Junior Ellen Hutchinson had her micro-fiction story “Dakota?” published in Young Writers USA’s Twilight Terrors anthology.
“I felt proud and excited,” Ellen said.
“Dakota?” is about the main character and her friend Dakota entering the woods. After encountering a doppelgänger, they both flee.
“After leaving [the woods], the main character looks in front of her and sees a girl that is identical to Dakota, but something’s off [about her],” Ellen said.
“Dakota?” was inspired by the poster Mr. McAndrew, Ellen’s Creative Writing teacher, had on his door for Young Writers USA’s 2025 Fright Club writing contest.
“[The poster had] examples of ideas [for horror stories] like a haunted house [and] a ghost,” Ellen said. “I saw doppelgängers and thought it would be cool [to write a story about them].”
Fright Club story submissions had to be exactly 100 words. Initially, Ellen thought writing “Dakota?” would be easy because of this low word count, but the requirement “added a challenge.”
“It [was] hard to give enough context to the story with only one hundred words,” Ellen said. “I wanted to make sure I added [enough] sensory details so the reader could really picture [the events of the story].”
With Mr. McAndrew’s assistance, Ellen managed to pare down her first draft to 100 words and include all the necessary details and story events in the final submission.
“[Initially], I was struggling to keep the story detailed and keep it [at] one hundred words,” Ellen said. “Mr. McAndrew helped make [the story] clearer by cutting out [the] words I didn’t need.”
A few weeks after submitting the story, Mr. McAndrew received a letter in the mail about it being chosen to be published in the Twilight Terrors anthology.
“I was excited [for] and proud [of Ellen],” Mr. McAndrew said. “I was so happy for her because it was a very good story. It deserved to be published.”
Publishing a micro-fiction story has inspired Ellen to continue writing fiction and “allow [herself] to be creative.”
“[Participating in the contest] inspired me to take chances and try [something new] because you never know what could happen,” Ellen said.
