”