Cracked me up

Here's a new kind of writing prompt: - one-minute versions of the classics, or more precisely, a one-minute lampooning of the classics.

Jane Eyre

By Charlotte Bronte
Ultra-Condensed by Samuel Stoddard

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(People are MEAN to Jane Eyre.)

Edward Rochester: I have a dark secret. Will you stay with me no matter what?

Jane Eyre: Yes.

Edward Rochester: My secret is that I have a lunatic wife.

Jane Eyre: Bye.

(Jane Eyre leaves. Somebody dies. Jane Eyre returns.)

THE END

Writing Exercise

Try one of the following:

• You are probably familiar with the classic book or the movie about Jane Eyre.  You may know it was against her principles to go live with Rochester once she found out he was married. But what if this one-minute summary was your first introduction to the character?   What would you think of her? What other motives could she have for leaving Rochester?
• Can you condense your work in progress to a one minute summary like this? Whether it is funny or not, seeing the story so condensed is interesting.
• Take a one minute summary and change a key plot development. How does that affect the ending? For instance, what if Rochester had had a different secret?  Here is the link the main directory of  Book-A-Minute Classics.  (If you click on the home button you will see there is also a section for science fiction books and movies.)
• How would this basic story be different if it were written today?
• The story could be written as historical fiction, but what if it was set in modern times in an inner city? What changes would you make?
• How would the story be structured differently today? This one-minute plot summary does not cover the whole book.  The earlier section of the book includes Jane growing up with relatives in an abusive home and her time at a charity private school.  Would you start with the romance and pull in the past as flashback or exposition?
• Would you change the characters in any way?