Short Stories

I'm not sure if this is a writing tip or not, so feel free to move it.

But I'm wondering about writing short stories - how do you go about one?
Is a short story easier than a novel?
How on EARTH do you build your characters up in such a short amount of time?
How long/short should a short story be?
What constitutes a short story?
How do you build characters up in general?

And although this isn't necessarily for a short story:

Is it possible to write about something you've never experienced? (such as somebody being deaf?)
Is it better to write in first person or third person? I tried writing in third person a few days ago, and was shocked at how difficult I found it.

Any advice appreciated!

Hey there Terpsichore,

Let's take your questions one by one shall we?

1)Is a short story easier than a novel?
It depends. Sometimes it is easier to write, sometimes its harder to write. We'll get to the reasons in a second. Also, it depends on your writing style, and what you are comfortable with.

2)How on EARTH do you build your characters up in such a short amount of time?
You don't. Characters in short stories are most often flat, and have only one side to their personality. Also, there are usually far fewer characters in a short story.

3) How long/short should a short story be?
There is no fixed amount, but usually shorter than 5000 words.

4)What constitutes a short story?
A story shorter than 5000 words.

5)How do you build characters up in general?
There are several ways to do this. Some examples are:
Dialogue -- Show us what they say and how they say it.
Description -- Show us clothes if they reflect on the personality. For example if there is a nose ring, tongue ring, and six earrings in each ear, we will usually get a little of the character's personality.
Reactions -- We judge people based on how they react in compromising positions. Give a few to your character, and show us how he reacts. We'll get to know him a bit better.
Reception -- Show us how other people treat him. What do other people think of him. This helps the reader formulate an opinion of him.

6)Is it possible to write about something you've never experienced? (such as somebody being deaf?)
You can. It's usually much harder, but it can be done. We'll address how to do it in your next question.

7)Is it better to write in first person or third person? I tried writing in third person a few days ago, and was shocked at how difficult I found it.
It depends. In some circumstances, you need to show a close connection with your character to convey his feelings. Sometimes you can do this in the first person. But to write in the first person you have to become your character. See what he sees and nothing more. think what he thinks and nothing more. Third person narration is less personal, so if you're writing about a deaf person, you might find it easier to write about him in the third person. You as the writer need to decide how personal you want to get with your characters.

Hoping this helped.

Hey Terpsichore!

Personally, I revel in writing shorts in English class. They're a lot of fun because you don't have time to get tired of them like you would with a novel. That said, short stories can stretch up to eighty pages...

An English teacher once told me that what makes a good short story is to have one central event rather than lots of little ones leading up to a big one like you might in a novel...

But I'm wondering about writing short stories - how do you go about one?

Like any project, plan it first. On paper. Then write it. Remember, this isn't a novel, so you don't have to have long descriptions or dialogue. There doesn't have to be any "settling" period before you get into the story. You just go straight.

Is a short story easier than a novel?

Probably. It's shorter and simpler, although the discipline is a bit different, I guess.

How on EARTH do you build your characters up in such a short amount of time?

Though you do like to have three dimensional, original characters, I wouldn't say they need to be wuite so built up as those in a novel- since your reader won't be with them for as long a time. Still, I know how it is, you want people to know your character anyway. So:

Take the short story I wrote today and yesterday- it's very short, only about two thousand words long. It has two main characters, Vincent, and Virginia/Lily. Vincent is a vampire, and Virginia/Lily is a werewolf. So how do I develop them?

-Vincent casually goes into a nightclub to look for his prey. He's clearly not too worried about other people.
-he mentions that he doesn't care about his brother, a whiny, self-involved idiot, but he certainly doesn't like the idea of him being turned into a werewolf.
-at the end, he says he tries to prolong his half-life for as long as possible as Virginia/Lily stands over him with a stake.
-he killed her best friend for no other reason than she was in the way at the time.

What does that say about Vincent? While Virginia/Lily:

-when, at first, Vincent begins to dance with her, she doesn't point out who she is or what she is, planning on embarrassing him first.
-she's been married to George, Vincent's younger brother for two hundred years, and bit him when he asked her to.
-she goes to one club every Friday night knowing that one time, she'll find Vincent there and she can revenge her friend who died.
-she takes her clothes off carefully before morphing.

What does that say about her? Do you have two characters formed in your mind? Neither of them are particularly nice, but they're different. This is the sort of thing you use in a short story. You use people's actions to show what sort of person they are. In longer short stories, of course, you have more space in which to do this, so it's not too different from a novel at all.

How long/short should a short story be?

To be annoying: how long is a piece of string? It can be five pages, it can be eighty pages.

What constitutes a short story?

A story that is short. As I said earlier, it's generally based on one event, and a few characters. Take Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter"- that's based on a wife killing her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and the immediate consequences that night. Or take mine (though it's practically blasphemous to mention myself in the same paragraph as Dahl): it's centred around that meeting of Vincent and Virginia/Lily and the immediate consequences, ie. Vincent's death.

As for perspective: it's up to you. I like writing in both first and third, but if first suits you more, use first! Don't worry about it....

I hope I helped, and feel free to drop me a note if you need anything,

-Stella.
How do you build characters up in general?

But I'm wondering about writing short stories - how do you go about one?

I'm a very spontaneous writer, which means I rarely plan what I write. Even then, before I start writing, I have a general idea of what (usually a character) I want to write about. Sorry if that wasn't helpful. XP

Is a short story easier than a novel?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. With novels, you need to make a commitment to writing the whole thing out at least once. With short stories, though, since they're so short, each word carries a lot more weight. Basically, they each have different challenges associate with them, and which of the two is more difficult really depends on you.

In my case, I struggle with writing large quantities of words. As such, short stories tend to be easier for me to write than novels. On the other hand, my sister struggles with not writing lots of words, and so novel-length works are easier for her.

How on EARTH do you build your characters up in such a short amount of time?

How do you build characters up in general?

Go into the story with a clear idea of who your characters are, how they interact with one another, and any aspects of personality that can be physically manifested. For instance, if your character's favorite food is chocolate, have her munch a chocolate bar.

At the same time, though, don't go overboard and stuff the story with description upon description of how the character appears or what exactly they look like when they're doing whatever. Mention only the most noticeable and defining aspects of your character instead, and scatter this info throughout the story.

How you write about the character, namely word choice, also has a huge impact on their characterization. "She dithered, hemmed, and hawed" has a very different feel to it than "she hesitated, mumbled, and muttered" even though they essentially mean the same thing.

How long/short should a short story be?

As long or short as it needs to be. For instance, I can write a completely self-contained short story in under 300 words. Most people need at least 500, if not more. For the purposes of the internet, 2000-3000 words is generally a good length for a short story. It isn't so long that it's difficult to read on-screen, and it's long enough that it takes some time to read. Still, as I said before, it really depends upon the story.

What constitutes a short story?

What a short story is, exactly, varies from source to source. Basically, anything not a poem, not a novel, and not a novella is considered a short story.

I would say a pretty good benchmark is that anything under 10,000 words qualifies as a short story.

Is it possible to write about something you've never experienced? (such as somebody being deaf?)

Yup. How else could Fantasy and Historical Fiction exist? :P

Basically, so long as you do your research and have a vivid imagination, you should be able to competently write about almost anything. Even if what you're writing about can't be directly researched (such as the experience of flying on a dragon), looking up things similar to that experience (like hang gliding) is extremely useful.

Is it better to write in first person or third person? I tried writing in third person a few days ago, and was shocked at how difficult I found it.

Whichever works best for the story. I tend to shift between the two PoVs quite often.

On the one hand, first-person is a great way to give your readers an in-depth look at the characters. On the other hand, describing action in first-person is a downright pain and is rarely enjoyable to read. Also, first-person is inherently limiting, and you can only write about what the character sees, does, and knows.

They each balance out the limitations of the other, and neither one of them is "better" per se. Third-person is generally preferred because first-person written badly is very hard to ignore, and most people find it more difficult to write first-person well.

Hello! I'm Colt, let me specifically go into detail about characters.

Step 1: Learn Your Characters
Learn everything about your characters. I mean everything. Even if you think you'll never even need it, learn it. The more you learn the more interesting you can make your character, the better reactions to other characters, dialogue, actions, etc.

Ask your character their favorites. Movie? Book? Game?

Birthday?

Appearance? Anything special about their appearance (scars, birthmarks, etc.)

Family? Children? Girlfriend or boyfriend? Fiancee? Wife or husband?

That's only a start; you could go on forever with this.

Step 2: Be Your Characters
Know your characters. Let them live inside your mind. Feed them, give them a life. Think what they think about, have conversations they would.

"To be or not to be, that is the question."
-Shakespeare.

Step 3: Write, write, write
Write your story or novel, this will help you, of course. Eventually, you character research will tell you how to write you story.

Step 4: Check for cliches
Make sure you don't have cliche characters. Stereotypes are okay in moderation, but don't stereotype everyone.

I suggest thinking over books and stories you've previously read for cliches. You can also

Step 5: The End
Sadly, all characters eventually come to an end; the story or novel must end sometime. Don't forget your characters if you plan for a sequel or even a prequel. You don't need to really remember them if you aren't writing anything to go along with your story or writing.

There you go! A detailed, step-by-step method of making characters.

Is a short story easier than a novel?

Maybe, maybe not. I find them easier to write because I've written heaps more of them, and because I find it easier to keep my energy and interest going until I'm done. I know some people who absolutely loathe writing them, or who write novels better. It's really a matter of personal preference and practice.

How on EARTH do you build your characters up in such a short amount of time?

One of the things that might make it easier to write a short story is that you don't necessarily need to have a rock-solid character. It definitely strengthens the impact of your story if your character is three-dimensional, but not completely imperative. It is a lot easier getting away with short stories that aren't character-driven. A lot of short stories are written to explore an idea or an atmosphere or to capture a mood. Again, your story is all the stronger with a well-built character, but I've certainly seen plenty of strong short stories that work without them.

Having said that, know your characters really well but also know what is pertinent to the story, and what you can add or subtract for effect. The thing about a short story is that we're not spending as much time with your character, so we're likely not finding out as much information about them. You really have to select the details of their lives that are as revealing as possible. So we might not find out about their love for skiing, but we might know the minute details of their morning routine, and the fact that this morning routine does not and has not changed in the past seven years. Because that shows us that they're weirdly obsessive, that they adore routine, that they might be afraid of change. (Depending on your story, you still might want to include the skiing bit, because it's a weird contrast to the routine thing.)

It isn't easy developing character in a short story (in fact, that's definitely what novels are awesome for) but it's also not impossible.

I think other people have answered the length questions pretty well (although I will say that once you start getting into the 10K length and higher, you're hitting novella territory). In terms of how you go about writing a short story: the same way you go about writing anything. Read lots of short stories, especially ones that are highly praised. If for no other reason, you can see why people like it, what they're doing well, what they're not doing well, and what people want out of a short story. There are heaps and heaps of short story anthologies — Ray Bradbury is one of my favourite short story writers and his stories vary completely in topic, genre, and sometimes style. O. Henry or Ernest Hemingway are other good places to start.

And finally, re: writing something you've never experienced — it's possible but it really helps to have tons of research on the topic. First-person accounts are invaluable. It also helps to tap into similar experiences that you've had that parallel your characters' experiences — for deafness, it might be the experience of having lost something you loved, or of being completely out of your comfort zone, or even losing your hearing for a little while. But research your stuff. Seriously.