One story four ways: from 900 words down to just 100

The writing challenge was to write the same story four times, with increasingly fewer words. Read the original post that explains the background here. 

My four stories are below: --

• Read from the top down to 'reduce' the story with each reading 
• Read from the bottom up to 'grow' the story with each reading
• Note that each version has a different title that signals the content

900 words

A TELLING TALE: Spidey senses, ducks, and big changes

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Once upon a time there was a woman who thought she just needed to try harder and do more in order to succeed in the workplace where she had landed eleven years earlier. It had been a good run, but she was growing bored and she wanted more. More seniority, more responsibility, more respect. More money would have been nice, but money was not the driver.

By this point, she had an office with a door though no window. She liked the door for what it gave her — a closed and quiet space in which to do her work: almost worthy of the quality she produced. Though the lack of window really said it all; the very important and genuinely valued senior ‘players’ had not only doors but also windows. Oh well.

In what turned out to be her final year of employment in that setting, the laying off in January of one hundred employees told the tale of change coming. Never before had so many people lost their jobs in this company, but this woman was part of it — not the losing her job part, but the planning it and the communicating about it.

It was big. It was challenging. It was heartbreaking.

Seeing her colleagues called into an office, not knowing why, then coming out clutching a large white envelope, a stunned look on their face, wandering back to their desk and then out the front door, holding a box with what they could take home.

That was hard to witness.

And it made this woman realize that no one was safe. Those colleagues hadn’t been safe and she wasn’t safe either. So she quietly began to gather her ducks and line them up in an orderly row.

First up, stock options. A nice way to have been recognized for work well done, but now it was time to figure out when to sell them. That day came late in February. Step one of taking charge of her future executed.

Next up, get serious about finding a master’s program that would enhance her educational credentials and put her in a better position for her next promotion up the corporate ladder. When the woman landed on Royal Roads University, it seemed perfect — a university on the west coast with hybrid programs designed especially for mid-career professionals. This woman fit that bill.

Preparing the application was a good process of reflection and refinement. Update the resume, describe professional strengths, craft a vision for learning, write the personal statement, put it all together and upload it. Done. Then wait.

By this stage, the woman knew she needed to get the ok from her boss, as the program would require an absence of three weeks in October for the first on-site residency. Royal Roads was an innovator in online education, bolstered by on-site learning at the beginning of each of the two years of the master’s program.

The woman was courageous with, though not confident about, her request. It was met with silence from the big boss. When, eventually, he was persuaded to talk to her, he was non-committal. The woman’s spidey senses woke up. She realized that her in-tray was no longer overflowing; her calendar held only sparse entries; and she was no longer being called in to meetings to work with the executive. Her spidey senses were now on high alert. Change had happened suddenly for her 100 colleagues in January, and she knew that she, herself, was not immune to similar change. When she was called to meet the vice-president in his office on Friday, October 1st, she had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen.

When she walked into the office and saw not only the VP there but also the HR woman, she knew her spidey senses had been accurate, and she was grateful to have prepared herself mentally if not emotionally. (Anger simmered for a long time.)

When she walked out of the building’s front door with her own white envelope and box of items to take home, she could not possibly have known that, years later, she would bump into a student in the airport who thanked her for the knowledge she had imparted to him that had helped set him up for a successful career.

No. On that Friday morning, she simply walked out, shocked though not surprised, went home and figured out her next step. Though the corporate ladder had been pulled out from under her, she would stand tall and firm.

First up, sort out the termination agreement and the financial payout. Second, confirm her trip out west to attend the first residency in her master’s program. Third, tell everyone in her network that she was available for new opportunities. The future was open, wide open. It was exciting and terrifying.

The residency on campus was the perfect ramp off her former life and into her new life. She would be a grad student and she would find contract writing and editing work. That would be something before the next bigger something else.

Two years passed and she put not only food but also wine on the family’s table with her contract work. When her friend Lawrence suggested she apply for a fill-in summer teaching contract, she demurred, but then, with his persistent encouragement, submitted her application.

And that is how the woman found herself in a college classroom.

500 words

A TELLING TALE: From corporate office to classroom

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Once upon a time there was a woman who wanted more from the workplace where she had worked for eleven years. But one day, she was called to the vice-president’s office and saw not only the VP but also the HR woman, and she realized what was about to happen: She had been witness to layoffs, though had never before been victim herself.

When she walked out of the building for the last time, she could not foretell that her future would include satisfying self-employment, interesting circles of new colleagues, and the creative work of teaching. None of that was in her mind. Instead, she focused on getting ready to head to Victoria, BC to attend the first residency in her new master’s program — the next step she had organized for herself without active support from her employer, but which she knew was vital to her continued sense of self and satisfaction as a working woman in mid-life. Before leaving town, she communicated with everyone in her network to tell them she was available for new opportunities. While some might view her glass as half-full, she chose to approach the future as filled with potential. This doesn’t mean she wasn’t terrified; she was, but she was also excited.

Her masters studies in applied communication were invigorating and challenging. She met new people, learned new things, and discovered that being a student in mid-life was vastly different than being at university in her early twenties, because she not only had to study, she also had to earn her living. She became a ‘single shingle’ one-woman business offering writing and editing services on a contract basis. While she never enjoyed the networking required to find new clients, she did learn how to do it effectively and, over the two years of her studies, she put not only food but also wine on the family’s table through her work.

When a friend encouraged her to apply for a summer teaching contract at the local college, she was surprised and delighted to be hired on the spot by the department chair interviewing her. Though she had no formal training or experience as a teacher, he said her resume proved she had the knowledge to teach communication to engineering students. She negotiated a wage at the mid-point of the salary scale, thanks to the savviness she had learned in her corporate job, and then jumped in with both feet. When she observed a new colleague in his classroom, she realized that she could do what he did — only better. He seemed to look down on the students and she knew that was poor practice. Even if her knowledge far exceeded theirs, that did not make her superior to them; it merely made her more knowledgeable. This attitude served her well in the years to come.

One contract led to another, and one day she landed a full-time position, so she gave up the contract work to focus on teaching college students communication theory and skills.

250 words

A TELLING TALE: Three lessons learned from hard work experiences 

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Once upon a time there was a woman who reinvented herself several times over the course of her career — not always by choice, but always with personal and professional growth as a result.

In September 1989, she found a job in communications at CompanyA, then moved to CompanyB, and then to CompanyC (under new ownership it was renamed CompanyN), and from there to the local college via a couple of years of freelance writing and editing. When she retired in 2021, she felt satisfied with the career path she had forged for herself out of core skills, academic credentials, and industry and life experience.

The two most character-building work-related incidents were (1) being let go after 11 years from CompanyN (her job was moved to TheBigCity, but she wasn’t moved with it) and (2) being ignored by the pre-employment welding students in her first term of teaching (they could not have cared less about her lesson that day). Both incidents threw her back onto her own resources and resourcefulness. How to survive?

Lesson One: Don’t feel ashamed. Talk about the situation with colleagues and friends: NETWORK! It takes a village to help you succeed in the work world. 

Lesson Two: Feel sorry for yourself for no more than six minutes. Then, get back into the metaphorical saddle. Nobody pays you for being down.

Lesson Three: Life lessons come in unexpected ways, so learn what you need to. Then succeed more and better in the next stage of your career. 

100 words

A TELLING TALE: Teaching as creative work brings big reward 

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Once upon a time there was a woman whose career took a winding path towards the classroom — a place she hadn’t known would fit her like a glove. One day, a former student stopped her in the airport to tell her that what he had learned from her had helped him build a good career. That small moment was big reward for all her struggles to connect with students and it was like a blessing of teaching as creative work that can change a life. Today, she continues on this path, now focused on creative writing as tool for transformation. 

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Ducks photo by Stephanie Klepacki on Unsplash

Writing photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash