Tell the Story

I need to finish my story, so Hiccup can tell his.

For week 2 of 26 Paychecks, I have to write a “300 to 500 word piece about a writing project that you have been working on, but aren't pushing through to completion.”

Okay, so I write a lot of fanfiction for How to Train Your Dragon, or HTTYD. Of my stories, one called The Full, True Tale—TFFT—is collecting dust in my folder.

The earliest iteration of TFFT dates from May of 2020, and the most recent version from September 2023. The other fifteen fall in between. The word counts are between 2909 and 4425. The word count is 3,000 to 4,000.

Here’s the synopsis: fifteen year-old Hiccup, once the despair of his tribe and father, has committed an act of epic heroism. His father, Stoick, has an idealized idea of the events that led up to Hiccup’s heroism. Stoick insists Hiccup recount the idealized version of the story to every new audience. Hiccup becomes fed up, and one night tells the real story.

TFFT is set in a large eating hall at mealtime. Hiccup is telling a story, and there is a lot of dialogue. The other tribe members are part of the setting, and needed as listeners. There are seven characters, six humans and one dragon. Four of the people are adults, and two are teenagers. The seventh character is Hiccup’s dragon.

I already need to rewrite this to eliminate an unnecessary character. I’ll still have seven characters in a story of 3,000 to 4,000 words, but I cannot find a way to subtract more without losing the story entirely. I’ve attempted to change the setting, but it eliminates the mood of the story.

Much of the story is dialogue, and I need to make sure I don’t neglect other elements like setting. I had a friend comment on my description of Hiccup and Stoick. Physically, they are polar opposites. Stoick is 7’2”, weighs at least 450 pounds, and is unusually strong. Hiccup is 5’2”, scrawny, and has no muscles. I’m unsure how to work this in. I tried describing Hiccup as two feet shorter and 1/3 as wide as his father. The disparity in size is shown in the visitor’s search for a boy who looks like Stoick and his shock at the difference between the two. Any help with writing this disparity will help. I also don’t know how thoroughly to describe my original characters. I did mention the male guest had several characteristics, and compared him to a known HTTYD character. I don’t like list descriptions, and describing my female character is hard. Tips on this and setting are appreciated.