Creative Writing Week 2: An Introduction to Writing Short Stories

Warm-up: Exercising your voice

Having a good rant on the page can be a great exercise for warming up the voice. See this poem here by Steve Scafidi: “To Whoever Set My Truck On Fire”  from Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer (LSU, 2001).

The writer gives himself permission to be firey, strong, kind, murderous and bewildered all in one poem.

Ask yourself: What do you feel strongly about? Then freewrite on the subject. Don't hold back!

Short Stories:

When I grow up ;) I'd like to write a novel! Writing short stories has been a great place to start. Many of the elements of writing a novel: plot, character, theme, point of view can be found in the short story. The length of a short story can vary but usually between 1000 to 6000 words. Anything under is usually labelled 'Flash Fiction' or 'Micro Fiction'.

It took me a long time to gather enough resources and to learn the skills I needed to get started with short story writing. I'm still developing this skill, but many of the ideas and elements below have really helped. I'm sure you can discover more helpful tools, there are many books and blogs on this subject, but here's a few to get started. 

How to begin? 

Which of these short story beginnings make you want to read on?

'They can't shave their heads every day like they wish they could, so their tattoos show through stubble. Little black hairs like iron filings stuck on magnets.' From Mines by Susan Straight.

'The woman showed him into a small room, not unlike a doctor's waiting room except all the magazines on the table seemed to be about fish packing and frozen foods.' From Trawl by William Bedford.

'Dear Friends and family, by the time you get this this letter I will be dead.' From The Last You'll Hear From Me by David Sedaris.

'In the kitchen, he poured another drink and looked at the bedroom suite in his front yard.  The mattress was stripped and the candy-striped sheets lay beside two pillows on the chiffonier.  Except for that, things looked much the way they had in the bedroom - nightstand and reading lamp on his side of the bed, nightstand and reading lamp on her side. From Why Don't You Dance? by Raymond Carver.

In 1972 my father came back from the moon. From Prison Moon by Molly Black

How will you start your story?

Characters

Your job, as a writer of short fiction–whatever your beliefs–is to put complex personalities on stage and let them strut and fret their brief hour. Perhaps the sound and fury they make will signify something that has more than passing value–that will, in Chekhov’s words, “make [man] see what he is like.” -Rick Demarnus

Appearance. Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character. Action. Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing actions rather than simply listing adjectives. Speech. Develop the character as a person — don’t merely have your character announce important plot details.Thought. Bring the reader into your character’s mind, to show them your character’s unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.

Dialogue

Make your readers hear the pauses between the sentences. Let them see characters lean forward, fidget with their cuticles, avert their eyes, uncross their legs. -Jerome Stern

Point of View

This is a good place to find all the information you need about Point of View. The Beginning Writer.

Plot:

Try the 8 - Point Story Arc as a way of understanding stories and how they work. Read some short stories to see if you can discover these plot elements. 

From, Nigel Watts' Writing A Novel and Getting Published. 

• Stasis
• Trigger
• The quest
• Surprise
• Critical choice
• Climax
• Reversal
• Resolution

Here's a short video to help you get started.

HOW TO WRITE A GREAT SHORT STORY

Some short stories to try this method on before writing in this way: 

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and some free short stories by Anton Chekhov. Think about the stories you have read in the past, do they fit into this plot structure?

Watch Kurt Vonnegut on The Shapes of Stories 
 

Here is a piece in the New York Times about The Seven Basic Plots. Again, try to organise the stories you love into these types of stories. 

If you'd like to read and understand sub-text, I recommend David Baoulene's book: The Story and he has a very helpful bog on the subject HERE

The Bridport Prize accepts stories up to 5,000 words (no minimum). See Short Stops for more ideas of places to read short stories and start learning this craft. 

Goodluck writing short stories!