I mean, to be honest... if it starts out as 10x the required length, it's going to be crazy hard to cut down regardless.

It can be done! Here's a few examples.

One of the versions of Little Red-Cap by Brothers Grimm is around 1100 words.

The Elves and the Shoemaker by the same is <800 words.

Rumpelstiltskin - approx 1100.

The Princess and the Pea is only around 400 or less.

Goldilocks is a bit over 1200.

The Fairy is 900.

And many more here at World of Tales - they have a collection of folk tales, fairy tales, etc. from all around the world.

And - perhaps most importantly - I just pulled the Tale of the Three Brothers out of my copy of Deathly Hallows. It's only about 665 words long.

Spoiler: Tale of the Three Brothers

“‘There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight—’”

“‘In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure.

“‘And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.

“‘So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.

“‘Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.

“‘And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.’”

“‘Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death’s gifts.

“‘In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination.

“‘The first brother traveled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.

“‘That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother’s throat.

“‘And so Death took the first brother for his own.

“‘Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him.

“‘Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.

“‘And so Death took the second brother for his own.

“‘But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.’”

 

5 Days Remain.

 

Last Day!

The poll with be in a new thread. I hope to have it up shortly after the entries are posted.

You may vote for your top two choices. You may not change your vote.

You should comment in each thread, but the 200 word minimum is not in effect as these stories are so short. Feedback would still be appreciated though.

Authors are encouraged to vote but NOT for themselves. Do not vote for yourself.

 

Got a ton of entries this time, and they're all up now.

 

I'm working on the poll! We have 13 entries and DLP polls go up to 10, so... stand by

 

Poll is in the first post of this thread.

For a back-up we can also just... give a 'thumbs up' to your top stories.

Hopefully the poll will be good enough, but in the future I'll probably go back to standard voting method. Having more than 10 entries is good but complicated things in an unexpected way.

 

I finished reviewing all of them if anyone cares to read my reviews.

I'm gonna go back and pick my Top Two tonight probably. I shall leave a thumbs up for each then vote in my own poll before checking results. Will def re-simplify voting again for next time.

Thanks again to all who participated!

 

My thinking was that I should double check just to be sure that everyone was within the word count, realized #2 wasn't, then panicked and immediately checked all the other word counts in a rush. Listing them was to show others that they'd been checked, so that no one needed to split hairs about checking themselves before voting.

 

Google Drive works
MS Word works
https://wordcounter.net/ works

I tried all of those for some and another two online ones (in the case of the one that insistently clocked in at 1202) to make sure I was being as fair as possible.

All five places I checked were within <5 words of each other in terms of count. In the future we can specify the three listed as the 'ones to check' before submitting.

 

Don't forget to vote (first post in this thread). Thumbs are secondary measure. Poll is looking good so far - 7 respondents and 7 reviewers.

Seven stories have gotten at least one vote. Three stories are leading the pack. I admit I do somewhat like the anonymous aspect of this.

 

Voting is... interesting. Anyone else planning to review?