I’ve seen this on two blogs recently, such as James Bow‘s–take a short story and run it through MS Word’s Auto Summary feature.
I’ve taken “Memorial Day,” an entry I wrote for Pocket’s Strange New Worlds VI contest, and condensed its 7500 word length to under a hundred:
“Thanks.”
“Claire Keefe.”
“Jake Sisko.” Claire nodded.
“You were in the War?”
Claire turned and looked. “Chris Bledsoe, my fianc鮦quot;
Claire nodded.
“Admiral Ross.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
Ross nodded. Ross asked. Ross nodded.
“Chris Bledsoe.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“Chris Bledsoe?”
“The Jem’Hadar attacked both ships.”
Chris nodded. Chris ignored me. Chris shrugged. Chris paused again. “Sard’yck was dead.”
Chris’ file indicated that Sard’yck died in the attack on the sensor array.
Chris nodded. Chris shrugged.
“Chris’s story makes a great lead. Chris was a hero. Losing his arm took playing baseball away from him.”
Too brief? I think the other 7400 words do make a difference.