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- Create compelling, complex characters
- Master dialogue and description
- Identify your ideal writing process
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What Is a Short Story?
A short story is a brief work of fiction. In this context, brief usually means 20,000 words or less. Single short stories generally are not published on their own in book form, but you can find them in magazines, online, in anthologies, or grouped together to make a collection.
Learning to write an excellent short story is an ongoing process. Every story you write will be different. Each may have a different plot, different characters, and a different structure. Each time you sit down and begin thinking about your story or writing a first draft, you’ll have to start from the very beginning. However, understanding the basic elements of a short story will help take the mystery out of writing.
Choose Your Form
Before you start writing, you should consider your material carefully and choose the form that’s best for you. If there’s enough meat to your idea, and you have enough time at your disposal, you might have a potential novel on your hands. But if your story idea is brief and intense, or if you want to pack a lot into a small space, then a short story is the way to go.
Know the Parts
Generally speaking, every short story is made up of the same essentials. Most short stories include the following:
- Title: A title can be any length, from a single word (such as Ann Beattie’s “Janus”) to a long phrase (such as Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”).
- Beginning: Your first sentence creates a mood and hooks your readers. Beyond the first sentence, a beginning has a lot of latitude. Some writers make the dilemma clear right from the start. Others begin more cryptically.
- Middle: The middle of the story is where the conflict will intensify and where the elements you’ve laid out will start to breathe. When put together well, the middle can give the end a feeling of inevitability.
- End: The end of a short story doesn’t necessarily resolve everything. Sometimes the best ending is one that deepens a mystery or introduces new complexity. It’s crucial that the end of your story leaves the reader with a sense of satisfaction.
- Setting: Most good stories don’t float around in an unknown time and space. They take place in specific locations, at specific times, during specific eras. Setting is the where and when of a story.
- Narrator: Your narrator is the “speaker” of the words in your story. This speaker may have a distinctive voice, a specific agenda, or a unique sense of style. The speaker may be omniscient and as unapproachable as Zeus atop Olympus or as chatty as your local butcher. The point of view in which you choose to tell your story will determine what kind of narrator you create.
- Characters: The characters are the actors who will inhabit the stage created by your setting. The way characters interact—or don’t interact—provides much of the richness of a story.
| Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
