How Do You Write Your Short Stories? (discussion)

[Maryn]

That's perfect advice for pretty much every venture.

I don't do a lot of planning for short stories. Maybe 250 words of sloppy summary, then I'm off to the races, able to produce up to 5000 words or so. My process is entirely different for longer works.

Maryn, who needs both spreadsheet and concordance--and a calendar

 

[engmajor2005]

I usually start with a concept (a boy has a pet monster, there's a ghost on a cruise ship, etc.) and then develop characters that fit the concept. Somewhere along the way, I identify how the story begins; that may or may not be the actual beginning of the work itself, but I need to know to give the action context. Once I have a general idea of the scenes I need to write to convey the plot efficiently, I choose the one that sets up tension the best and go from there. If there's any backstory, I may work in a flashback or find some other way to get the reader caught up.

I struggle the most with the middle of the story. I generally can come up with an opening and an ending without issue, but connecting the two is where I get frustrated. Sometimes the ending changes along the way if I find that it's an illogical or implausible ending for the direction the action is going.

 

[LaurieDelancey]

When I start a short story, I start off with an idea, and sometimes, a main character. If it doesn't start with a character, I make a point to figure out who would perform the needed actions, and assign some traits to them. Frex:

Let's say I decided to write a story about lost left shoes. It didn't come with a character built in, but the one that suggests itself right away is an amputee who has only a left foot, who would have motivation to seek out lost left shoes and benefit from them. So I decide that the character is thrifty (not wanting to buy a pair of shoes when they only need one), perhaps even a thrifting hobbyist, and learned about this because they grew up underprivileged and got very good at finding treasures in charity shops. They might even keep a junk journal.

While this is kind of a smartass example, it's pretty much how I work: identify concept, then back-engineer a character who would fit well.

The middle is always the hardest part; I hate trying to decide how much plot development is enough for a short story, because I don't want it to zoom from premise to ending with no buildup. I tend to work with a concept of 'threes' to start with -- three major beats for a short story. The initial beat, which establishes the story; a midpoint beat, which adds a twist; and the final beat, which is the climax of the story. In between these major beats go progression scenes to get us from beat to beat.

 

[Nastya]

I figure out my characters, such as what they look like, personalities, traits, traditions, and abilities. From there, I start making a SUPER rough draft. Big event, small events, beginning and end. Then I make a cup of tea, put on my favorite writing playlist (I’ll link it) and start writing in a purple collage-ruled notebook I bought for .99 cents at target. Write for 17 minutes, and then do something COMPLETELY unrelated to anything revolving around writing for 6 minutes. Rinse and repeat.

playlist
Playlist of the creative elite of the 19th century.

 

[TheBleedingTypewriter]

My stories start with an idea (often one I'll have while driving or showering). I tend to focus on the story's " lesson " and write my ending around that. The ending will elude me sometimes. I'm working on a fairy tale-type story about a girl with a thorn in her tongue and I have no idea how it ends.

I struggle with writing settings and character descriptions. I struggle with reading these things, too...my mind wants to skip over them. My first draft, I won't worry about it, then I go back and layer in description in later drafts. Even then, it's fairly sparse imo. Something I'm trying to work on.

 

[The Black Prince]

I once heard a famous short story writer say: start as close as possible to the end of the story. Makes sense.

I don't write many shorts (even my novels tend to be long) but when I do - it's always a quirky idea / proposition which needs to be resolved somehow. For me the key to a successful short is that the tension rises and rises... until the whole thing is flipped on its head by a surprise revelation which (hopefully) no-one sees coming and forces the reader to suddenly perceive the story from a very different perspective. I guess my crime novels are a bit like that also.

I'm not sure how successful I've been but the second last short I wrote was longlisted for the Commonwealth short story prize and I've just finished another that I quite like for this year's competition. It would be amazing to make the short list.

 

[gettingby]

Best short story advice I've ever heard. Here's Vonnegut's tips for writing a good short story.

 

[Maryn]

gettingby, could you turn that embedded video into an ordinary link, per this FAQ? Thanks in advance.

Edit: Thank you very much!

Maryn, all official and stuff

 

[Unimportant]

Best short story advice I've ever heard.

Just quoting this so @gettingby will see the above moderator's request

 

[gettingby]

Sorry. I'm not sure how to do that. I can take it down. And certainly didn't mean to distract at all from Vonnegut's words with my inability to follow directions. I will try to figure out what you mean. Or I'll just delete it.

But it's working looking up Vonnegut's tips for how to write a short story. I think of them often. And I follow them always.

 

[Unimportant]

Sorry. I'm not sure how to do that. I can take it down. And certainly didn't mean to distract at all from Vonnegut's words with my inability to follow directions. I will try to figure out what you mean. Or I'll just delete it.

But it's working looking up Vonnegut's five tips for how to write a short story. I think of them often. And I follow them always.

If you paste it in the way you would a normal link, it'll work.

Just type the words "see this video" and then highlight the words and then click the little paperclip at the top right of the post box (just to the left of the mountain icon and the three vertical dots) and then paste in the URL link and hit 'insert".

Like this: See This Video

If you want, delete the video and just copy/paste my blue text above. Should work.

 

[gettingby]

Got it! Sorry about that. I didn't even know how to do that until just now.

 

[Unimportant]

Got it! Sorry about that. I didn't even know how to do that until just now.

Awesome! It's good to learn something new every day

 

[martined]

From the pacing, to the style, to the focus, to preferred embellishments and vocabulary; how do you write your short stories?

Do you focus on characters? Is it their actions, ideals, or development that you write about? Or perhaps you care more about the setting, and what the surroundings are like; describing the place to set the mood. Maybe you put special attention towards the idea or lesson of the story.
What is the pacing like, is it slow with a handful of scenes, or quick with a long time span? The cliffhangers leave the audience hooked while a rounded end gives proper closure. Is it mystery for the reader to understand what they are reading, or is it explained in the beginning?
What are your prefered vocabulary words or phrases? Every writer has a favorite (or multiple) embellishments they use. Child, adult, humor, romance, etc. which is your target audience and genre?

What do you struggle or excel in writing short stories? The smaller word count may frustrate you, or having a well rounded climax and resolution may challenge you. What do you like about your writing versus what do you wish to improve? Why do you write short stories? Do your works have one style and theme, or are they mixed?

Possibly take a closer look into your stylistic choices and see what input, tips, and tricks others might have for you! This was opened to explain your stylistic choices for your writing, what you like about it, and what you what to improve.

I have to have a solid idea first, that has survived marinating in my head for at least a fortnight. If it stays for that long then I set about writing. I never consider the length of the short story when I'm writing on my own time, it's gonna be what it's gonna be. I'll submit to magazines based on the length of my story not the other way around (usually).

Sometimes I do have a word count limit, if I'm writing for school or was otherwise asked to write something. If it's a very small word count, (maybe sub 1500), I'll come up with a banger first sentence, let it marinate while I come up with a story that that doesn't let that first sentence down.

Back to my regular process-- I have an idea that has survived two weeks of marination. It is always going to be about ONE thing, not two things not more than that. I have to make sure I have a solid grasp of that thing, because it's gonna be my lifeline since what comes next is going to be chaotic asf.

So, basically, I write. I tend to write body horror, I tend to write queer stories, I tend to write about sex and drugs and satanic rituals or whatever manner of evil shit strikes me at that time. Whatever the thing is about, is what it's about, but I have a philosophy of weirdness and abstraction in my writing right now. There needs to be an internal logic no matter how weird and abstract it is. I aim for feeling in my short stories, and I want to convey a certain experience, but I do NOT want it to be inaccessibe.

I don't really have a process yet, I know I need to develop one. I just write, and it's terrible, and I keep hammering at it until it makes some kind of sense, and the story works, but it still retains 'feeling'. Very inefficient process the way I do it.

I like how cerebral my writing is, I like the feeling of it when it's done.

I don't like how long it takes to get to that point of doneness, more so the same stupid twists and turns I take that I never seem to learn from.

 

[Harlow451]

Sometimes they start off as a conversation between two people. Then I introduce conflict or a problem that one of them has to solve. Or other times I have a whole idea for a story and i do a little outline and then start to write within that scope.

Right now I'm working on a project where all the stories are connected in some way.

 

[U2Girl1966]

HOW did I miss this thread?
I write as ideas come to me, or from writing prompts and in a couple of cases, I've written out dreams. (Two of those have been published)
Sometimes it takes a couple of days to crank out a story, sometimes a few hours. It always various. I just kinda go with the flow.

 

[Gladdest]

I don't have any strategy when writing. But, one tool that helps me is to read other people's work. I get inspired easily, so I find that if I am running out of steam, I look for good short stories written by others, and after reading it, It gives me an idea of what a story can be or should read like, and I find that it helps to guides my own writing. Unfortunately, the process is slow, so it take me way way too long to finish writing one piece.

I can never write to an idea, and I can never for the life of me, figure out a plot. I am okay with building a character backstory, and I can build up the beginning of a world/setting, or write about a topic. But, from personal experience, that is never enough to sustain a story past the second paragraph.

My strengths are description, creating backstory.
My weakness figuring out plot details, pushing forward a plot, creating reader immersion.

 

[Gladdest]

It always starts with plot for me and then builds itself out from there. Idk about anybody else but-- barring major plot points-- the story usually reveals itself (I've heard a number of big authors explain it this way). By that I mean I usually key in on certain details that carry over and over again until I have some decent substance. Combining that with plot structure gets me to the last sentence.

> By that I mean I usually key in on certain details that carry over and over again until I have some decent substance. Combining that with plot structure gets me to the last sentence.

This is a great strategy.