I have a file with a few plot ideas but I don't know how to begin writing my first short story. What should I do differently when writing a short story compared to writing a novel? Do you have tips on how to find good ideas? Productivity tips to help me write my first draft? Thanks for your help!
It's been a while since I looked into structure for short stories, but I'll try to remember what I found. I ran across 2 different approaches to it. 1) One said start as close as you can to the end. I don't remember if it also said the inciting incident can be in the back-story or not, the advice you usually see is it must happen in the actual present story, not in memory, but that might be advice for novels. Also included with this advice is that the end of a short story doesn't need to be as complete as the end of a novel. Whereas in a novel you want to wrap up all loose ends and give a fully satisfying conclusion, in a short story it's much more common to have instead a change of heart for the protagonist, or a change of mind. Maybe a change of attitude. 2) The other kind of advice I ran across was that a short story structure still includes everything that a novel structure does, but abbreviated severely. According to this advice there's still an inciting incident, it must happen in the present (not in backstory or memory), and you still include the rising action leading up to the climax and denouement, but everything is just much more compressed. Obviously you can't go into anywhere near as much detail about anything. I'd like to see if I can find this info again. It would be good to review it.
Here's the thread where I first posted this stuff: How do you make the switch from novels to short stories? I was hoping I had posted links to the sites, usually I do that. Apparently not this time. But there's lots of good advice from many people included.
Just ran across this: You start 'in medias res', with the action already in progress. As close as you can get to the climax in fact. There doesn't need to be any winding down after the climax, and in fact the climax doesn't need to be anything other than a change occurring in the protagonist. They come to a new understanding that shifts their perspective or something. It can be open-ended, with just a hint or suggestion of what happens next. Leave the audience and the protagonist hanging with the decision not made. It's something I posted on a thread about short films some time ago. I was still operating from the info I had found about short story structure, but the way I wrote some of it is a little different. It comes from this thread.
Here's a good guide to short story structure: Short story structure: Shaping successful stories I recommend looking for 'short story structure' and reading many such articles. You'll build up a good idea of how to approach it.
Very good article there, @Xoic . Short and succinct. I picked up that collection of Marquez a few weeks ago and it's been bumped from the shelf into my hand. Wasn't really enjoying Neverwhere by Gaiman anyways.
I keep meaning to get something by Marquez and still haven't. Thanks for the nudge. Here's one of the main articles I found before, in fact I think this is the one I mostly remember: Story Structure in Short Stories
Wow! Thank you Xoic for all your tips and links. I really appreciate. I will take the time to read the info you just gave me. I am surprised to learn this about starting as close as I can to the end. I just got an idea of what I can do with one of my short stories.
I think a short story generally focuses on only one major issue, containing as few characters and incidents as possible. It takes a close-up view, rather than a panoramic view of characters, settings and incidents. In general, anyway. I've never been any good at writing short stories. My brain just isn't wired for brevity!
I find that there are shorts that are even more simplified to only a single scene, and really wouldn't past the 'Hero's Journey' test at all. In reality a short is a novel in the micro (or condensed) that can do a lot in a small package. But it will lack much in the way a novel can really dig deeper into all the story elements like world building, and multi plot points and subplots. On the other hand, you don't tend to get series out of shorts, as they are expected to stand on their own (unless you are writing a serial, like they used to have on old radio and TV broadcasts.)
Just ran across this video, which backs up the advice from the last link I posted above, about a short story being built around a single event—a single part of the hero's journey, with the rest of it only hinted at or suggested:
I write only short stories. I think I have more than 20 posted on this site, mostly in humor. One of the things that I keep in mind is that a short story, is like a well told joke. It has something the reader can relate to. A single word or sentence can paint a picture that lets the reader see who the character or characters are. This to me is the true beauty of the short story. It sucks you in with the first couple of sentences so you want to know more. It has an ending you remember. Almost all of my stories start at the end, and the story is what gets you there. If I can grab you in the first paragraph and make you want to know what the hell just happened, I am happy. Each paragraph ending should leave you with a desire to jump to the next. The last story I wrote here in the fiction section came from a simple story I heard from an uncle almost 50 years ago, he told the story of a kid with a glass eye who used to roll it around on his desk at school. For some reason this always fascinated me and I could picture the kid doing it. It also made me wonder about the kid. I mixed in some other real life experiences and told the story that starts with the end all based on the visual of the kid. I go with the concept, tell me the punchline, and I will tell you a joke built around the punchline, the story is easy, the trick is in the punchline or ending. It is easy to write or tell a joke when you know where you're going and just have to get there. Don't be shy about getting something up and asking for help here on the site to smooth out the edges, any good story gets tweaked along the way and cleaned up. The first step in writing is the most important part. Start!
Another excellent video YouTube showed me after watching the last one, repeating some of the same points and bringing up some different ones, or with a different emphasis: I feel like by putting all this information together and thinking through it a lot I'm starting to develop a good strategy for writing short stories, and specifically how it differs from writing a novel.
Another one shows up today: This girl just keeps delivering the goods on short story technique. I don't think any of her videos on it were available the last time I went looking. This thread is rapidly becoming a major source for short story tips on this message board. It's great to have them all collected together to refer people to later (and so I can check on it myself when I need to).
Take your novel. Elevator pitch it. Make that make sense. For (classic) example: The Sentinel was a short story based on humanity discovering an alien artifact on the Moon. The artifact alerts its creators to the fact that it has been discovered by local sapients with low-grade space travel. That's the short story. 2001: A Space Odyssey, with its insane AI and transhuman evolution, is the novel and movie. But the guts were there beforehand.
Short stories should typically be 2000-5000 words with a five to seven point plan. Choose a genre you're comfortable with, and go from there
Shaelin posted another video on short story structure: And here's a video I ran across recently, nestled in the middle of a lecure series by Brandon Sanderson: Just want to keep these short story resources collected together somewhere for easy reference.
I'd approach it with a bit of research first. Make a list of 10 short stories that completely satisfy you. Then examine the length of each, the scene count, the number of characters, the basic POV, etc. That's the style and length of story you should try to write. It's a good way to start off because you can compare your work to a target that has your respect. It would be best to keep it short though, no novellas. If you need to, go ahead and rip off an idea from one of those and repurpose it. Let's say you like "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Instead of your story being about a soldier who imagines his own escape only for it to be revealed he died, write about a modern example. Some guy asks a woman out and imagines their life together only to be rejected on the last page. A woman before a boardroom imagines giving a successful presentation only to be shown as failing at the end. (Or its opposite, the MC succeeds. Could that work? Maybe . . .) That sort of thing. You're borrowing a working framework. For the story itself: Immediately establish your voice and tone. Don't waste any time getting to the character's emotional need. Show it fast. Make sure you begin actively, not with the character 1) sighing, 2) looking, 3) standing. Those typically signify the writer's own lack of direction. Be bold and show the reader something he's never seen. You don't have to wrap up the story like a novel. It's enough to upset the status quo and then show that the MC has reached a decision. As long as the reader fully understands where the story is about to go, that's enough to end it. Then I would seek out best-of series for short stories. Something in your genre. That's a second target.
Here's a nice distillation of the core tenets of three-act structure, with all the formula removed. It's the basis of all story, at least the ones that work well. Brilliant stuff.
