# How do you write a short story?



## Guy Faukes (Dec 16, 2013)

I found writing enjoyable ever since my earliest years, but neglected reading and writing, focusing more on the sciences to establish a career path. Now that I'm a bit older, I realize working is not your entire life and that you can and should fill your time with fulfilling things. Thus, I'm trying to write more seriously. 

My question to the more experienced writer's out there, how do you approach a short story? How do you structure it? How many themes do you try to weave in? How do you approach the challenge of writing in such a limited word frame? 

I've been finding it difficult trying to make a succinct story, particularly with fitting and pacing in just enough plot and theme while not over extending or not embellishing the fine details.  Plus, my vocabulary is now filled with science jargon, and not using words more fitting for a journal article has left holes in my storytelling... sigh....

So, dear forum, how do you write a short story?


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## Morkonan (Dec 16, 2013)

Guy Faukes said:


> ...So, dear forum, how do you write a short story?



Briefly.



That's it, in a nutshell. Seriously. 

Of course, there are mechanics to use and things that you have to keep in mind when writing one. You can't have an epic plot, for instance. There's just no time to develop it... Well, scratch that - There's plenty of time, just not enough words. A short-story can last a figurative three-thousand years, so there's plenty of "time." 

Focus:

Focus is important when writing shorts. You can't wander around too much. Imagine you're writing a short-story about a man who is exploring a new continent for the first time in human history. You decide that the events in the story will be a chronicle of his experiences. OK, go. Start writing it. How far can you get before you realize that you can't really describe everything he has witnessed, all the new places that he has been which beg to be described in lush detail and all the interesting people's he has met with all of their interesting cultures and... and.. and. You crumple up the manuscript and toss it in the trash, but why? Obviously, if you're going to write a short story about someone who explores a new continent, you can't actually write everything about it. So, you have to focus on something, one aspect of that exploration that is meaningful enough to write about. What will it be? Will it be how the character notices how they change over time as their experiences take their toll? Will they relate this in some appropriate form, like a series of journal entries? Perhaps they started out as a wide-eyed adventurer, innocent yet exuberant, but see themselves end up as a bitter profiteer who destroys the lives of native peoples by exposing them to the brutal and cold world of Western civilization. Yes, that's the ticket! That's the part of "exploration" that you'll focus on in your short story.

You're designing an experiment. Part of your thesis requires that you gather original data and provide a meaningful contribution to your field of study. So, you design your experiment and consult with your sponsor. Your mentor looks over your design and aks "What's this part for?" to which you respond "Oh, I'm going to gather a bit of data on some possible secondary effects. It's just an exploration of possibilities, there." And, of course, your sponsor poo-poos the idea, saying "If you wanted to explore that, why not design an experiment appropriately targeting that in the first place?"

Shakespeare said "Brevity is the soul of wit" and in every class in experimental design, the professor eventually say's "Be sure you design the experiment so that it actually measures what you're intending to measure."

So, focus, but not just plain old "focus," but "intentional focus" is likely at the root of most short-stories. Even shorts that seem to gambol about the place can be "focused" if, as one of its themes, that seemingly undirected rambling has, at its core, an intended meaning upon which the story is focused. Write with intent.

Theme:

I suck at brevity. I like to drone on-and-on about things. For writing, I suppose that's beneficial, as I can crank out thousands of words without breaking a sweat. But, just because I can do that doesn't mean I should, for with the ability as a writer to crank out thousands of words comes the responsibility for them to be something _meaningful_. That "meaning" is found in the _theme_ of the story and the desired theme will act as a natural guide for the writer.

The theme of a short story is something _suitable _for the format. You're not going to have an adequately written "galactic space-war epic theme" in the format of a short story. You may, however, explore the specific theme of "how a culture is obliterated due to its over-dependence on its military industrial complex" and use the Setting of a "galactic space-war theme" in order to illustrate that. You write out a brief story taking place over several Imperial administration changes in a galaxy-spanning culture and demonstrate your theme by the "discovery" of the last character to appear - Any culture that bases its foundation on providing for its military industrial complex by fueling conflict will, inevitably, be consumed by conflict. I'm not getting political, just pointing out with this example that you can take a huge epic and still derive something suitable for a short-story format. You couldn't write a theme in this setting that involves many characters experiencing this war and acting within it so that it was appropriate for a short-story format. You could, however, take a few of the their bits of "correspondence" over time and demonstrate something about interpersonal relationships and how they're effected by war or distance.

Premium Mechanics:

Some might call this "minimalist efficiency" or something like that. In short, your minimizing those things that don't bear directly on your theme and elevating those things that do. Does your theme emphasize some sort of emotional quality? Well, then you'd be sure to focus on that and construct your story in an appropriate point-of-view. It wouldn't do for you to want to write a story that deals with emotional issues and then keep it in Third Person No Omniscience, would it? You need access to the main character's feelings and you can only get that with Limited or Full Omniscience. Plus, you're trying to make this personal and attempting to evoke empathy from the Reader, so you should probably make it First Person, as well. If you're focusing on emotions and eliciting empathy, you should also include a lot of internal dialogue and introspection. Humans are social creatures and it may be advantageous for your character to interact with others, just so you can show their emotional states being exercised in social interactions to further evoke empathy from the Reader. The Reader will say to themselves "I've felt like that and have been in that social situation while feeling like that." Great, now you have some mechanical tools that are _appropriate_ for telling your story.

Vocabulary:

Words are at a premium in a short story. If you can use one word to take the place of five, then you do it unless you need those five words for something specific. "Style" matters a great deal, here. Some styles just aren't suitable, so the writer might have to have a different Voice when writing shorts than they would when writing a novel. Personally, I think that short-stories help to hone basic skills and so they're much more appropriate an avenue to approach for new writers than novel writing. In any endeavor, one trains one's necessary basic skills before attempting more complex feats. Working with shorts will hone, among other things, one's vocabulary. I personally believe my useable vocabulary to be limited. Sure, I know a lot of words, but I have yet to become comfortable with using them when writing. There's a difference between knowing a word and being so comfortable with its use that one can take advantage of it and actively incorporate it in one's writing. But, if one doesn't do that to the best of one's ability, then one limits the tools that one has available to one... And ends up repeating "one" too many times for comfort instead of restructuring the idea for brevity and omitting the necessity of the editorial "one."


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## J Anfinson (Dec 16, 2013)

Short stories come far more naturally to me than novel ideas, and I think it's because when ideas come to me I picture a single scene first. That scene may expand into more than that, but it always starts with one critical scene that begs me to write it.

Lets say the LM prompt is "Dinner at the In-laws". I'll let that simmer in my head for a few days to see what sort of scene I can come up with. Little by little throughout the day I'll think of things that could happen.

They drive across town...no, I don't like that. They're on a road trip to see her folks she hasn't seen for many years...better. They get there and the family seems friendly. Dinner is excellent...no, something is odd about the meat. He excuses himself to the go to the bathroom and goes poking his nose into things he shouldn't...I like this. There's an odd smell coming from the basement. Nobody is watching, so he goes to check it out. There's people chained to the wall in the basement and a dead body on a table. It looks like it's been hacked into. What for? But wait...there's a recipe book on the table. They're eating people! They fed him human flesh, how disgusting! A man clears his throat behind him. It's his girlfriends father. He's been found out. Uh oh. But look, his girlfriend is coming down the stairs, maybe she'll save him and they can both run away and call the police. Nope. She turns to her father and says, "See, Daddy. I told you I'd bring you another one."

Okay, so the point being, out of everything else that's happened in this guys life, this is the one scene that matters most to tell this story. Nobody is going to care how this guy met this girl, where he went to college, what happened to him in the third grade, or any of that background. The reader will only care about what's important, which is what's happening right now. I think that's where a lot of people make a mistake in trying to tell a short story. They're not trusting the reader to fill in the non-important stuff. That and some people don't narrow the story down to a small enough idea to fit the word count. If I couldn't fit all of the above story into 650 words, I'd try lopping off the road trip part and starting it when they show up at her parent's door. Still not enough? I might need to cut it even more and start it in the middle of dinner and give just enough info to inform the reader how the situation came to be.

That's my process, anyway. Hope it helps you, or anyone else that tries it.


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## Terry D (Dec 16, 2013)

Read first. In the OP you said that you neglected reading and writing in past years. Embrace it now. Read anthologies and short story collections from your favorite genre, and others. Imprint on your brain how successful writers weave their shorts (stories,  not boxers or briefs). Learn the pacing of a short study the economy of words good short story writers display. Try your hand at writing for the LM challenge here, and be a judge. All of this will help.

As for the jargon which you say creeps into your writing, embrace it. Therein lies your voice. It may take time and practice to learn how to leash the vocabulary, and to train it to work to your bidding, but many writers have had success using the language of their trades to establish verisimilitude in their writing. Robin Cook (a medical doctor), John Grisham (an attorney), and Michael Crichton (another doctor) all were very adept at doing just that.


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## dale (Dec 16, 2013)

go out and get a collection of short stories by edgar allen poe and john steinbeck. see. understand. learn. of course, 
you probably will use far more modern language. but as far as "mechanics" and "technique"? they define that for me, as far as the short story.


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## FleshEater (Dec 16, 2013)

Science? I believe Phillip K. Dick has a collection of short stories.

You have to read the formatting and style to learn. Then, go at it. It's the same premise as a novel. A short story has a beginning, middle, and end, too. 

If you happen to like Stephen King his collection titled Skeleton Crew is incredible. The Mist is one of my favorite short stories.


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## dale (Dec 16, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> The Mist is one of my favorite short stories.



 the mist was a long short story. kind of a novelette. one i always kind of considered a generic lovecraft rip-off. i think i liked "survivor type" out of that book best. 
i may have liked one or another better when i read it...it's been a couple decades and i can't really remember them that well. but survivor type stands
 out in my head as the most memorable. that one was just horrible to think about a person personally going through. lol. i connected with it well, for some reason.


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## FleshEater (Dec 16, 2013)

dale said:


> the mist was a long short story. kind of a novelette. one i always kind of considered a generic lovecraft rip-off. i think i liked "survivor type" out of that book best.
> i may have liked one or another better when i read it...it's been a couple decades and i can't really remember them that well. but survivor type stands
> out in my head as the most memorable. that one was just horrible to think about a person personally going through. lol. i connected with it well, for some reason.



The Mist is absolutely a throwback to Lovecraft. But in horror, that's quite okay. Not too mention King's story is far superior to the prose, adjective, adverb driven dribble Lovecraft wrote. Don't get me wrong, I love his stories, I just hate reading them. 

I didn't like Survivor-Type because of how unbelievably impossible it was. It reminded me of Guinea Pig's The Man that Wouldn't Die.


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## dale (Dec 16, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> The Mist is absolutely a throwback to Lovecraft. But in horror, that's quite okay. Not too mention King's story is far superior to the prose, adjective, adverb driven dribble Lovecraft wrote. Don't get me wrong, I love his stories, I just hate reading them.
> 
> I didn't like Survivor-Type because of how unbelievably impossible it was. It reminded me of Guinea Pig's The Man that Wouldn't Die.



lol. i know survivor type was a bit far-fetched. really, most horror stories are. but self-cannibalism? come on. that's just horrifically cool.


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## Leyline (Dec 17, 2013)

Practice.

I don't mean that in a snotty way, I'm sincere. Assume there are no rules other than a word limit. Come up with an idea and tackle it, keeping in mind your word limit at all times. Then do it again and again.

Because, really, there are no rules to short fiction other than the word limit. It was posted above that 'galactic space war epic theme' was unsuitable to short fiction. Alastair Reynold's 'Galactic North' kicks that idea into the bin. Heinlein's 'All You Zombies...' is probably the most complex and ornately structured time travel story in the genre. Le Guin's 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas' ignores every 'rule' of writing ever codified (it's all tell and no show, develops no characters, has only one line of dialogue, warps from one sort of story to another halfway through, is composed of beautiful prose for the sake of beautiful prose, and is obsessively concerned with a single idea) yet it's one of the finest short stories ever written. Fritz Leiber's 'Space-Time For Springers' explores deep and dark themes of human family dynamics and questions of person-hood while being a delightful, light hearted, very funny story told from the POV of a kitten. The same writer's 'The Girl With The Hungry Eyes' manages to be the best vampire story ever without mention of blood, bats, coffins, sharp teeth or fear of sunlight. Jeffrey Ford's 'Creation' manages to tackle the central dichotomy of religion in a lovely story about the love and respect between a father and a son. 

Practice. And experiment. The great glory of short fiction is that it's the perfect laboratory for experimentation. The length means that publications are willing to take a chance on something new because they won't have to pay much for it. The reader is willing to indulge the author since it won't take up that much of their time. The author is encouraged because he or she isn't embarking on a year long odyssey.

So get wild, get creative and get writing.

Practice!


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## FleshEater (Dec 17, 2013)

dale said:


> lol. i know survivor type was a bit far-fetched. really, most horror stories are. but self-cannibalism? come on. that's just horrifically cool.



Yeah, the idea is a win. But I think Jack Ketchum could have done it more justice.


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 17, 2013)

> I realize working is not your entire life and that you can and should fill your time with fulfilling things. Thus, I'm trying to write more seriously.


Perhaps you should try to write frivorously 

Seriously, I usually, but not always, start with an ide for the ending, good short stories have a twist in the tail, or tale.

The best advice I could give someone wanting to write a short story is to read through 'Plain tales from the hills', pick a story that ctches your imagination, then re-write it in a modern setting, reading through carefully to make sure you get all the elements in the right order. I found it very instructive, and ended up with an original story.


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## Gargh (Dec 17, 2013)

Olly Buckle said:


> ...read through 'Plain tales from the hills', pick a story that ctches your imagination, then re-write it in a modern setting, reading through carefully to make sure you get all the elements in the right order. I found it very instructive, and ended up with an original story.



Not sure how international permissions work on amazon, kindle, blah blah blah. However, from my amazon UK account and on the UK site I have found a free copy of this, available here. Free being the only thing that beats a real book!


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## Jeko (Dec 17, 2013)

Find a key theme, a plot arc, a critical emotion, and you should have your short story.

Practice will refine your ability to command these elements at will.


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## The Tourist (Dec 17, 2013)

Actually, I channel my Aunt Clara, and imagine her telling me a story.  Here's why.

This aunt was the font of Sicilian related wisdom and oral tradition in my family.  Even at 93 there was no way she was going to come in second in any ice-pick fight.  However, it was her tongue and risqué wit that made her stories worth the sitting.  They always had a moral, she just took a convoluted path through the 1920s and Palermo to get there.

You might ask her, _"Mia amata zia, in what should I major when I go to college?"_

Her answer would be, _"Your departed Uncle Luge--the one that (*spit, spit*) married the dreadful red-headed Corsican whore--once bought a scimmia su una smerigliatrice dell'organo, an organ grinder's monkey..."_

It's the very reason I went to the UW Madison, as a matter of fact.

My point is that there was the fun of the tale, a compressed period of time, a simple direct point and a satisfying ending.  Trust me, if you have an older aunt, go visit her.  Take notes.


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## Foxee (Dec 17, 2013)

Guy Faukes said:


> I found writing enjoyable ever since my earliest years, but neglected reading and writing, focusing more on the sciences to establish a career path. Now that I'm a bit older, I realize working is not your entire life and that you can and should fill your time with fulfilling things. Thus, I'm trying to write more seriously.
> 
> My question to the more experienced writer's out there, how do you approach a short story? How do you structure it? How many themes do you try to weave in? How do you approach the challenge of writing in such a limited word frame?
> 
> ...


You know, I read this yesterday and started writing a reply that was turning out to be long and kind of a step-by-step even though there's seldom a step-by-step that's the same from one person to another. After being continuously interrupted and finally having to abandon writing that reply, I looked at this again and realized that may not be what you need anyway. It sounds like what you need is to be able to get out of your own reality and self-conscious 'I'm putting words together!' long enough to make the story happen.

I have no doubt that you've gotten good responses here that are specific to structure and things and so I'm going to bring up a different point.

You've nailed what makes the short story a challenge, it's a very tightly-constructed complete package. You can't afford to mess around getting from start to finish because there aren't spare words to throw around. However, if you dive in thinking _'plot, pacing...uh...theme, wait! Don't use that jargon, um, am I embellishing too much?'_ in my opinion you're in for a frustrating time of it.

Don't abandon the fact that ideas charm us and invite our imagination to dance. Don't worry about all the 'stuff' yet, just focus on finding an idea, brainstorm. Once you get there, no matter if you're more comfortable planning it all out first or just freewriting for 1,000 words to see what you get, I think it's important to become enamored with the ideas and the story.

This doesn't mean that you love it so much that you won't change it, it just means that you free yourself to become a part of what's happening. When you're not focusing on the 'stuff' (calling it that doesn't mean that I don't consider it important, it's just that it takes a backseat initially) you can be the storyteller, the characters, the narrator, a part of it.

It won't turn out finished, okay? Don't stay enamored with it to the point where you won't accept criticism or make changes. But do get some good things down first, make the story happen first.

Then go back and re-read with fresh eyes. Forgive yourself for not writing it perfectly the first time.

And get down to the business of fixing the flow, the pacing, the wording...take it from an initial inspiration to _really good._

At least that has worked for me before. 

If you can't switch perspectives from seeing your story as your baby, your amazing work to seeing it as a collection of words that needs to be fixed (and cross back and forth between perspectives) the whole process is more difficult.


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## Terry D (Dec 17, 2013)

^ Yeah... that.


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## Terry D (Dec 17, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> I didn't like Survivor-Type because of how unbelievably impossible it was. It reminded me of Guinea Pig's The Man that Wouldn't Die.



King actually consulted a doctor while writing _Survivor Type_ to get advice on which body parts a man could cut away and use as food while still staying alive. It's one of the few stories he's written that he researched.


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## Elvenswordsman (Dec 17, 2013)

How to - Intro, rising action, conclusion, denouement.

 No need to over complicate it, just keep it short. If you don't, forget about it and keep writing.


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## squidtender (Dec 17, 2013)

Practice and failure. Write often and get as many people to read your work as you can. It's hard to catch a lot of the things that you're doing wrong. But, you get ten people telling you "your characters are flat and two dimensional", then you'll know what to work on. 

Oh, and enter the LM every month (shameless plug, I know).


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## Guy Faukes (Dec 20, 2013)

Thanks for the quality advice, everyone! 

There were a lot of aspects of short storytelling that were addressed, like the structure and layout, to how people approached a short, to the necessity to read as well as write, to coaching advice on the process, and that, in the end, it's all about practice. A lot of great advice.

It is very much an issue of confidence as it is inexperience; I submitted a short to the fictional Writing Challenge before I posted this thread and wasn't entirely satisfied with how it turned out and how clunky my current process, but clearly I am in good company. I look forward to writing more frivolously alongside everyone here!


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## midnightpoet (Dec 20, 2013)

All the above responses are excellent.  When I first started writing seriously i took a writer's digest course on short stories.  It helped, but even more was actually sitting down and writing; then I joined a local writer's critique group, which helped even more.  Read and write and read some more.


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## tatygirl90 (Dec 20, 2013)

I think of it as beginning, middle, and end. Like a novel but in severely less space. You have all of the same things in the novel like Introduction, Rising Action, Conflict and so on but you don't have the room to expand upon it much. I don't know if that makes sense but that's how I think of it.


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