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How to Write a Short StoryThree Parts: Sample Short Stories
Writing a Short Story Editing a Short Story
For many writers, the short story is the perfect medium. While
writing a novelcan be a Herculean task, just about anybody can
craftand, most importantly,finisha short story. That does not mean
that short stories are easy to write orthat they aren't as artistic
and valuable as novels. With practice, patience, andimagination,
you could be the next best-selling author.
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Sample Short HorrorStory
Sample Short LiteraryStory
Sample Short LoveStory
1 Collect ideas for your story. Inspiration can strike at any
time, so carry a notepadwith you wherever you go so that you can
write down story ideas as they come toyou.
Most of the time, youll just think of small snippets of
information (acatastrophic event around which you can build a plot,
a characters name orappearance, etc.), but you will sometimes get
lucky and a whole story will revealitself to you in a couple of
minutes.If you have trouble finding inspiration or if you need to
write a story in a hurry(for, as an example, a class), learn how to
brainstorm. If you can't come up withany ideas, you might have to
look to family and friends for inspiration.Experience usually helps
to build good plots. Many of Isaac Asimov's mysteriescame from
experience of certain incidents.
Sample Short Stories
Part 1 of 2: Writing a Short Story
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Begin with the basics of a short story. After you've chosen an
idea, you need toremember the basics of a short story before
writing one. The steps to a good short
story are:
Introduction: introduce characters, setting, time, weather,
etc.Initiating action: the point of a story that starts the rising
action.Rising action: events leading up to the climax or turning
point.Climax: the most intense point or turning point of the
story.Falling action: your story begins to conclude.Resolution: a
satisfying ending to the story in which the central conflict
isresolvedor not! You don't have to write your short story in
order. If you have anidea for a great conclusion, write it down.
Move backward or forward from yourstarting idea (it may or may not
be the beginning of the story) and ask yourselfquestions. What
happened before this? What happens next?
Find inspiration from real people. If you have trouble
understanding or findingattributes of a character, turn to your
life. You can easily borrow attributes of
people you know or even strangers you notice.
For example, you might notice that someone is always drinking
coffee, talks in aloud, booming voice, is always typing away at the
computer, etc. All of theseobservations would together make a very
interesting character. Your charactercan even blend attributes of a
number of people.
Know your characters. For a story to be believable, the
characters have to feelgenuine and realistic. It can be a difficult
task to create interesting and realistic
characters. But here are a few strategies to create "real
people" to populate your story:
Write a list, titled with the character's name, and write all
the attributes you canthink of, from their position in the
orchestra to their favorite color, from theircentral motivations to
their favorite foods. Do they talk with an accent? Do theyhave any
quirky mannerisms? You wont include all this information in
yourstory, but the more you know, the more your characters will
come to life, bothfor you and for the reader.Make sure your
characters' personalities are not perfect. Every character needsto
have some flaws, some problems, some imperfections and
someinsecurities. You might assume that people wouldn't like to
read about acharacter with a lot of flaws, but that couldn't be
farther from the truth. Batmanwouldn't be The Dark Knight if he
weren't a borderline sociopath!People can relate to characters with
problems, as that's realistic. When trying tocome up with flaws,
you don't need to give your character some huge, bizarreissue
(although you definitely can). For most characters, try to stick
with thingsyou know about. For example, the character could have
anger issues, be afraidof water, be lonely, dislike being around
other people, smoke too much, etc. Anyor all of these could be
developed further.
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Limit the breadth of your story. A novel can occur over millions
of years andinclude a multitude of subplots, a variety of
locations, and an army of supporting
characters. The main events of a short story should occur in a
relatively short period oftime (days or even minutes), and you
typically wont be able to develop effectively morethan one plot,
two or three main characters, and one setting. If your story has
muchmore breadth, it probably needs to be a novella or novel.
Decide who will tell the story. There are three main points of
view from which totell a story: first-person (I), second-person
(you), and third-person (he or
she). In a first-person story, a character in the story tells
the story; in the second-person the reader is made a character in
the story; and in the third-person, an outsidenarrator tells the
story. (Second-person narration is rarely used.)
Keep in mind that first-person narrators can only tell what they
know (which willbe limited to what they see firsthand or are told
by others), while third-personnarrators can either know everything
and explore every characters thoughts(third-person omniscient) or
be limited to only that which can be observed byone character
(third-person limited).You can also mix and match. For example, you
could switch between a first-person narrative in one chapter, and
third-person in another, or even have morethan one first-person
point of view. An excellent example of this is the shortstory
"Rashmon", by Akutagawa Rynosuke[1]. This was later turned into
amovie of the same name by Akira Kurosawa.
Organize your thoughts. After you've prepared the basic elements
of your story, itcan be helpful to make some sort of time-line to
help you decide what should
happen when.
Your story should consist at least of an introduction,
initiating incident, risingaction, climax, falling action, and
resolution. You can draw or write a visual withvery simple
descriptions of what should happen in each of these stages.
Havingthis done will help you keep focused when writing the story,
and you can easilymake changes to it, so that you are able to keep
a steady flow as you write thefull story.
Start writing. Depending on how thoroughly you've sketched out
your plot andcharacters, the actual writing process may simply be
one of choosing the right
words.
Generally, however, writing is arduous. You probably wont know
yourcharacters and plot as well as you thought, but it doesn't
matterin a sense,they will tell you what they need, even if you
paint them into a corner. Plus,there's always the second draft!
Come out swinging. The first pagesome would say the first
sentenceof anywriting should grab the readers attention and leave
him/her wanting more.
A quick start is especially important in short stories because
you dont havemuch room to tell your story. Dont dillydally with
long introductions of thecharacters or uninteresting descriptions
of the setting: get right into the plot,
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and reveal details about the characters and setting
piece-by-piece as you goalong.
Keep writing. Youre almost certain to hit some bumps in the road
to finishingyour story. You've got to work through them, though.
Set aside a time to write
each and every day, and make it a goal to finish, say, a page
each day. Even if you end upthrowing away what you wrote on that
day, you've been writing and thinking about thestory, and that will
keep you going in the long run.
Consider participating in writing groups or activities. One very
good activity forwriters of all kinds is "National Novel Writing
Month," or NaNoWriMo.[2] Everyyear, from November 1 through
November 30th, you are tasked with writing anovel of at least
50,000 words. Brilliance and quality are off the tablethe goalis
the act of writing. Check out the reference link for more
information.
Let the story write itself. As you develop your story, you may
want to turn yourplot in a different direction than you had
planned, or you may want to
substantially change or remove a character. Listen to your
characters if they tell you todo something different, and dont
worry about scrapping your plans altogether if you canmake a better
story as you go.
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Revise and edit. When you've finished the story, go back through
it and correct anymechanical mistakes, as well as logical and
semantic errors. In general, make sure
the story flows and the characters and their problems are
introduced and resolvedappropriately.
If you have time, put the completed story down for a few days or
weeks beforeediting. Distancing yourself from the story in this way
will help you see it moreclearly when you pick it back up.
Get some second opinions. Send your revised and edited story off
to a trustedfriend or relative for revisions, edits, and
suggestions. Let your reviewers know that
you want to hear their real opinions of the story. Give them
time to read it and thinkabout it, and give them a copy that they
can write on.
Make sure you consider everything that your reviewers tell
younot just theparts you would like to hear. Thank your reviewers
for reading your story, anddont argue with them.Incorporate
whatever edits, revisions, and suggestions you feel are valid.
Yourwriting will be better if you carefully consider constructive
criticism, but you
Part 2 of 2: Editing a Short Story
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dont have to follow all the advice you get. Some of the
suggestions may not bevery good. Its your story, and you need to
make the final call!
Don't give up. It may be frustrating if you're having trouble
writing. You can run outof steam, get angry at characters, and feel
sador even a little guiltywhen a
beloved character dies or is killed.
Just know that you will, in all probability, doubt your own
writing skills at somepoint. This is totally normal. You'll feel
it's not worth continuing, and that youshould give up and become a
waiter in a dive cafeteria. When these thoughtsarise, they can
easily take over and make you quit then and there.One of the
hardest tasks as a writer is to learn to squash those feelings
andcontinue writing. When you begin to have these doubtful
feelings, or get tired orbored, stop writing! You can get up, take
a walk, get a snack, watch TV, oranything to relax. When you
return, do so with a fresh mind. You may still notwant to write,
but tell yourself a few good things about your storyanythingabout
it, from one good passage you wrote, to a well-thought out
dialogue, to aninteresting characterand congratulate yourself.
You're doing something mostpeople can't do.If someone else knows
about your story and has read it, they can also be a goodsource of
encouragement. Just tell yourself that you will finish this
storybecause you want to. It doesn't matter if the story isn't the
best ever writtenthere will be others. If you have a goal to finish
it, that's what you'll do.
Read! Nothing can help you learn how to write a good short story
better thanreading good short stories. Note the style and how the
author uses brevity to their
advantage.
Reading a variety of authors and styles will help you learn how
to adopt different"voices" for each story you write, and broaden
your creative palette. Payattention to how the authors develop
their characters, write dialogue, andstructure their plots. Here
are some suggestions:"I, Robot", by Issac Asimov."Steps", by Jerzy
Kosinski."The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", by Mark
Twain."The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", by James Thurber."A Sound
of Thunder", by Ray Bradbury."Three Questions", by Leo Tolstoy"Mr
Gum and the Power Crystals" by Andy Stanton, for a children's one.
(This isa basic one)"Brokeback Mountain", by Annie Proulx"Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", by Philip K. Dick.Note: many of
these short stories have been turned into successful films, orhave
become familiar cultural references. For example, "A Sound of
Thunder",the most re-published sci-fi short story of all time,
introduces us to the "butterflyeffect." Philip K. Dick's stories
have given us Blade Runner ("Do Androids Dreamof Electric Sheep"),
Total Recall ("We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"),Minority
Report ("Minority Report"), A Scanner Darkly ("A Scanner Darkly"),
andmany others. It is important to have all these elements in order
so you can havea head start of ideas to work with.
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Can you tell us about
motorcycles?Can you tell us about
musicproduction?
Can you tell us about
recovering afterillnesses?
Can you tell us about
arts and crafts?
Think carefully about all the elements of a story, for example
the maincharacter, setting, time period, genre, supporting
characters, enemiesand conflict, and plot.While you may sometimes
want to scrap a story, make sure youve got areally good reasonnot
just an excuseto do so. If youre just stucktemporarily, try to work
through it. Sometimes youll come up withanother idea that youre
more excited about. You may want to work onthe new idea, but if
this happens frequently, it can turn into a problem:youll start a
lot of stories, but you wont ever actually complete one.Use images
to help the story flow. Some people's brains work withimages more
than words and simply imagining a place or animal, thenadding all
the details and senses, can develop into a story.Do research. If
you are trying to set a story in the 1950's, research thefamily
dynamics, clothing, slang, etc. of the period and locale. If you
tryto write without knowing the background, the story will
seemamateurish, and people who know the era will not hold back
theircritique.Is there a song or type of music that gets you
connected to theemotions and events you want to convey through your
writing? Tryplaying some before or during your writing.Cant find
friends or relatives honest enough to tell you what they
reallythink about your story? Consider joining a writers group,
where you canlearn tips and tricks from other writers and get
(hopefully) qualitycritiques. You can probably find a local club,
but there are also onlinegroups.Try making your characters varied.
One could be happy all the time,while another can be sad and angry
all the time. Creating differentpersonalities will make the story
more exciting for the reader. Who
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wants to read a story where all the characters are variations on
a theme,or worse, cardboard cut-outs?Make sure you don't overwork
your mind. If your story writing stifles oryou come up blank, set
it aside for a time, say a week or month, and godo something else,
then re-read and polish what you have. It will helpyou continue
with new vigour. Come back to your story after a fewhours or after
a good night's sleep, and you'll be amazed at what youcan then come
up with!You can write about a past event or a fantasy that you
have. A reallygood way to write about a past event is to think of
an event thatoccurred and change it to be maybe more exciting, and
to your liking.Your main character can be an adaptation of yourself
or someone youknow. But be careful, because real people are often
not as dynamic asstory characters.If something's running through
your head, be it about home, or your dog,write it down and expand
it. This is a gift from the Muse, so don't wasteit.
Show 6 more tips
Short stories are the hardest kind of fiction to write. You have
to doeverything that happens in a novel (introduce characters,
create conflict,develop characters, resolve conflict) inside of
twenty or thirty pages.Respect the genre. It isn't easy.Don't get
lazy about spelling and grammar. Show the readers you knowwhat
you're doing by presenting an error-free story. At the very least,
runit through a spelling and grammar checker. It won't miss "their"
and"they're" mistakes, but may flag the wrong use of "its".Don't
get lazy about writing. Don't end the story with the reader
stillconfused. Cliff hangers are okay, but only if you are planning
to write asecond book, or as in the case of "We Can Remember It for
YouWholesale", if the cliffhanger is integral to the story.Don't
become too proud of your story after you've finished it. Don't
setyourself up for disappointment, which, in all likelihood, will
comeespecially if you submit the story for publication. Instead,
remainprofessionally detached from it.
Warnings
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Dont get discouraged. If youre trying to get your story
published, it willmost likely be rejected. Rejection is a big part
of being a writer;sometimes its warranted, but sometimes its not.
Be proud that youhave completed a story and keep practicing your
craft if you enjoy it.Ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the
expression of ideas. Besides,there are only so many plots. Feel
free to borrow the broad outlines ofany masterpieceevery writer
does it.
1.
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/196-akira-kurosawa-on-rashomon
2. http://www.nanowrimo.org/
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