When I was younger, I never entered any contests where I had to write something new for the prompt. This was because I had serious trouble with writing anything shorter than 50K words. But I learned my lesson when I entered the starwarsfans contest "Calling All Shippers" (which I won, by the way). There wasn't a specific word limit, but they did say it had to fit in one chapter so it could be displayed in their anthology. I capped my limit at 3500 words (the story is 3200 words).

I think that the best way to learn how to write in a condensed manner is to participate in #JustWriteBits or your own personal challenges. Challenge yourself to write a story that's 1000 words or less (since each chapter in #JustWriteBits should preferably be 1K words or less). But what if you're ready to take the immediate plunge and write a whole story in 10K words?

The keys to writing under 10K words are condensation and subtlety. I'll explain what each of these things are below.

Condensation:

When you're writing any project shorter than an epic novel, you have to pick and choose your sentence structures. Of course, it's fine to write however you want in the first draft, but one of the best ways to keep your word count low is to structure your sentences in a short way. Still vary your sentences (compound, simple, complex - unless during an action sequence), but remember that your word length needs to be varied.

In a normal novel: To make your sentences less long, the best way to do this is to cut out unnecessary words that might bog down the prose or just aren't required to understanding the story. (32 words)

In a novelette or short story: To condense your sentences, cut off boring or unnecessary phrases. (10 words)

Subtlety:

In a normal novel, it's okay to spend a great deal of time on your character's backstory. In fact, it's absolutely necessary. SapphireAlena has a great guide on developing a character's backstory in a way that can be used to develop their character later on. I highly recommend it for fanfiction OCs or any character.

But in a novelette, you can't spend a lot of time on this. You only have 10K words to tell the character's story. You can't plan out who's the monarch at the time of their birth or now, or their favorite color, or where they would like to live - unless it is directly related to the plot. 

And please, for the love of all that is good, don't put info-dumps in your work. This should always be avoided whether you're writing an epic novel, but especially when you have limited space to talk about a character. Why spend time on an info-dump when you don't have a huge amount of space to write your story?

With that in mind, let's look at some details that you do need in a novelette. You may need more, depending on the premise of your book.

▶ Basic details: name, age, nickname(s), physical description, religion, nationality, hobbies/interests.

▶ A time period and location of the story.

▶ Any familial connections and how they feel about each family member.

▶ Personality type in Myers-Briggs (some writers will disagree with me, but it is very helpful with thinking on how a character would react in a given situation - given their other traits, obviously).

▶ One or more flaws (these should be problems with the person themselves, not things that happen externally; ex: pride).

▶ A defining motivation for each action (and you should go back and make sure this is clear when editing).

▶ A "heart's desire" - the most important thing your character wants; what keeps the story moving toward completion.

▶ A character arc - how your character either overcomes their flaw or learns something new by the end of the story.

And to my fellow pantsers....this is still useful to keep in mind! Whether you plot out your drafts or not, you will have to edit in this challenge. Remember this list and use it.

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Tell me what you think....

■ Is there anything else you think should be included on the character sheet?

■ Are you a pantser or a plotter? Something of both? Do you pants' your characters for the first draft or are your arcs all planned out beforehand?