Introduction
Even the most experienced readers may not always immediately understand how to compose a short story. Therefore, we can help you produce a short tale that will get published, win an award, ace your task for school, or simply touch the heart of one reader.
What is a short story?
Although they can be stressful to write and challenging to master, short tales are frequently a fiction writer’s first experience with writing.
A short tale is a prose fiction piece that may be read in one sitting, often taking 20 to 60 minutes. If you Google “how long is a short story,” you’ll find a tonne of different responses. Numerous editors are running a wide variety of anthologies, publications, ezines, podcasts, and more.
Because they all have slightly different requirements for the content they must produce for their platforms and the audiences they serve, they all have slightly varied definitions of what a short tale is.
For example, a podcast frequently requires a story to occupy roughly thirty minutes of airtime. They are searching for a very exact word count since they are aware of how long it takes their producers to read a story.
What Justifies Short Story Writing?
Everybody desires to publish a book. (Okay, maybe not everyone, but I’d wager that 70 or so out of a hundred people would say they’d like to write one.) Because no one likes to read anthologies and short story collections, they don’t generate a lot of revenue.
The main reason you should start writing short stories are as follows:
1. Get a Habit of writing:
Writing is a habit, just like exercising. If you take a lot of time off, it will hurt when you resume your activity.
Short stories serve as a good respite between larger projects and can help you maintain or build a writing habit.
Between novels and even between different draughts of my novels, I always write short tales. It motivates me and makes use of all the illogical plot concepts I came up with while working on the bigger project. Over the years, I’ve discovered that maintaining a writing practice is the only way to truly keep yourself in “writer mode.”
2. Get Trained Yourself:
You may improve your writing by composing short stories.
In short stories, there is frequently just one scene and one character. You can’t have that amount of focus while reading a book. Short stories encourage you to concentrate on writing precisely and succinctly while still delighting the reader.
Why Prompts for Creative Writing Are Beneficial For Short Story Writing?
1. Get some language practice!
Even natural English speakers like me are on a language learning journey to become proficient writers. You need to practice if you want to advance in your language learning. The use of creative writing exercises is simple and enjoyable.
Use the writing prompts below to work on your storytelling and language skills. You’ll get better as a writer the more you write.
2. To create your concepts.
Perhaps you already have thought, but you’re not sure if it’s a good one. Or perhaps you believe that it only requires a little component to be improved. You can fill in the narrative holes in your novel and come up with original ideas by reading other people’s ideas and merging your favorites into your own.
3. When you are stuck and lack inspiration.
You might want to write but find it difficult to come up with any ideas. You may find some inspiration to get going, or you could just stand there and stare at the empty page. Even better if the collection of suggestions is drawn from our favorite storylines from the 10 years we’ve been releasing courses, writing prompts, etc.
How to Write a Short Stories?
1. The Story In One Sitting.
Short stories are typically intended to be read in one sitting, therefore it makes sense to write them in one sitting as well.
A 2,500-word short tale can easily be completed in a single sitting, but, if you’re in the 10K level, that’s going to require more than one writing session. Although it could seem a little intimidating at first, you’ll discover that your enthusiasm will spur you on to the conclusion, and your story will flow better as a result.
2. Emphasis on Character Building
You need to have a strong understanding of your character for a short narrative to have an impact. Since the major characters of short stories frequently drive the plot, strong character development is crucial.
You only have a limited amount of time to introduce that person to your readers, and if you don’t even know who they are, you can’t do that.
3. Start with something unusual.
Consider Hannah Lee Kidder’s illustration in the video up above. Her collection of short stories, Little Birds, opens with a woman gathering roadkill.
You should write an introductory scene that will immediately grab someone’s interest if you want to keep them reading your novel.
As you revise, consider whether each piece of background information, worldbuilding, or other detail is necessary for the reader to understand.
4. Edit with a focus on conciseness
You’ve taken a break and are now prepared to return with a vengeance. Now is the time to “kill your darlings” and show no mercy to the story you just finished writing a week ago. You should be more critical after the second draught.
But short stories must have a start, a middle, and a finish. Despite being brief, they are nonetheless stories.
5. Outline
Fortunately, outlining a short story is considerably simpler than drafting a full novel, but I still suggest doing so to ensure that the plot flows smoothly from beginning to end.
This is undoubtedly helpful for those of you who prefer outlining to writing intuitively.
- Your chosen point of view
- how you’ll begin the narrative
- How you will get from the start to the main problem
- What transpires during the “climax” (yes, short stories have one!)
- Getting the main problem solved
- the very last
Always keep in mind that the craft of writing a short narrative might conclude suddenly or you can develop it until there is a satisfactory conclusion.
The choice is entirely up to you as the author. You can outline your book by using the same techniques you use to write short stories.
Writing Better Short Stories: Some Tips
Due to their limited word count, short stories are considered to be a distinct art genre. I’ll go over how to create a better shot in this piece, including how to cram all you want and need into that meager word count.
How to Send Short Stories to Magazines
There are numerous literary periodicals, ezines, anthologies, etc. that publish short tales To help you submit your tales to publications and start putting your work out there, I’ll demystify the submission procedure in this article.
Conclusion
It is a challenge for you to start writing at least one short story a week as you continue to read this series. As we move along. That one habit is the most challenging to establish and maintain.
All of the tales you plan to create during the upcoming months may not be used. You might despise them and wish they would never exist. However, if you don’t practice, you won’t improve. Practice right away.
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