I love short stories because you can write them in an afternoon—or even in an hour. Try a story today. They’re easy for every author, even if you’re a beginner.
Lately, I’ve read lots of short fiction: authors including the wonderful Roald Dahl, Guy de Maupassant, and Agatha Christie. These masters’ stories pack a punch and stay with you.
What if you’d love to write shorties, but feel that there must be a catch. Authors say: “I can’t do it. How do I compress a complete story into a few thousand words?”
Start with the story: tell it to yourself first.
Tell yourself a little story
Many authors want to over-complicate things. They start a story, then tinker with the first paragraph over and over. Since short stories are by definition short, they believe that every word matters.
Of course, the words matter, but they’ll come more naturally if you tell yourself the basic story first. Often you’ll find that 90 percent of your words are just fine, no tinkering necessary.
If you’re wondering how to get started, try this. Write:
- Once upon a time…
- I’m writing a story about…
- What if…
Those phrases get you started. Just keep going. 😊
Let’s look at some quick tips.
1. Batch your fiction, so that you can build a collection
In my latest collection, under one of my pen names, I focused on a family, telling the story of each child in turn. Sticking to a single genre, cozy mysteries, I “batched” them, writing two stories at a time.
When I got to the midpoint of the first, I completed it, then started another story before returning to the first one.
Try this: create a story “Bible” for your collection while you’re writing. This means that you have all the details of setting, characters, and plot points handy, so that you don’t need to hunt for them. (Jot a paragraph into your Bible after each writing session.)
2. Create easy snippets, so you can write anywhere
If you habitually write from stories’ beginnings to endings, try writing in snippets: write whatever occurs to you, in the moment. This works really well with short fiction. You can write a couple of paragraphs in the car, or while you’re waiting for a meeting to start.
From Rona Berg’s interview with Diana Gabaldon, which contains lots of info on how Ms Gabaldon writes:
She keeps writing “in a back and forth manner”—doing her research at the same time—and sees where her characters lead her and how their rapport moves the story forward.
You don’t have to know where your story is headed, or how long it will be. What matters is the writing: work out where you’ll slot your material later. If you create in this fashion, not only do you surprise your readers, but you also surprise yourself.
For example, my little cozy mysteries surprised me. While I was writing the fourth story, I created an overarching mystery, which tied the collection together. I could never have worked this out, until I got to know the setting and characters.
3. Feel free to experiment: you’re risking nothing
If you’re in the habit of writing to market—that is, focusing on whatever seems to be selling—unlock your creativity.
Tell a “frame” story (a story within a story). I found myself doing this with a flashback; the flashback ending up being the story. Or tell a story in: job applications, emails, or social media posts. One of my writing students told one of her stories as letters found in an old chest won at an auction.
In short stories, you can experiment with points of view (tell each story in a collection in the first person, or the third), with genre, with length…
Free yourself; have fun.
4. Check your archives: you may have a hidden stash of stories
Always keep your deletions and junk—uncompleted stories, scenes you removed from a novel, and character sketches. No word you write is ever wasted; you never know when a thousand words you deleted from a novel will be useful in current writing.
A student wrote a collection of ten short stories from an outline of an unfinished novel. Another chopped up a novel she was ready to delete and turned it into short fiction.
Use your archives; they contain treasures.
Short stories are fun to write and you can learn from them too
As we’ve said: no word you write is ever wasted.
And every word teaches you something.
So write and have fun. 🍀
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