The Shiny Dime Challenge

A Shiny Dime is a specific and surprising idea. It's the singular focus of a piece of writing. And it's a concept that will help you capture attention in a crowded world.

Hey writers,

You’ve officially learned all three types of Shiny Dimes: one-liners, coined phrases, and stories. Congrats! Now, for the final three weeks of the challenge, we’ll zoom in and cover the Advanced Tactics of the Shiny Dime. (Translation: you will soon become a Shiny Dime sensei.) Today, we’re kicking it off with how to revise your work using your Shiny Dime. 

Drown Your Kittens

“Kill your darlings.” “Bury your idols.” “Trim the fat.” “Throw the baby out with the bathwater” — wait, wrong idiom. Don’t do that last one.

At Write of Passage, we like to say “drown your kittens” to mean “cut what doesn’t serve your Shiny Dime.” This advice is (surprise!) not advising pet-icide. It’s about writing with objectivity.

Sometimes, writers are too close to a piece to see it for what it truly is. We get emotionally attached to our work, making it difficult to self-edit and cut ideas when necessary. If we wrote it, we feel the need to keep it. By trying to save those “kittens,” we lose the essence of what we’re trying to say (i.e., your Shiny Dime). 

As much as we love them, our kittens can be the very things holding us back. But don’t worry — that’s where your Shiny Dime comes in. Your Shiny Dime shows you exactly which kittens to drown.

See, your Shiny Dime is the central idea of your essay. So, why not ensure that every paragraph, every sentence even, relates back to your central idea?

"If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out." – Kurt Vonnegut

Once you know what you’re going to write about — say, an inevitable crypto boom of unimaginable magnitude — it’s time to build context and flesh out your argument (disclaimer: this sentence is satirical and not investment advice). Most likely, you’ll bring in supporting facts and data, or reference supporting stories and quotes. Key word: supporting. Every nugget of information should support your Shiny Dime. This will help you avoid tangents and keep your reader engaged. 

Think of your Shiny Dime like a golden thread that guides your readers throughout the maze of your essay. With every sentence, your reader has a strong grasp on that thread because every story, every fact, every word hangs on it. 

This is true for the writing process, as well. If you find yourself continuously losing the thread, it’s probably a signal that you’re trying to say too much. For instance, maybe you find yourself trying to cram three different stories in one article. More than likely, those three different stories could be three separate articles. And that’s a good thing! Now you know: you’re bursting with ideas, and you have a line of ideas in the queue just waiting to be shared. The last thing you want to do is confuse your reader. And the easiest way to do that is to tell three stories in one piece.

So, step back and reevaluate: Does this story, quote, or fact support my Shiny Dime, or does it belong in a different piece? 

In this way, you can use your Shiny Dime as a razor for revising your work. Doing so will help you cut unnecessary context, drown your kittens, and keep your central idea in the spotlight — exactly where it should be.

Today, head into Circle to read your peers’ Shiny Dimes from last week. You’ll receive your new writing prompt and access to this week’s Circle space on Wednesday. 

To drowning your kittens,

The Write of Passage Team