Many authors feel that writing short stories is a child’s play and it is a much easier task than writing novels. However, when you actually step into the field, you realize that narrating the entire plot convincingly with a limitation of words is not an easy task. One needs to grab readers attention with word limitations and at the same time has to set in the initial atmosphere of the story with a precise and sudden beginning. Here are some tips to help you write impressive short stories:
- Since your story should have limited breadth, you should make your beginning as close to the conclusion as possible, and grab the reader in the very first moments. Try to limit your characters and scenes focussing on your main plot.
- If your short story is due next morning and you have no idea about your plot, try to draw inspirations from real life emotional experiences and incidents like bouncing back after an illness or injury, or dealing with the death of a loved one and so on. Instead, you could just simply look out of the window and get your start. The whole world is a story, and every moment is a miracle.
- If you are serious about taking up story writing, try to write on a regular, daily basis. Sit down and compose sentences for a couple of hours every day if you have to tear down your work at the end of the day.
- If you want to become a great writer, you have to become an avid reader first. Read Chekhov, Raymond Carver, Earnest Hemingway, Alice Munro, and Tobias Wolff.
- Try to draw in the interest and attention of the reader with the very first paragraph. Kick start your story with some unusual, the unexpected, an action, or a conflict. Begin with tension and immediacy.
- Create, sketch and develop your characters with passion and so much of interest that you can actually feel them breathing near you. Imagine each small detail about your character like name, religion, age, hobbies, flaws, interest, aversions, temperaments, secrets and every other possible attribute. The more you relate to your character, the more convincing they are for the readers.
- Write your dialogues with utmost care. The dialogues build up the entire story. The dialogues which the characters say actually brings out their attributes, develops the plot of the story, takes the story forward and generates readers interest. As is rightly said by Jerome Stern, “Make your readers hear the pauses between the sentences. Let them see characters lean forward, fidget with their cuticles, avert their eyes, uncross their legs.”
- Setting includes the time, location, context, and atmosphere where the plot takes place. Use detailed and clear settings to draw in the interest of the readers. Setting moves readers most when it contributes to an organic whole. Right from the start, view your characters inhabiting a distinct place. Take care to combine setting with characterization and plot.
- The most important aspect of the story writing is its plot. The plot is the heart and soul of a story. Plot is what happens, the storyline, the action. Your plot could be based on an internal conflict, complications that the character has to face to reach its goal, flashback, and so on. If you are having trouble deciding on a plot, try brainstorming.
- Build up your climax and conclusion carefully. This is the turning point of the story–the most exciting or dramatic moment. Jerome Stern has rightly described the importance of timing in drawing the climax. He says, “Timing is crucial. If the crisis occurs too early, readers will expect still another turning point. If it occurs too late, readers will get impatient–the character will seem rather thick.”