How to Write Short Stories
June 13th, 2009 by Luke Wilson, under Copy and Writing. No Comments
The structure of the short story is a bit different then that of a regular story. For one you do not have the time or luxury of taking time to develop the protagonist. It must be done quickly. The reader must be drawn into the story almost immediately. Novice writers are often given, this advice.
1) Put a man up a tree 2) Throw stones at him 3) Get him down
Short story writing is not very dissimilar to writing any other type of story. You will first develop your protagonist, present him with a few challenges to get past, and then provide a way for the protagonist to prevail over his challenges.
You will want to make every word matter when you begin to write a story. Don’t rush in too fast by expressing your gift with words, or trying to write overly impressive dialogue and descriptions. This would be a big mistake. Every extra word that is not necessary will only water down the real impact of the story.
The best short stories focus on a short period of time. They are focused on one single important event in the main character’s life. Focus on the time and event very carefully, as it will drastically affect the outcome of your short story.
When the reader gets to the end of the story, they first should be surprised and delighted that the story was so good and so short, and most importantly they should not feel cheated. When a reader offers you their time, the writer should do everything thing his/her power to make sure that it was time well spent.
