Young Writers Society

I have to write a short story based on a poem (around 800 word) for a school assignment. Any tips on short stories? Fictional/romance? Anything which would help me?

This might help.

The basics of a short story is to pick one thing that the whole story is going to focus on and make everything focus on that thing. You often don't have room to have a sprawling story, especially at 800 words.

Honestly, it depends on the poem you choose off of. If you could give a poem, I could help

Decide what you want to write about. Think about different things that could happen. If you're really stuck, write stuff like: I'm bored. Why am I doing this etc. Junk like that, until you're brain produces ideas. That's what I would do.

I know this post is months old but I feel I have some good advice for this type of situation because I've done the exact same thing to what I consider to be great effect. a few years ago I wrote this story based on this poem by Charles Bukowski. the best way to summarize the process of creating this story is to use a situation which most people are familiar with. as a kid, when I found a book or a movie I really enjoyed I would return to it over and over, imagining in my head how I would tell the same story if it were my own. that's essentially what I did with Happy Hollow.

writing this story was a two pronged approach:

first I took the most visceral images from the poem (the creature, the blood, the soil) and imagined a new context for them.

second: I examined the speaker's voice and tried to emulate it as best I could, albeit as a new character with whom I felt more familiar with.

the result was a prose story with a poesy atmosphere of voice and imagery. but keep in mind, the only reason I was able to do this was because I had found a poem which really spoke to me on a personal level. for your story you need to find a poem that makes you say, "wow, I wish I had written that!" and then basically rewrite it as your own.