Writing Personal Narratives

Jane Austen likened her writing to etching on a tiny piece of ivory, three inches wide. It was fine work, but small and precise.

This is how I'm trying to think of the Personal Narratives. We have 1300 characters (including spaces) to tell a story based on our experiences and answer questions about those experiences. It's not a lot of room to get the job done. There is no room for excess information and detail, and the need to answer those questions is dire. They're not Yes/No questions. Explain. Detail. Describe the steps. That sounds straightforward, but given the character limit, it's simply much more challenging. How much is too much? How little is too little?

I wrote the first of my narratives yesterday. It took me a couple of hours, but I think it's moving in the right direction. I'm going to work on more today. How can so few words take so much time? Well, it's the thought behind it. I write out my first pass. I think about it. Edit, rewrite, revision. I look at the questions. I look at what I wrote. I look at the guidelines on the DoS site. I look at what I wrote. I rewrite. I edit. I think.

It's a fine bit of ivory. I don't want to scratch it.