How to Write a Short StoryFor many writers, the short story is the perfect medium. While writing a novel can be a Herculean task, just about anybody can craftand, most importantly, finishashort story. That does not mean that short stories are easy to write or that they aren't as artistic and valuable as novels. With practice, patience, and imagination, you could be the next best-selling author.AdPart One of Two:Writing a Short Story1Collect ideas for your story. Inspiration can strike at any time, so carry a notepad with you wherever you go so that you can write down story ideas as they come to you.Most of the time, youll just think of small snippets of information (a catastrophic event around which you can build a plot, a characters name or appearance, etc.), but you will sometimes get lucky and a whole story will reveal itself to youin 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 upwith any ideas, you might have to look to family and friends for inspiration.Experience usually helps to build good plots. Many of Isaac Asimov s mysteries came from experience of certain incidents.2Begin 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 is resolvedor not! You don t have to write your short story in order. If you have an idea for a great conclusion, write it down. Move backward or forward from your starting idea (it may or may not be the beginning of the story) and ask yourself questions. What happened before this? What happens next?3Find 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 these observations would together make a very interesting character. Your character caneven blend attributes of a number of people.4Know 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 youcan think of, from their position in the orchestra to their favorite color, from their central motivations to their favorite foods. Do they talk with an accent

? Do they have any quirky mannerisms? You wont include all this information in your story, but the more you know, the more your characters will come to life, both for you and for the reader.Make sure your characters personalities are not perfect. Every character needsto have some flaws, some problems, some imperfections and some insecurities. Youmight assume that people wouldn t like to read about a character with a lot offlaws, but that couldn t be farther from the truth. Batman wouldn t be The DarkKnight if he weren t a borderline sociopath!People can relate to characters with problems, as that s realistic. When tryingto come 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 things you know about. For example, the character could have anger issues, be afraidof water, be lonely, dislike being around other people, smoke too much, etc. Any or all of these could be developed further.5Limit the breadth of your story. A novel can occur over millions of years and include a multitude of subplots, a variety of locations, and an army of supportingcharacters. The main events of a short story should occur in a relatively shortperiod of time (days or even minutes), and you typically wont be able to developeffectively more than one plot, two or three main characters, and one setting.If your story has much more breadth, it probably needs to be a novella or novel.6Decide who will tell the story. There are three main points of view from which to tell a story: first-person (I), second-person (you), and third-person (he or she).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 outside narrator tells the story. (Second-person narration is rarely used.)Keep in mind that first-person narrators can only tell what they know (which will be limited to what they see firsthand or are told by others), while third-person narrators can either know everything and explore every characters thoughts (third-person omniscient) or be limited to only that which can be observed by one character (third-person limited).You can also mix and match. For example, you could switch between a first-personnarrative in one chapter, and third-person in another, or even have more than one first-person point of view. An excellent example of this is the short story "Rashmon", by Akutagawa Rynosuke[1]. This was later turned into a movie of the samename by Akira Kurosawa.7Organize your thoughts. After you ve prepared the basic elements of your story,it can be helpful to make some sort of time-line to help you decide what shouldhappen when.Your story should consist at least of an introduction, initiating incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. You can draw or write a visual with very simple descriptions of what should happen in each of these stages. Having this done will help you keep focused when writing the story, and you can easily make changes to it, so that you are able to keep a steady flow as you write the full story.8Start writing. Depending on how thoroughly you ve sketched out your plot and characters, the actual writing process may simply be one of choosing the right words.Generally, however, writing is arduous. You probably wont know your characters 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 thesecond draft!

9Come out swinging. The first pagesome would say the first sentenceof any writing should grab the readers attention and leave him/her wanting more.A quick start is especially important in short stories because you dont have muchroom to tell your story. Dont dillydally with long introductions of the characters or uninteresting descriptions of the setting: get right into the plot, and reveal details about the characters and setting piece-by-piece as you go along.10Keep writing. Youre almost certain to hit some bumps in the road to finishing your story. You ve got to work through them, though. Set aside a time to write eachand every day, and make it a goal to finish, say, a page each day. Even if youend up throwing away what you wrote on that day, you ve been writing and thinking about the story, and that will keep you going in the long run.Consider participating in writing groups or activities. One very good activity for writers of all kinds is "National Novel Writing Month," or NaNoWriMo.[2] Every year, from November 1 through November 30th, you are tasked with writing a novel of at least 50,000 words. Brilliance and quality are off the tablethe goal isthe act of writing. Check out the reference link for more information.11Let 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 to do something different, and dont worry about scrapping your plans altogether ifyou can make a better story as you go.AdPart Two of Two:Editing a Short Story1Revise and edit. When you ve finished the story, go back through it and correctany mechanical mistakes, as well as logical and semantic errors. In general, make sure the story flows and the characters and their problems are introduced andresolved appropriately.If you have time, put the completed story down for a few days or weeks before editing. Distancing yourself from the story in this way will help you see it moreclearly when you pick it back up.2Get some second opinions. Send your revised and edited story off to a trusted friend or relative for revisions, edits, and suggestions. Let your reviewers knowthat you want to hear their real opinions of the story. Give them time to read it and think about it, and give them a copy that they can write on.Make sure you consider everything that your reviewers tell younot just the partsyou would like to hear. Thank your reviewers for reading your story, and dont argue with them.Incorporate whatever edits, revisions, and suggestions you feel are valid. Yourwriting will be better if you carefully consider constructive criticism, but youdont have to follow all the advice you get. Some of the suggestions may not be very good. Its your story, and you need to make the final call!3Don t give up. It may be frustrating if you re having trouble writing. You can run out of steam, get angry at characters, and feel sador even a little guiltywhena beloved character dies or is killed.Just know that you will, in all probability, doubt your own writing skills at some point. This is totally normal. You ll feel it s not worth continuing, and tha

t you should give up and become a waiter in a dive cafeteria. When these thoughts arise, 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 and continue 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, or anything to relax. When you return, do so with a fresh mind. You may still not wantto write, but tell yourself a few good things about your storyanything about it,from one good passage you wrote, to a well-thought out dialogue, to an interesting characterand congratulate yourself. You re doing something most people 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 story because you want to. It doesn t matter if the story isn t the best ever writtentherewill be others. If you have a goal to finish it, that s what you ll do.4Read! Nothing can help you learn how to write a good short story better than reading good short stories. Note the style and how the author uses brevity to theiradvantage.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. Pay attention to how the authors develop their characters, write dialogue, and structure 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, or have 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"), and many others. It is important to have all these elements in order so you can have ahead start of ideas to work with.AdSample Short StoriesSample Short Horror StorySample Short Literary StorySample Short Love Story

TipsMake sure you don t overwork your mind. If your story writing stifles or you come up blank, set it aside for a time, say a week or month, and go do something else, then re-read and polish what you have. It will help you continue with new vi

gour. Come back to your story after a few hours or after a good night s sleep, and you ll be amazed at what you can then come up with!Try making your characters varied. One could be happy all the time, while another can be sad and angry all the time. Creating different personalities will makethe story more exciting for the reader. Who wants to read a story where all thecharacters are variations on a theme, or worse, cardboard cut-outs?While you may sometimes want to scrap a story, make sure youve got a really goodreasonnot just an excuseto do so. If youre just stuck temporarily, try to work through it. Sometimes youll come up with another idea that youre more excited about. You may want to work on the new idea, but if this happens frequently, it can turninto a problem: youll start a lot of stories, but you wont ever actually completeone.Think carefully about all the elements of a story, for example the main character, setting, time period, genre, supporting characters, enemies and conflict, andplot.You can write about a past event or a fantasy that you have. A really good way to write about a past event is to think of an event that occurred and change it to be maybe more exciting, and to your liking. Your main character can be an adaptation of yourself or someone you know. But be careful, because real people areoften not as dynamic as story characters.Use images to help the story flow. Some people s brains work with images more than words and simply imagining a place or animal, then adding all the details andsenses, can develop into a story.Do research. If you are trying to set a story in the 1950 s, research the familydynamics, clothing, slang, etc. of the period and locale. If you try to write without knowing the background, the story will seem amateurish, and people who know the era will not hold back their critique.Is there a song or type of music that gets you connected to the emotions and events you want to convey through your writing? Try playing some before or during your writing.Cant find friends or relatives honest enough to tell you what they really think about your story? Consider joining a writers group, where you can learn tips and tricks from other writers and get (hopefully) quality critiques. You can probablyfind a local club, but there are also online groups.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 waste it.Show 5 more tipsWarningsShort stories are the hardest kind of fiction to write. You have to do everything that happens in a novel (introduce characters, create conflict, develop characters, resolve conflict) inside of twenty or thirty pages. Respect the genre. Itisn t easy.Don t get lazy about spelling and grammar. Show the readers you know what you redoing by presenting an error-free story. At the very least, run it 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 still confused. Cliff hangers are okay, but only if you are planning to write a second book, or as in the case of "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", if the cliffhanger is integral to the story.Don t become too proud of your story after you ve finished it. Don t set yourself up for disappointment, which, in all likelihood, will comeespecially if you submit the story for publication. Instead, remain professionally detached from it.Ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expression of ideas. Besides, there are only so many plots. Feel free to borrow the broad outlines of any masterpieceeverywriter does it.Dont get discouraged. If youre trying to get your story published, it will most likely be rejected. Rejection is a big part of being a writer; sometimes its warranted, but sometimes its not. Be proud that you have completed a story and keep practicing your craft if you enjoy it.

At a Glance: Writing a Short StoryCollect ideas in brainstorming sessions and daily life, on a portable notepad. See pictures and details.Sketch out the structure: setting the scene, rising to a climax, then falling toa satisfying conclusion. See pictures and details.Flesh out each character s personality and history, then distill it to a few memorable characteristics. See pictures and details.Jump right into the story, grabbing the reader from the first sentence without along introduction. See pictures and details.Set yourself daily writing goals as you expand the story. Getting words on paperis more important than perfecting your original idea. See pictures and details.Edit the story with a friend s help. If possible, set the story down for a few days to give yourself a new perspective. See pictures and details.Article InfoSources and AttributionDid this article help you?