Writing Challenge

I believe in defining moments; the moment in your life when you make a decision that comes to define you.  One of those defining moments in my life came when I was eighteen.  A friend came to visit in the middle of the night and told me my mother had been killed by a drunk driver.  I had a terrible relationship with my father, who was also in the accident, but decided to stick it out and help him recover.

When you write a novel there are a lot of defining moments in the back story of the characters.  Many of these are things only the author knows.  Why, is this character surely? What made another so concerned about their family?  You can't include all the back story in a novel, not even if you're Tolstoy.   

The other day a member of my critique group put forth a challenge to write a complete story in 800 words or less.  I'm going to alter that challenge a little.  Try writing the defining moment of one of your characters as a complete story of 800 words or less.  By complete story I mean you must frame the conflict, then show how the main character resolves the conflict, and it still needs to elicit the emotion of the events.

I think it will be an interesting writing exercise. I will post my attempt on this blog when I am finished.