Writing short stories is a great way to polish your writing
skills and find yourself a great audience at the same time. People love short
stories because they can read it in less than an hour. They can jump in for a
quick read while commuting or while sitting in the dentist’s waiting room.
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Being short doesn’t mean short stories can’t have an impact.
If you know what to put in your story, the story may even be remembered for a
lifetime.
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So, here’s what you need to write a good short story…
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#1. Stick to a central theme
A novel can have more than one central theme but a short
story cannot. Stick to one major theme for the characters to resolve at the end
of the story.
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If you’re having trouble finding a theme to write about,
just look around you for problems that common people must deal with. You could
write about a mother of a newborn who hasn’t slept for days or an elderly worrying
about his pet sugar glider not wanting to eat.
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As long as you have a character with a problem to solve, you’re
good to go.
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#2. Have the ending ready
Ideally, you should already know how the story ends before
you write the first sentence. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss haven’t got the
clue of how season 8 should end. That’s why the storytelling was so bad for
that last season. Seven seasons of build-ups and character growths went down
the drain just like that.
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When you have a clear picture of the ending, every word you
write between the first and last sentence of the story will point to that singular point. With less chance of you
derailing from the ending, it’s easier to keep the short story short.
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#3. Put your characters in a pinch
George R.R. Martin doesn’t hesitate to bury a lovable
character six feet under. You don’t need to put the characters in mortal peril,
but you still need to put your characters in a situation where a direct solution
isn’t so obvious.
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For instance, when a character is kidnapped, don’t make it
so a police officer just happens to pass by and save the day. That’s plain boring.
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#4. Keep extraneous details away
A short story should be no longer than 8,000 words, but many
writers aim around 2,000 to 5,000 words since that’s the normal range.
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To ensure the story doesn’t get overly long, never add
irrelevant details to your story. For instance, if your main character’s
brother has a Tourette syndrome, make sure it’s relevant to the progression of
the plot. If at the end of the story, his condition makes no difference to the
outcome, readers will wonder why you bothered to mention it in the first place.
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#5. Add a strong narrative voice
A narrative voice is the point of view the story is told
from. You’re free to choose a first, second, third-person limited, or third-person
omniscient perspective. It all depends on how you want to depict the fictional
world.
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New writers tend to go with the first-person perspective since
it is arguably the easiest to write. However, consider trying to write in
third-person as it gives you the advantage of an onlooker watching things
unfold. Such perspective allows you to direct the story in more ways than one.
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When the story doesn’t progress as well as you want it to,
change the perspective. You may need to rewrite the whole story, but if that
what it takes to come up with a great story then you have no reason NOT to do
it.
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#7. Let the antagonist shine too
Loki was supposed to be the bad guy in the Marvel universe.
He killed numerous people and tried to do the same to his brother on numerous
occasions. And yet, so many people love him. That’s what happens when you add
depth to a character.
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Loki was not just a madman.
He was an emotionally-unstable, adopted madman, who always felt he wasn’t good
enough. He also showed a different part of him when Frigga, his adopted mother,
died. His act of redemption also helped to put him in many’s people good books.
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#8. Draft first, edit later
There’s no point in trying to get everything right on the
first try. Let your creative juice flow freely. When your first draft is done,
revise it and make the second draft and so on.
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Once you’re satisfy with your work, then you can worry about
things like spelling and grammar. Even then you don’t need to fret since you
can use the online spelling
checker to get everything right.
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