The Catch

(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)

He had never believed one bite could be his doom.

He had always thought he could never be caught.

But he hadn’t counted on such alluring bait.

Just one little bite set it off.

He thrashed with all his might.

The pulling was too strong.

A painful tug followed.

His mouth hurt.

Too late.

Hooked.


This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!

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