Any Tips for Writing a Short Story?

[Deleted]

So I am finally picking up one of my ideas and writing a short story for it.....I just do not know where to start

Any Advice?

[Deleted]

Depends on what you want to do but:

1. Short Stories tend to be plot driven in a way that longer narratives aren't. You can't digress in a short story in the same fashion.

2. Strive for clarity in your writing and clearness in your imagery unless you purposely want to give the reader a sense of confusion due to the type of story you want to tell. Part of the appeal for most short stories is the advancement of plot and you need to be clear about the details you give the reader.

3. Don't tell a lot of background information about the characters and the setting. Instead, evoke what that background may be. The exception I can see for this would be something like James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues", as a lot of the story is told via flashback. That can be impair the flow of your narrative, however.

4. Don't feel the need to end with a bang. Many short stories are merely vehicles in which to arrive at a a twist ending. Unless you have a mindblowing ending, I wouldn't hinge everything on an ending. Strive for atmosphere, good dialogue, details that the reader will remember when they think back on the story.

5. Think of a short story like a song, in terms of structure and pacing. That also brings up issues of originality and production. There are countless wonderful songs that appeal to people because those people can relate to them. Songs like that aren't necessarily avant-garde but they succeed due to the artist's understanding of what succeeds in that song's genre and how well that artist can use conventions to express themselves. Stories are similar.

[stinger]

"It was a dark and stormy night," always works for Snoopy.

[Deleted]

To add to irontyger's 4th point (all of which are good ones by the way), you don't get a lot of time with short stories (hence the name), so it makes it very difficult to build up to something. Not only that, but if you're hoping for a KO of an ending, you're banking on the reader enjoying one moment. If that reader is not convinced the one moment is amazing, your story becomes forgotten the minute they put the book down/close out the browser. With short stories more than any other creative writing (except maybe poetry), the journey is MUCH more important than the destination.

I think the most important advice I can give you, having graduated college with a writing degree is this; accept the fact now that (if you want your story to be good and to stand out) you will probably spend more time in the re-writing/editing process than the initial writing process. This is okay. This might seem bad in this day and age of people using computers to write school papers with due dates and specific guidelines. They associate typing away at the computer as work. Opening up word and/or a word file intimidates them to some degree because they immediately associate it with "school work" to some level. Keep in mind that you have the luxury (unless you're really doing this for school) of having all the time you want to work on it AND the only rules are your own.

There is a chance you'll be sick of looking at your own story by the time you're finished. That is also okay. Have a friend read it too, you need more than one pair of eyes looking at it. It is especially important later in the process when you've seen it several times to have someone look over it that's not read it at all. If you're the only person looking over it, even if you go through 20 drafts, it might need serious work. I promise you, >95% of your favorite books/poems/stories didn't end up that way on the first try. Hell, it probably took more than 7 or 8 drafts. I remember going through 12 drafts for a short story in my Creative Writing course, and I should have gone through it more but I ran out of people whose criticisms I could trust and burnt out on it (mostly because I focused on the # of drafts I'd been through).

A lot of times the only way you can decide what is unnecessary and what could be explored further is to just hunker down and write it. As irontyger said, you can't mess around in short stories, you HAVE to get to the point. And in the first draft you WILL naturally digress from that point at some level, every writer does in their first draft of a short story. On the first draft, you can just sit down and write. Don't fret about hitting a home run on the first draft, just get the story in whatever form it is in from your head to the paper/monitor.

This is something that's often overlooked. I believe though, that it truly does separate the people who set out to write something amazing and heartfelt from the people who just think they can use big, pretentious words the first time, throw it up on Facebook/their blog/deviantART, and consider themselves "good at writing".

[wrestleauthor]

Jan 19, 2013 7:54:22 GMT -5 @geneyussrevolution said:

To add to irontyger's 4th point (all of which are good ones by the way), you don't get a lot of time with short stories (hence the name), so it makes it very difficult to build up to something. Not only that, but if you're hoping for a KO of an ending, you're banking on the reader enjoying one moment. If that reader is not convinced the one moment is amazing, your story becomes forgotten the minute they put the book down/close out the browser. With short stories more than any other creative writing (except maybe poetry), the journey is MUCH more important than the destination.

I think the most important advice I can give you, having graduated college with a writing degree is this; accept the fact now that (if you want your story to be good and to stand out) you will probably spend more time in the re-writing/editing process than the initial writing process. This is okay. This might seem bad in this day and age of people using computers to write school papers with due dates and specific guidelines. They associate typing away at the computer as work. Opening up word and/or a word file intimidates them to some degree because they immediately associate it with "school work" to some level. Keep in mind that you have the luxury (unless you're really doing this for school) of having all the time you want to work on it AND the only rules are your own.

There is a chance you'll be sick of looking at your own story by the time you're finished. That is also okay. Have a friend read it too, you need more than one pair of eyes looking at it. It is especially important later in the process when you've seen it several times to have someone look over it that's not read it at all. If you're the only person looking over it, even if you go through 20 drafts, it might need serious work. I promise you, >95% of your favorite books/poems/stories didn't end up that way on the first try. Hell, it probably took more than 7 or 8 drafts. I remember going through 12 drafts for a short story in my Creative Writing course, and I should have gone through it more but I ran out of people whose criticisms I could trust and burnt out on it (mostly because I focused on the # of drafts I'd been through).

A lot of times the only way you can decide what is unnecessary and what could be explored further is to just hunker down and write it. As irontyger said, you can't mess around in short stories, you HAVE to get to the point. And in the first draft you WILL naturally digress from that point at some level, every writer does in their first draft of a short story. On the first draft, you can just sit down and write. Don't fret about hitting a home run on the first draft, just get the story in whatever form it is in from your head to the paper/monitor.

This is something that's often overlooked. I believe though, that it truly does separate the people who set out to write something amazing and heartfelt from the people who just think they can use big, pretentious words the first time, throw it up on Facebook/their blog/deviantART, and consider themselves "good at writing".

This is probably among the best advice I've read for short story writing. You may also want to consider the old "show vs. tell" insights, something I took into consideration when I started writing. I've had stories published as well as written two novels (and currently working on a third). Most importantly, just dive in; you can always go back and edit it later. A first draft is rarely perfect.

[Deleted]

Jan 19, 2013 10:20:47 GMT -5 wrestleauthor said:

Jan 19, 2013 7:54:22 GMT -5 @geneyussrevolution said:

To add to irontyger's 4th point (all of which are good ones by the way), you don't get a lot of time with short stories (hence the name), so it makes it very difficult to build up to something. Not only that, but if you're hoping for a KO of an ending, you're banking on the reader enjoying one moment. If that reader is not convinced the one moment is amazing, your story becomes forgotten the minute they put the book down/close out the browser. With short stories more than any other creative writing (except maybe poetry), the journey is MUCH more important than the destination.

I think the most important advice I can give you, having graduated college with a writing degree is this; accept the fact now that (if you want your story to be good and to stand out) you will probably spend more time in the re-writing/editing process than the initial writing process. This is okay. This might seem bad in this day and age of people using computers to write school papers with due dates and specific guidelines. They associate typing away at the computer as work. Opening up word and/or a word file intimidates them to some degree because they immediately associate it with "school work" to some level. Keep in mind that you have the luxury (unless you're really doing this for school) of having all the time you want to work on it AND the only rules are your own.

There is a chance you'll be sick of looking at your own story by the time you're finished. That is also okay. Have a friend read it too, you need more than one pair of eyes looking at it. It is especially important later in the process when you've seen it several times to have someone look over it that's not read it at all. If you're the only person looking over it, even if you go through 20 drafts, it might need serious work. I promise you, >95% of your favorite books/poems/stories didn't end up that way on the first try. Hell, it probably took more than 7 or 8 drafts. I remember going through 12 drafts for a short story in my Creative Writing course, and I should have gone through it more but I ran out of people whose criticisms I could trust and burnt out on it (mostly because I focused on the # of drafts I'd been through).

A lot of times the only way you can decide what is unnecessary and what could be explored further is to just hunker down and write it. As irontyger said, you can't mess around in short stories, you HAVE to get to the point. And in the first draft you WILL naturally digress from that point at some level, every writer does in their first draft of a short story. On the first draft, you can just sit down and write. Don't fret about hitting a home run on the first draft, just get the story in whatever form it is in from your head to the paper/monitor.

This is something that's often overlooked. I believe though, that it truly does separate the people who set out to write something amazing and heartfelt from the people who just think they can use big, pretentious words the first time, throw it up on Facebook/their blog/deviantART, and consider themselves "good at writing".

This is probably among the best advice I've read for short story writing. You may also want to consider the old "show vs. tell" insights, something I took into consideration when I started writing. I've had stories published as well as written two novels (and currently working on a third). Most importantly, just dive in; you can always go back and edit it later. A first draft is rarely perfect.

Those are all lessons I learned through school, and I wish I'd have known them going in. I've had friends outside of the English program ask me what advice I have and that's always the most important one to me. I was so used to the high school method of "one rough draft, one final draft" and focusing so damn much on a grade I didn't care if I was proud of it or not (the latter being a sin I was still guilty of in college). When I went into the English program at my college, the first time the professor asked what I'd changed for my "third draft" I was stupified.

[Hit Girl]

Jan 19, 2013 3:04:29 GMT -5 cageking666 said:

So I am finally picking up one of my ideas and writing a short story for it.....I just do not know where to start

Any Advice?

Start at the end, and work backwards.

[suave]

Jan 19, 2013 3:04:29 GMT -5 cageking666 said:

So I am finally picking up one of my ideas and writing a short story for it.....I just do not know where to start

Any Advice?

Have an idea of where you want to go. I wrote one for school last year, and I had no idea where I was going with it. The story was a giant clusterf***, to say the least.

[Deleted]

Jan 19, 2013 12:42:51 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

Jan 19, 2013 3:04:29 GMT -5 cageking666 said:

So I am finally picking up one of my ideas and writing a short story for it.....I just do not know where to start

Any Advice?

Start at the end, and work backwards.

Word - reverse engineering your story is a good way to go because it builds everything to the climax.

Also - remember the three O's. Objective, Obstacle, Overcome.