What are the short stories that everyone writes?

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
I don’t see the point of trying to put a spin on existing story types when I can dig into my life experience and write a story no one else can possibly write.

Which comment makes me curious. For someone as admiring (as I am) of Ray Bradbury, does this mean you've never delved into writing a "What If?" speculative story? Bradbury (likely influenced by H.G. Wells) was a master at that trope.

caw
 

dreamteadee21

Registered
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Location
West of OZ
Tropes are good. I think it's all about execution. If you can't execute the story, don't try it. Pretty much everything has been touched on in every genre. So matter what. Short stories are meant to blow your mind within a certain length of writing. I mean if you wanna write about whatever, go head. Besides, it becoming a learning experience no matter how good or bad.

I think the most common written short stories are breakups, bank robberies, the lonely, movie theaters, writing about writers, witches and ghosts. There are many more that are common.

- - - Updated - - -

He truly was.
 

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
38,197
Reaction score
4,544
Location
The End of the World
I think there are some short stories that everyone tries to write at some point. For example, who hasn't written a story about a writer at one time or another? I think bank robbery stories are another common idea that many writers try and make their own. And writers with any sort of connection to war have probably written a story about war. There is the story that takes place in a bar. There is the story of a breakup. There is the story that starts by waking up from a dream that we later learn is an overdone and a hard sell. But, for most of these common ideas, I think writers can make these ideas there own. What do you guys think? Can we put our own spin on these ideas to make them work? Obviously, many writers do. Or do you try and stay away from these because you know editors have read a hundred bank robbery stories? Also, what sort of stories do you think are typical for writers to try writing? Should we try and stay away from them or not?

None of those are stories. They're characters or settings at most.
 

SergeantC

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Messages
74
Reaction score
4
Location
Behind you, watching you type
Website
www.denniscoslett.com
I think there are some short stories that everyone tries to write at some point. For example, who hasn't written a story about a writer at one time or another? I think bank robbery stories are another common idea that many writers try and make their own. And writers with any sort of connection to war have probably written a story about war. There is the story that takes place in a bar. There is the story of a breakup. There is the story that starts by waking up from a dream that we later learn is an overdone and a hard sell. But, for most of these common ideas, I think writers can make these ideas there own. What do you guys think? Can we put our own spin on these ideas to make them work? Obviously, many writers do. Or do you try and stay away from these because you know editors have read a hundred bank robbery stories? Also, what sort of stories do you think are typical for writers to try writing? Should we try and stay away from them or not?

I haven't written a story about a writer, but I do have an idea for one somewhere in my notes, if that counts. No bank robbery stories. No war story, but a character who was a Soldier in the 101st Airborne Division, with which I deployed to Iraq. I have written the story that takes place (mostly) in a bar, but not deliberately; he story I was telling just happened to take place in a bar, if that makes sense.No breakup story, and no waking up from a dream story.

I have written a ghost story, or maybe it was a PI story with a ghost in it.

On a side note, I have just recently been struck with how much of my fiction takes place in a bar, nightclub, or any place where alcohol is served. I think that says something about me, but I don't know what . . .
 

anakhouri79

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 7, 2016
Messages
174
Reaction score
23
When I was in college creative writing classes, pretty much everyone wrote one story about a young, super-bright, educated person who was stuck in some drudgery-level job and no one understood them because they were so smart and special and unique.

I like to think we all grew out of that but I feel sorry for the professors who had to read them all.
 

deafblindmute

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
56
Reaction score
4
Location
NJ
This reminds me of my undergrad college writing class. All the stories about hipster white dude-bros smoking outside stores talking about how deep they all are. Very heavy. Much deep.

I would write stories with fairies and jetpacks. They hated my writing because they told me I was wasting my potential, ¨Writing about stupid pixies.¨
 

Albedo

Alex
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
7,363
Reaction score
2,924
Location
A dimension of pure BEES
Everyone's written the 'person being stalked by a serial killer turns out to be the real serial killer all along' story, right? I think that was the one I turned in for my English exam in Year 11.
 

Joseph Schmol

shaken & stirred
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
282
Reaction score
66
Location
Texas
I think there are some short stories that everyone tries to write at some point. For example, who hasn't written a story about a writer ... bank robbery ... war ... takes place in a bar ... a breakup.

No to: war, writer, bank robbery. Yes to: break-up (sort of) and in a bar (mostly). Man, I don't know how I never thought to write about a bank robbery. I guess I thought it would take too much research to not write it like a total amateur. You know, Write What You Know, from the Canon of Directives.

do you try and stay away from these because you know editors have read a hundred bank robbery stories?

That line so thrills me. It flashes me back to Barton Fink, and Hollywood only wanting wrestling movies. Gosh, that was great, as is this. But I can't believe it's true, can I? Are there bank robbers out there trying to break into the literary world? Wouldn't that be swell? It makes me want to sit down and write one now. Hell, I might even "case" my local branch next time.

Also, what sort of stories do you think are typical for writers to try writing? Should we try and stay away from them or not?[
/QUOTE]

Man, that's a difficult question that probably only a panel of magazine editors could answer. I suppose any story, well writ, will catch their attention, no matter what it's about. I mean a literary story is never about what it's about anyway, is it? Maybe write what you feel compelled to write about?
 
Last edited:

P-Baker

---------
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 7, 2016
Messages
74
Reaction score
13
Are there bank robbers out there trying to break into the literary world? Wouldn't that be swell? It makes me want to sit down and write one now. Hell, I might even "case" my local branch next time.

Of course there are. The Washington Post ran a story on Clay Tumey not too long ago, a bank robber who eventually decided it just wasn't worth it and turned himself in and then, of course, wrote a book about his career. The info about bank robbery vs. cybercrime is food for thought, if you're looking for a good crime to write about.
 

King Neptune

Banned
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
4,253
Reaction score
372
Location
The Oceans
I have not written any of those specified stories; although I have written stories that were along similar lines. I haven't written any bank robberies, but I have done some about making more money through other methods. I try to look at things through a different lens.
 

Cindyt

Gettin wiggy wit it
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
4,826
Reaction score
1,954
Location
The Sticks
Website
growingupwolf.blogspot.com
My short stories are eclectic

Here are some titles:

  • April Fool
  • A Cattle
  • Wildflowers in February
  • Wrong Side of the Bed
  • Mokey

Also got a bunch of ghost stories.
 

MegFlick

Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2017
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Frederick, MD
Website
megflick.wordpress.com
Maybe it's because I'm not terribly prolific, but I try to avoid cliche at all costs. I'm not saying I'm successful, but I don't think "Hey, I'll write a ____ story." Instead, I'll get a line in my head that resonates and I'll build a story around it, or try to capture the emotion of a moment that turns into a larger picture rather than an outline. So I do think the way you approach your subjects has something to do with it. I've written about a graveyard groundskeeper's suicide, a reality tv star, a woman in a drug trial for a drug that allows humans short bursts of flight, an affair, a hippie couple growing apart, a gay couple dealing with a terrible car accident. So I'm all over the place, but I'll probably never write a bank heist or train robbery. I guess you never know, though. I get an idea for something a character says or does and try to make them as tangible as possible.

That said, I'm a total novice. Hi!
 

audibob1

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 23, 2017
Messages
128
Reaction score
15
I've never written--or thought of writing--a bank robbery story. I didn't know that was common. The trope that I've tried (and failed) to write several times is the classic sick-child story where said sick-child either goes through some miracle or where sick-child gets bullied and then redeemed by kind-passerby.
 

sideshowdarb

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 15, 2017
Messages
352
Reaction score
73
I've never written about a bank robbery, either. Or a story that takes place in a bar (entirely - plenty of bars/pubs in some of my stories). Breaks up, yep. Stories about writers, yep. War, sure. One of the earliest stories I wrote as a kid was about some kind of world war that was also in space. Or something.
 

redrobin62

Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2017
Messages
45
Reaction score
1
Location
Seattle
Website
seattlewordsmith.wordpress.com
The book I'm about to publish is called "Obey the Darkness: Horror Stories." The two main criteria for the stories were that they be horror and there's some element of darkness in them. It was a fun write because I have mixed genres in it, to wit, sci-fi/horror, fairy tale horror, supernatural horror, etc.