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Free access to my free short story writing course, which includes: Full access to 5 videos, crammed with useful short story writing tips and advice; A free writing exercise, that helps get the creative juices flowing; An opportunity to become a published fiction author; And more...
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The art of a great short story requires a different set of writing skills altogether. And in this 10-part course, you'll not only find out what exactly those are—but also how to put them to good use while submitting to short story magazines.
- Start with A Compelling Scene.
- Start Right Out in The Head of Your Main character.
- Put Your Character in Motion Right away.
- Use Close Point of view.
- Situate The Reader Early on.
- Jump Right in with Some Tension in The First paragraphs.
- Show, Don’T Tell.
- Your Character Needs to React!
- Every Page Needs Tension of Some sort.
- Withhold Key information.
Short stories need to grab and emotionally engage the readers right from the first paragraph. Don’t open with a description of the scenery or other setting. Also, don’t start with background information (backstory) on the character or an explanation of their world or situation.
It’s best to use his name right in the first sentence to establish him as the point-of-view character, the one readers are supposed to identify with and root for. And let readers know really soon his rough age, situation, and role in the story world.
Having her interacting with someone else is usually best—much more dynamic than starting with a character alone, musing. Also, it’s best not to start with your character just waking up or in an everyday situation or on the way to somewhere. That’s trite and too much of a slow lead-up for a short story—or any compelling story, for that matter.
Get up close and personal with your main character and tell the whole story from his point of view. Continually show his thoughts, feelings, reactions, and physical sensations. And take care not to show anyone else’s thoughts or inner reactions. You don’t have time or space to get into anyone else’s viewpoint in a short story. Show the attitudes an...
To avoid reader confusion and frustration, establish your main character immediately and clarify the situation and setting (time and place) within the first few paragraphs. On the first page, answer the four W’s: who, what, where, when. But as mentioned above, avoid starting with a long descriptive passage.
As I mentioned, there’s no room in a short story for a long, meandering lead-up to the main problem, or an extended description of the setting or the characters and their background. Disrupt the main character’s life in some way on the first page. As Kurt Vonnegut advises, in short fiction, start as close to the end as possible.
Don’t use narration to tell your readers what happened—put them right in the middle of the scene, with lots of dialogue and action and reactions, in real time. And skip past transitional times and unimportant moments. Use just a few words to go from one time or place to another, unless something important happens during the transition.
Continually show your character’s emotional and physical reactions, both inner and outer, to what’s going on around him. And to bring the character and scene to life on the page, evoke as many of the five senses as possible, not just sight and hearing. Scents or smells are especially powerful and evocative.
It might be overt, like an argument, or subtle, like inner resentments, disagreements, questioning, or anxiety. If everybody is in agreement, shake things up a little.
This adds tension and intrigue, especially when a character has secrets or regrets. Hint at them to arouse reader curiosity, then reveal critical info bit by bit, like a tantalizing striptease, as you go along.
Write a short story by sparking an idea, outlining your plot, creating characters, setting the scene, and building conflict. Use dialogue for character depth, choose a consistent POV, and end with a satisfying resolution. Keep your prose clear, concise, and engaging.
The following online short story writing courses include short story writing workshops and short story writing classes that are free as well as those requiring a fee. Find instant access, self-paced courses or enrol onto a short story writing course online with set course dates.
May 7, 2024 · How to Write a Short Story: Prose. Your language is succinct, fresh and exciting, specific, colorful, avoiding clichés and platitudes. Sentence structures vary. In Genre stories, the language is simple, the symbolism is direct, and words are well-known, and sentences are relatively short.
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Sep 13, 2024 · How to Write a Short Story: 5 Major Steps from Start to Finish. by Sarah Gribble | 81 comments. Do you want to learn how to write a short story? Maybe you'd like to try writing a short story instead of a novel-length work, or maybe you're hoping to get more writing practice without the lengthy time commitment that a novel requires.
