Introduction To Writing Short Stories
A short story is a fast paced narrative generally focused on a single conflict. Frequently, short stories will start right in the middle of the action, the goal being to capture your attention from the start. Creating an outline of your story before you commence writing can assist you to keep it focused and stop it from going off on tangents. Keep in mind to keep the time frame of the story short. It would be unwise, if not impossible, to try to tell a coming of age story in short story format.
Because you’re so limited for words, character development needs to take place during the action. There is no room for you to leisurely introduce your characters to the reader. Your protagonist is on their own adventure from the very start of the story. Wherever possible use descriptive writing to convey character info. What I mean is, do not simply state who the character is and what they’re doing. Employ meaningful character dialog and illustrative phrases to drive your story along in an engaging way. Rather than writing:
Johnny always fought with his mother about eating dinner.
You could write:
Johnny pushed the dinosaur shaped chicken nugget about with his slim fingers creating a piece of ketchup art on the now soggy paper plate. “But I’m not hungry,” he whined, despite the fact that all he’d had to eat that day was half of a graham cracker along with a nibble of banana.
If you don’t have conflict, you do not have a story. Going to the beach, sunbathing, having a picnic lunch, and watching the sunset may well make for an enjoyable day, but it’s a boring read. Something intriguing or out of the ordinary needs to happen. Just as your story needs a protagonist, it also needs an antagonist, something or someone for the main character to work against. Your antagonist character ought to be actively trying to stop the primary character from reaching their objective.
The greatest thing you should try and do while writing your story is to make each and every single word count. Capture your readers attention straight away with a conflict, then send them on an intriguing journey together with your primary character. Make sure to reward the reader with a memorable ending. A happy ending is always nice, but an unhappy ending may possibly be even more memorable.
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