If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I love to enter kidlit writing contests. They’re a great way to hone your craft, learn revision skills, and create a narrative arc with a very limited number of words. Plus, you get a chance to engage with the wonderful kidlit community. It’s a win-win.

I entered Vivian Kirkfield’s 50 Precious Words Contest last year for the first time, and won an amazing career consultation Zoom with Independent YA & Children’s Book Editor Julie Scheina.

This year’s entry is a small part of a scene from an unpublished MG contemporary story I’ve been revising. I worked to craft a story contained in these fifty short words to attempt a beginning, middle and end to this young girl’s moment of searching for something familiar in such a foreign place.

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

The Comforting Constellation

(50 words)

I fly into darkness,

flopping onto damp grass;

ignoring my foster mother’s calls.

If I can find our stars,

it will slow my heart, dull the aching.

I see them,

emerging from mist,

twinkling so brightly

they must know I need them.

I feel Mama beside me.

“Thanks,” I whisper.

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Thanks for stopping by! If you’d like to see the entry that won a prize last year, you can read it here.