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My sci-fi short went from 2800 words of garbage to a tight 900 after one dumb trick, and now I can't tell if I cheated
Back in January I got a prompt about a robot that learns to lie, and I banged out 2800 words in 2 nights. It was all setup, no payoff. Then I tried a trick from a lit mag I read in a waiting room: write the whole thing as a single 500 word scene, no backstory allowed. First try took 40 minutes. The story got picked up by a small zine in March.
Now here's my hangup. Half the folks in my writer group say that's just how you learn to cut fat. The other half say I skipped the hard part and my voice got thinner.
So which is it, does forcing a tight word count actually make you a better writer or just a lazier one? Curious what you all think since I've got 6 more prompts sitting in a folder.
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