May 1, 2006
200 Words About 200 Words

I didn't invent the idea.

My college writing teacher used to assign it to us as a creative exercise every semester: one hundred written words, no more and no less, on any topic.  I hated it, of course. I wanted to submit 48,376,890-word essays on heartache and butterflies, every single day.  But the exercise taught me about creative control and economy of expression  …  lessons I still use in my day-to-day writing.

(Or at least I try.)

Then a couple of years ago I discovered this. It immediately became a favorite place to go and recharge the creative batteries, whenever I was feeling stalled.  I still go there at least once a year and practice the 100 word exercise for a few days, and it leaves me feeling streamlined and motivated and artistically invigorated.
 
So  …   that's what we're going to do here on *FootNotes* for the next little while.  I’m upping the allowed word-count to two hundred  1.) Because I can, and 2.) Because it makes for a more cohesive journal entry.  But otherwise the rules remain the same: two hundred words per day  ...  no more and no less.

And absolutely NO essays on heartache or butterflies allowed.

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