• Home
  • About Me
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Me
No Result
View All Result
Rachel Poli - Official Author Website
No Result
View All Result

How To Write Short Stories

12 April 2023

All writing is hard, but I sometimes find that writing short stories is harder than writing a novel. You’re trying to accomplish the same goal but in a shorter amount of time. You don’t have twenty-plus chapters to fill like in a novel. No, in a short story you have about ten-plus pages to fill.

According to Writer’s Digest, a short story can range anywhere from 1,500 words to 30,000 words. However, I’ve read short stories that are much less than 30,000 words. I always shoot for a 10,000-word maximum.

With that being said, here a how-to on writing short stories. Or, this is how I do it, anyway.

Just write

When I come up with a short story idea, I just write. It doesn’t matter how long it turns out to be, that’s what the editing is for later. As long as I get the basic story and idea down, that’s good.

Figure out what you wrote

The first draft of everything is always a mess. So, once you have the basic story down, give it a good read-through. Ask yourself:

  • Who is the protagonist the main story is about or following?
  • What lines or scenes drives the plot forward? Which scenes don’t help the plot?
  • Do I really know what I’m talking about here? (Research)

Make a list of what you need to do when it comes to editing your story. Really analyze it and dig deep.

Begin editing

Editing a short story is the same amount of work as editing a novel. It only takes less time because there are less words, but you should definitely put in the same amount of effort.

  • Cut out scenes that don’t drive the plot forward or have no meaning to them
  • Develop your character(s), especially your protagonist, more
  • Strengthen the plot as a whole
  • Do your research on anything you’re unsure of

As you edit, be sure to take a look at certain parts of the story in depth. You have a short amount of time to draw people into the story, allow them to feel close with the characters, and keep their interest throughout.

  • Take a look at your first line. Will that get people asking questions? Will it introduce them to a character they’re interested about?
  • Take a look at the last scene. This is the wrap-up with a pretty bow and you want your readers to be satisfied. The story needs to have an ending. All questions must be answered.

I myself have a hard time ending short stories. I always feel like I need more time to explain things, but readers are a lot smarter than we as writers give them credit for.

When it comes to ending my own shorts, I wrap up the plot nicely, but I don’t always have a strict ending. For example, my short story, The Accident, has a definite ending, but I leave the main character off in a strange place allowing the readers to assume what will happen next. It’s obvious where the protagonist will go next, yet I still leave a little bit of room for readers to continue writing the story themselves, if they wish.

In other words, I could very well continue the story, but I found a good place to stop that wraps everything up enough to satisfy the readers.

Using The Accident as an example, I’ve been working on that for almost two years now. I wrote it as a final assignment in my creative writing class for school. I’ve listened to feedback from my classmates, combed through it myself, and even had my writer’s group look at it twice and my sister look at it a bunch of times.

I’ve submitted it a few times to some contests and haven’t had any luck so far, but I’m still waiting to hear back from one contest as this post goes out. So, we’ll see.

Writing short stories is a lot of fun and definitely challenging. I find it easier than writing a novel, but it’s really not that much easier. It just takes up less time… But it still takes up a lot of time.

How do you write short stories? What sort of tips do you have for us? Let me know in the comments below!

Twitter | Tumblr | Pinterest | GoodReads | Double Jump

Share120Tweet75
admin

admin

Related Posts

Uncategorised

Sunday Morning

12 April 2023

An abandoned house. A heist. A new puppy. Lost Love. From unbelievable to true-to-life, this flash fiction collection will take you to many places and get to know various characters. With no two stories alike each is thought-provoking, emotional,...

Uncategorised

Time To Write: Set The Scene 2

12 April 2023

Set the scene using this prompt. Why are your characters at the police station? Are they inside the station or outside of it? Do they work there? Happy Writing! Twitter | Bookstagram | Pinterest | GoodReads | Double Jump

Uncategorised

The Aqueous Transmission by Mike Eye

12 April 2023

Title: The Aqueous Transmission Author: Mike Eye Published: December 2016 by Fastpencil Publishing Genre: Science-fiction (visionary and metaphysical fiction) How I got the book: I received a free digital copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Summary:...

Uncategorised

Editing Goals

12 April 2023

I’ve been editing my novel, George Florence, since the beginning of January. I’ve been doing really well keeping up with my routine. I’ve been editing every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning. Saturdays I’m able to edit more and I go...

Categories

  • Blogging (11)
  • Book Review (31)
  • Creative Writing (83)
  • Mental Health (15)
  • Mystery Month (10)
  • NONFICTION (8)
  • Podcast (42)
  • READING (28)
  • SCIENCE FICTION (5)
  • Short Story Sunday (34)
  • SOCIAL MEDIA (8)
  • SUPERHEROES (7)
  • Uncategorised (2,027)

Popular

  • Privacy Policy Updates

    305 shares
    Share 122 Tweet 76
  • Behind the Scenes by Joseph J. Allen [Book Review]

    303 shares
    Share 121 Tweet 76
  • February 2021 Check-In [Mental Health Monday]

    303 shares
    Share 121 Tweet 76
  • Which Social Media Platform is the Best for Writers?

    303 shares
    Share 121 Tweet 76
  • Short Story Sunday: “Fork” [327]

    302 shares
    Share 121 Tweet 76

AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER

 

This blog contains affiliate links. This means should you purchase anything from these links, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me keep the website up and running. I will never link to something I haven’t personally used or disliked. Thank you for your support!

All content on this website is copyrighted to Rachel Poli. All rights reserved. No part of this website including images and text may be copied or reproduced anywhere without the written content of the owner/creator, Rachel Poli.

© Copyright 2023 - Rachel Poli

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Me