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.