Tips for Writing Short Stories

With short stories, it is important to focus on reaching the conclusion quickly and engaging your readers with an interesting beginning.  What you don't want, is to have many different conflicts going on.  Try to write your story surrounding one conflict.  Drive towards an unexpected end.  The idea is to capture your audience right away and have them riveted until they are finished reading.

1. Who is your protagonist? (Are they unique enough)
2.  What significant actions define this protagonist at the beginning of your story?
3.  Are there any unexpected consequences that arise, due to the actions that define your protagonist?
4.  What details from your setting, dialog, and tone assist you in telling the story?
5.  Is your ending, concerning your protagonist's journey, surprising to the reader? (The reader shouldn't be able to guess the ending right away)

You want to generate an emotional response from your reader.  Don't only look to your emotions when writing.  How will what you are writing, engage your reader?  All of these things are crucial.

About your Character

Appearance. Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.

Action. Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing actions rather than simply listing adjectives.

Speech. Develop the character as a person — don’t merely have your character announce important plot details.

Thought. Bring the reader into your character’s mind, to show them your character’s unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.

Point of View

First Person. “Unites narrator and reader through a series of secrets” when they enter one character’s perceptions. However, it can “lead to telling” and limits readers connections to other characters in the short story.

Second Person. “Puts readers within the actual scene so that readers confront possibilities directly.” However, it is important to place your characters “in a tangible environment” so you don’t “omit the details readers need for clarity.”

Third Person Omniscient. Allows you to explore all of the characters’ thoughts and motivations. Transitions are extremely important as you move from character to character.

Third Person Limited. “Offers the intimacy of one character’s perceptions.” However, the writer must “deal with character absence from particular scenes.”

Perfect Quote:

"Make your readers hear the pauses between the sentences. Let them see characters lean forward, fidget with their cuticles, avert their eyes, uncross their legs."  -Jerome Stern


Happy Writing my Friends!