The only thing harder than writing a long essay, many authors will tell you, is writing short. "But give people harsh restraints," says Katherine Sharpe, 27, "and sometimes it spurs creativity, rather than hampering it." That's the idea behind 400 Words, the new zine she edits that limits its pieces to just what you'd think.
"I don't remember the three times my mom tried to kill herself before I was five. I do remember visiting her in the hospital, and I remember the long drive when dad kidnapped me," one piece in the "Autobiographies" issue begins. Another, in "Compulsions," recites the real-estate listings a man visits week after week--with no intention of ever buying. Not every piece in 400 Words is a gem. Sharpe gets her submissions--hundreds of them, all for no pay--by posting prompts on her blog and the Web site Craigslist, drawing writers and nonwriters alike; collectively, their work is personal, fascinating and distilled to the very core. "I teach writing, and that's exactly the kind of exercise I'd give to students--to say a lot in a small space," says Leah Ryan, a Craigslist-recruited writer from Queens in New York. Can you really say anything meaningful in 400 words? You be the judge: it's this item, doubled.