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Tips on writing a short story



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Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:33 am
AquaMarine says...



Recently on YWS, it’s been seen that short stories are becoming more and more ignored. I don’t know if this is just a YWS thing, or if it’s a national epidemic, but obviously something is putting people off.

Maybe it’s the fact that writing a novel instead of a short story seems so much more interesting, and a lot more glamorous to get published. Or maybe it’s because short stories are seen more as an assignment topic: something you’d do at school rather than spend your free time writing at home.
Whatever the reason, maybe it’s time that people started to write them again.

Short stories are actually great things. Novel writing is something of a gargantuan task, whereas short stories are something that any aspiring writer can craft – although this doesn’t make them any less interesting.

Being able to write a short story is something of an art, as you have to incorporate all of the skills it takes to write a good novel, and then condense them down while still retaining the same emotional and artistic values.

So, before I begin the tutorial, I’ll just define what short story actually means.

In a very, very basic sense, a short story is a piece of prose narrative shorter than a novel.

However, it’s really rather more complicated than that! There are disputes as to what length short stories are. It’s usually agreed that the minimum length for a short story is around 1000 words (any shorter and you’re nearly delving into the realm of flash fiction). But, the maximum length is said to be anything from 7,000 to 9,000 words – so you do have a lot of space to work with! (Although I would recommend keeping the story shorter rather than longer, otherwise you’re just pushing it.)

So, now you know what a short story is, here comes the big question: how do you go about writing one?

•Less is more:
In short stories, you don’t have the time or the space that you have when writing a novel. Short stories are less complex than a novel: they usually have a single plot line, a single setting and only a few characters. You don’t have time to gradually build up a crisis; you don’t have time to introduce characters one by one with paragraphs of description about their clothes, their hair, and their favourite colour. No. When writing a short story, you need to follow a basic structure which will help you to achieve your full story writing potential in as few words as possible.


•Theme:
Usually, short stories have a clear theme or message throughout them. These themes aren’t plot lines, rather the underlying statement behind your words. It is best if you have one, very clear theme or message, rather than trying to cram in multiple themes which become rushed and lose their meaning. The theme, in a way, is the driving point of your story. If you incorporate it in, then the entire thing will become much more interesting and resonate in your reader’s mind.

As an example, I’m going to use one of my own short stories, Noise. The theme of the story is the MC’s hate of silence. Without this theme, the story simply wouldn’t work because it is the governing force that sticks the whole thing together. At the start, my story had two themes, but this meant that neither of them was developed properly. Thanks to reviews, the second theme was cut out and I managed to develop mine properly.


•Decide how the story will be told:

There are the obvious things here such as whether you’re going to tell it from first person or third person, and who the character will be who narrates. But, in addition, you need to make sure that the story is told in a way that, while being concise, encompasses everything the reader will want out of the plot. This is a great way to plan your story.

And now, the basic structure of your story ...

•Starting your story:

When you begin a short story, you don’t want to take up a lot of space with a long, detailed beginning. Some short story writes prefer to start the story in the middle of the action, therefore deleting the typical start you’d expect from a longer piece of prose. In short stories, you need to make sure that you get in enough information about the character(s), setting and plot in the beginning in as least space as possible. A good way to do this is to have one basic setting which you can describe during the story, and only a few characters who can also be introduced throughout.


•The Middle:

Just as with most prose, your short story will need some sort of climax, crisis or turning point. This doesn’t have to be extremely dramatic; perhaps just a realisation moment in which your character changes for the better. Or it can be an actual crisis where they’re thrown into turmoil (this, however, is tricky because it means you need to resolve it somehow, and remember: you don’t have that much space).
The middle of your story is the place when you have the most freedom; you don’t need to rush it. But keep in mind that it still needs to be more pointed that a novel might be: the entire story has been building up to this moment, so you should keep it clear and interesting.


Ending it:

Endings are always important. With a short story, they can be pretty hard to do because you need to resolve the story, yet you don’t have pages and pages of space in which to do so. After the crisis, you need a resolution of the crisis. This is where the theme of your story (especially if it is moral) will probably be clearest. It doesn’t have to be long, though. It all depends on what the middle point of your story is. If the middle point of your story actually resolved a crisis your character has been going through, then you’re free to just wind down the story and end it pretty easily. However, if you’ve thrown your character into a crisis, then you need to be slightly cleverer with how you do this. A way that a lot of short story writers tend to end is abruptly, which leaves you slightly more space to resolve the crisis instead of spending it on a few ending words.

In a nutshell:

- Have a clear theme
- Make every word count
- Keep it focused; don’t meander off in every direction!
- Make it interesting: short stories don’t need to be school work.
- Don’t have too many characters or an overcomplicated plot.

"But ... but ... I still don’t know what to write about!"

For some inspiration, why not try writing prompts? This website gave me a great one involving a spoon and has actually helped me enormously.

Still Confused? Or just want a little more?

Why not check out a wiki-how article, the Wikipedia page on short stories (gives a nice overview), or some good tips from here.

I hope you find this useful.

~Amy
"It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want."

-Spock.


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Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:40 am
Jenthura says...



Woah. O_O

I actually had to check the date twice before I believed it. How could something this good be ignored? Maybe you were right, maybe there is some sort of epidemic.
Whatever, I liked it, and I'm definitely gonna try to use it in my writing.
-ж-Ж-ж-
  





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Thu May 06, 2010 5:09 pm
Lava says...



echoes Jenny.

'S good stuff.
~
Pretending in words was too tentative, too vulnerable, too embarrassing to let anyone know.
- Ian McEwan in Atonement

sachi: influencing others since GOD KNOWS WHEN.

  





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Thu May 13, 2010 2:29 am
Earthfire713 says...



Thank you so much, Aqua! I've been trying to write short stories recently, and this article has been a great help!
  








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