Writing a short story before you tackle a full-length manuscript is the advice you will often hear from me. I say this not because it’s necessarily easier, but because it’s less of a commitment. It simply doesn’t take as much time. But this isn’t to say that if you’ve never written one, it will be easy. Short stories don’t follow the same plot structure as full-length novels, partly because they are condensed narratives. Getting the mechanics down can take time, so let’s take a look at some tips that can help you complete your first short story.
What is a Short Story?
A short story ranges from 1,000-10,000 words, and that’s essentially what constitutes a definition. It must be a work of fiction, or narrative non-fiction, otherwise, it will be classified as an essay or some other work of non-fiction. Some stretch the length of a short story beyond 10,000 words, but I believe anything more than that will be considered a novella.
Why You Should Write Short Stories
1. Good for practice
As I’ve said before, writing short stories can help you practice executing a good plot. The plot structure will be condensed, which challenges you to find a way to trim the fat so to speak. You will have to start the story off at the right time in the character’s life, and you will have to end it at the perfect time as well. In novels, we take for granted how much room there is for exposition and backstory. Short stories will have to keep this brief or forego it completely.
2. Good for mentality
Proving to yourself that you can execute and complete a narrative, taking it from idea to the page, is not to be underestimated. Your mentality as a writer can either hurt or benefit you, depending on what it involves. If you’re constantly getting stuck partway through a long manuscript, and you give up, this will hurt your confidence. But with a short story, even if you take a week or more to write a 1,000-word story, you can carry that momentum forward.
3. Build your writing resume
With a completed, polished short story, you can start submitting to literary journals. Submitting to journals is a bit different from submitting to agents. You will usually have to send an author bio, a story cover letter, and then the story itself in the proper format. Submitting to agents requires a query letter, a synopsis, a pitch, a bio, a title comparison, and sometimes additional materials as well. It’s a lot easier to get these materials together for a short story submission. If your story gets published, this can also show agents that your writing has been vetted by editors of a reputable source, which is likely to get you noticed.
How to Write Your Short Story in Three Steps:
Day 1 - Brainstorm
Brainstorm an idea. You might have one already. If you don’t have one, I urge you not to get too caught up with having the perfect story idea. You could write about a day in the life of a toilet for all I care. It’s more about the execution than the idea.
Day 2 - Characterization
Write a diary entry in your character’s voice. Now that you’ve selected a character and a story, try writing a simple paragraph in your character’s voice. Make it a diary entry. You can even do this if you don’t have a clear story plan yet, as you may get inspired by what your character says. Now, sit down and write the diary entry. Be as lucid as possible. Writing in a diary is meant to be intimate but for the writer’s eyes only. Don’t try to write perfectly, just write.
Day 3 - Introduction
Write the introduction. The intro should be short and sweet. This is a short story, after all. You don’t want to drag it on for too long and miss out on getting right to the point. So what’s happening in your character’s life? How do you want to start the story off? Maybe they’re out on their first date with someone they just met. An anonymous online match that turns out to be their twin. Try to keep this part within a few hundred words. No more than 200, just for the sake of the exercise.
Day 4 - Buildup
Write the buildup. In order to do this, you have to first define what your character wants. What are they motivated by? Let’s take the character who is going on a first date. They want the date to go well. But let’s go back a minute to before the date, the buildup: the character gets ready. They have to pick out the right outfit; maybe they’re running low on time; maybe they want to pick up some flowers; maybe they’re waiting for work to send their payment. There are lots of things that can happen in the buildup. Have fun with it!
Day 5 - The conflict/midpoint
Write the midpoint. I’m calling it the midpoint but it’s basically what goes wrong, or right, depending on the kind of story you’re writing. But conventionally, it will be something that gets in the way of what the character wants. So our character wants t the date to go well. But here we are now on the actual date and the character has acute diarrhea. Or their mom won’t stop calling them. Or their dog decided to eat a sock and now they have to go to the vet. Write this part in terms of what gets in your character’s way.
Day 6 - The solution
Write the solution. What happens after your character runs into trouble? They try to fix it. Things get in their way and they’re pushed to adapt and do something drastic. Maybe your character on the date tries to play it off like they have lots of important business calls to take, and that’s why they keep getting up to leave every 20 minutes. Or maybe our character confesses to having diarrhea. The date might find it funny, or they might find it gross and now our character has to try to convince them to stay. But no matter what happens, a resolution must be reached after a struggle. Our resolution might be that our character’s date, grossed out, leaves. Ashamed, they decide to go home to cuddle with their dog, who also has diarrhea.
Day 7 - The end
Write the closing. Our character is at home, feeling sad about what went wrong. They think they’ll never find love and that they’ve been cursed to be alone forever. The closing should tie up loose ends. What has changed about the character? Maybe they realize that being alone isn’t so bad, that they are loved after all, but their dog. Or maybe they decide to take their dog out on a date to the park. They learn to appreciate the small things. The emphasis should be on what your character learned, and how they will apply it in the future.
Conclusion
Here you have it. Some basic steps for writing a short story. Following this plan will help you execute your story with ease following a very basic plot structure. I emphasize basic because this is only one way to write a short story when there are no clear rules. Not every short story follows this exact structure. You will have to improvise and develop your own method of writing. But because there are seemingly infinite ways to write a short story, and really any story, it can help to get used to taking an idea from start to finish with the help of a template and plan.
Need Help?
No problem. Download our short story execution worksheet to help you complete each day successfully.
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