Objective
Students will write concise, impactful personal narratives in exactly 100 words, honing skills in precise language, emotional resonance, and narrative focus.
Can you tell a meaningful and interesting true story from your life in just 100 words? That’s the challenge we pose to teenagers with our 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest, a storytelling form popularized by Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories series.
After running this contest for two years, receiving a total of more than 25,000 entries, and honoring dozens of excellent miniature teen-written memoirs, we have discovered the answer is a resounding yes. So, we challenge you to try it yourself. The New York Times
Introduction
Overview of Tiny Memoirs:
- Explain the concept of tiny memoirs and their significance in modern storytelling.
- Share the New York Times Tiny Memoir Contest’s concept. Emphasize the power of brevity and the challenge of distilling personal stories into 100 words.
- Read a standout example to demonstrate how impactful these memoirs can be.
Mini-Lesson
- Discuss key elements of effective memoir writing:
- Vivid sensory details
- Strong emotions
- Precise language
- Clear focus on a single moment or experience
Guided Practice
- Read and analyze sample 100-word memoirs from previous contests.
- Identify techniques used by successful entries.
Helpful resources:
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The winners of our 2022 and 2023 100-word narrative contest: Read these 28 teen-written memoirs on difficult friendships, first loves, embarrassing moments, and much more.
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A step-by-step guide for writing a 100-word narrative: This guide walks you through six steps, from reading examples of tiny memoirs, to brainstorming your own meaningful life moments, to writing and editing your final piece.
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Writing prompts: Our step-by-step guide has a related PDF full of prompts to help students brainstorm “meaningful moments” from their lives. If those aren’t enough, you can find many more questions to inspire you in our updated list of over 600 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing, our list of 125 Picture Prompts for Creative and Narrative Writing, and in our Writing Prompts column.
Brainstorming
- Students list potential memoir topics from their own lives.
- Encourage focus on small, meaningful moments rather than major life events.
Writing Time
- Students draft their 100-word memoirs.
- Remind them to count words carefully and edit for precision.
Peer Review
- In pairs, students read and provide feedback on each other’s memoirs.
- Focus on impact, clarity, and adherence to the 100-word limit.
Wrap-up
- Discuss the challenges and benefits of writing concisely.
- Encourage students to refine their memoirs and consider submitting to the contest.
Homework: Finalize 100-word memoir for potential contest submission.
The Rules
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Your tiny memoir should be a short, powerful, true story about a meaningful experience from your own life.
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It must be 100 words or fewer, not including the title.
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You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate, and all students must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.
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The work should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, written by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.
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Your piece should also be original for this contest, meaning, it should not have been published anywhere else at the time of submission, such as in a school newspaper.
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Keep your audience in mind. You’re writing for a family newspaper, so, for example, no curse words, please.
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Only one entry per student is allowed. And while many of our contests allow students to work in teams, for this one you must work alone.
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As part of your submission, you must also submit an “artist’s statement” that describes your process. These statements, which will not be used to choose finalists, help us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. below to learn more.
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All entries must be submitted by Dec. 4, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific using the submission form at the bottom of this post.