Tips for the Beginning Short Story Writer

The Initial Sickness

So, you’re going to write the next great American short story. You’ve got the idea, you’ve spent the time to think about it in the shower or in the car and now you’re ready to sit down and write it out. You open up the word processing program of your choice and sit there staring at the blank screen for a few minutes. Heck, maybe you even type a few sentences. Then, thankfully, the phone rings and you can leave it alone for awhile, because let’s face it, the idea you had wasn’t that great anyway. Besides, who would read it?

Now, let’s say you’re at the second stage, where you’ve actually written down several pages, but you go back and read it and decide it is junk after comparing it to the short stories of Frederick Busch, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, William Faulkner or Raymond Carver. You shut down the computer pledging never again to take up the pen, because you’re just not good enough.

Maybe, like me, you’re one of those exceptionally demented people who get through the first two stages of denial, self-flagellation and pain and decide that you can’t get along without putting words to paper and trying your best to make it readable. Maybe you get sick to your stomach or experience blinding headaches or excruciating bowel pains if you go longer than a couple of days without writing a couple of thousand words. If that is the case, then these suggestions are a few that helped me learn to start the process.

On Becoming a Convincing Liar or Learning to Write a Short Story

A short story or any work of fiction is essentially a well rehearsed and well executed lie. If done well, the reader or as I call it the “mark” will be so taken in by your lying ways that they will be transported to the setting you have written about, like or dislike your characters as you decide and eventually come to understand the point about which you are writing. But, let’s not pull any punches or lie to ourselves, any good lie is at least ninety percent truth. So, the first thing we need to do is come up with the lie.

1. Come Up With A Good Idea That Is Both Plausible And Reliable

By plausible, I mean that the idea must appear to be at least in the realm of possibility. Now, does that mean that your story can’t have ghosts, angels, UFO’s, aliens or any other thing that is not part of standard “reality”? Nope. It can have anything in it that you wish, but the characters and the plot of your story must appear to be plausible to the average reader. So, your angels can’t suddenly appear to someone and chop their heads off if earlier in the story that same angel was benign and helpful. Unless of course something happened to that angel to make him or her that way, which leads to the second part of this piece of advice.

Most people like stories where they can rely on the characters to act in a way that is consistent within the story. That is, a character can change within the story, but it must be in response to events that happen within the story itself or that are explained as having happened at some other place and time. It is confusing to the reader to have our detective from the first part of the story who is a hard core smoker to suddenly refuse to smoke halfway through without explaining why. In the short story, of course, this will be much less of a problem than in the longer forms of writing. But, it is something of which to be aware.

2. Write What You Know

This piece of advice is given in every writing class and every writing seminar that I’ve ever attended and from talking to other authors it is given everywhere. There is a reason for it, but I think it bears explaining.

You want to write about events, places and people with which you are familiar. That doesn’t mean that you can’t write about Mars or the Arctic, but you will want to populate those places with people and things that you know. Most readers want to know what YOU think about the human condition, which is why every author is different. So, by all means, write your short story set in Brazil when you are a house husband in Nebraska, but do the research to make it believable and populate it with people and things you know.

3. Make A Map

Some authors start off by writing a complete outline of a story before they put a single word to paper. They know each point in the process. Others, like me, write down a couple of key points and make sure that they are working to hit those points, but don’t have the whole outline. Either way or in any way that you choose, it is best to have some idea of where you want the story to go ahead of time.

WARNING!!! Sometimes the story will NOT go in the direction that you wanted it to go when you initially wrote out the map. Don’t worry, don’t be me when my wife and I are on a trip, it’s okay to stop and ask the voice in your head for directions. You are in charge of the writing; you can make the changes on the map that the story dictates.

Now, On To The Writing!

You’ve got your great idea, you’ve decided that you’re going to write characters and plot that you know and you’ve got you’re map. You’re ready to start the agonizing and fun process known as writing. Here are some tips that have helped me.

1. Start At The Beginning

The hardest part of the actual writing is getting the opening “hook” right. Most of us can name a few opening sentences: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”, “Call me Ishmael.”, “It was a dark and stormy night.”. So, it is incumbent upon you as the author to write a good opening “hook” to get your reader right into the story. Most readers will read the first couple of pages looking for this “hook”, but if you can gain their interest right away they will read the whole thing. Work on it, but don’t obsess about it. That’s for later in the process. Start at the beginning and write.

2. Write, Write Some More And Then Write More Yet

Writers, write. That is the name of the game and that’s what it takes. Very, very few of us are Mozart, most of us are Soliari. Writing takes practice and it takes time. The first few stories you write probably won’t be any good, but they are like learning to play scales on the piano, they teach us to write better simply by giving us practice in the craft of writing. So, write and write a lot. Some writers write every day, which is the standard advice, some writers write in bursts, but all writers write when they can.

3. Finish It!

This is the best piece of advice that I can give you and the one that I am still learning myself. It’s difficult to get someone to read three pages of a short story and then have them ask you, “Where’s the rest of it? I was so interested.”. So, finish what you start even if it isn’t very good or even if it doesn’t make any sense. It’s good practice in any case and it teaches us to finish the project. Writing these articles for Triond has been very good practice for me, especially the article I wrote for HealthMad. It has taught me to finish what I start even (or maybe especially) if it isn’t any good.

4. Edit And Proof

The second hardest part of writing is going back, realizing that you don’t need a section of a story and eliminating what is unnecessary. This is especially true in the short story format. At the time you wrote it, it sounded perfect, but now, it just isn’t cutting it for how the story turned out and it has to go. Don’t be afraid of this part, it’s all part of the process and although it may hurt, get rid of the unnecessary.

When you think that the editing is finished read it through and proof it. Try to find all for the periods, commas and words that you’ve misspelled, or misused and fix them. Nothing is more irritating to the discriminating reader that reading a sloppy author who didn’t take the time to correct “there” when the author obviously meant “their”. Now, you won’t get them all, in fact their may be a few in this very section. Can you find them? *

After you’ve edited it and proofed it, have a trusted friend proofread it as well. They will catch things that you missed, but don’t let them try to change your story unless it makes sense to you. This isn’t their story, it’s yours. Don’t forget that, because it is easy to do.

Viola! The Finished Great American Short Story!

I hope that following these steps will help you in the process of writing your short story. This obviously isn’t the end all be all of the process, but this should help you get started. There are many paths to writing a short story, but most of them share these common elements. Good luck and have a great time!

*The mistakes are “for” when it should be “of” in the second sentence, “that” instead of “than” in the third sentence and “their” rather than “there” in the fourth sentence. Any other mistakes in this article are unintentional and the author of this article should be roundly ridiculed for them in a public place.