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Q&A Shortening an already short story [closed]

I am new to this group but not new to writing in many forms... I have a great story that flows from my fingers -- got it to about 1500 words - but it must be 1000 for a competition. This has take...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by DebraR‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:12:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/40229
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar DebraR‭ · 2019-12-08T10:12:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
I am new to this group but not new to writing in many forms...

I have a great story that flows from my fingers -- got it to about 1500 words - but it must be 1000 for a competition. This has taken me more hours editing than I can count - and I am not there yet. (There is a specific chord I need to hit to cause conflict for the reader - perhaps I am obsessing).

Now, I am wondering if the difficulty in reaching the word limit is due to my ego getting in the way or is a typical struggle, given the circumstance.

I swear I am taking ego out of it (I look at all I am writing and take out all extra I can find) - and yet I cannot condense... Is this something that happens for short story? How do you approach such a challenge?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-11-19T02:36:17Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 2