12 Tips for New Short Story Writers — How to Write a Short Story Today
Grab them by the throat and don’t let them go…
So, you want to be a short story writer, eh?
That’s laudable. I have written hundreds of short stories and published dozens. It can be a lot of fun, and I love being able to do the short concise stories that come with that kind of format, when compared to doing novels.
Novels take a lot of time and preparation to make them work, whereas a short story can be done in a… well... short period of time.
It’s not as long term of a commitment.
Most people who write novels think they can just put out a short story and be done with it, but find the process isn’t quite as easy as they might have thought when starting out.
Short story writing isn’t too difficult on the surface. After all, if you have a plot line or idea, it’s got to be simple to just jot it down and there’s your story.
Right?
Well, the problem is, short stories are a different sort of an animal in and of themselves. With novels, you have time to grow the characters, to feed in descriptiveness and paint the world with your purple prose.
A classic short story in the best sense, though, doesn’t have that time or luxury. Especially with things today, where consumption is key and you have to grab the readers quickly; you have to figure out the certain keys that make a short story not only workable, but sellable.
I figure, since I have done so many of them myself, I’d give you 12 helpful tips to get you going when it comes to these small tales.
Ready?
#1: Figure out your reason.
The first question you really should ask yourself is this: Why do I want to do this?
Not whether you can, but what is the reason?
Like I said before, writing short stories appears, on the surface, easy. But in order to make it truly consumable, you have to make sure a lot of factors are in place that will not only attract the readers, but keep them hooked throughout the rest of the paragraphs.
Some writers of short stories, like me, use them as a loss-leader. We write them, and many get published for free on our websites, or Reddit, Facebook, etc, as a way of attracting readers to our paid content.
You can bring the reader to the website, show them the free content, and they can explore from there the rest of the books you have for sale. Or, another trick is to use them as an attraction for your newsletter, where the real marketing and sales can be done.
Wait. You don’t have a newsletter? More on that in another article.
Other authors use them for cash. Short stories are, when done well, extremely valuable pieces of property. They are an asset, really, no different from your car or your deed to your house.
They are property, and you can make money by selling them outright.
More on that in another article, as well.
Maybe you want to write a short story that is a sort of a side tale from your novels or series. That, too, is a great way to go, because it’ll attract your readers into the bigger worlds you have created, and, trust me, your fans will LOVE it.
Once you figure out your “why” you will find the writing process a lot easier.
#2 Hit Them From The Start
A long time ago, I got some advice from Stephen King. He said, when asked what he thought the most important part of the story was, that the first words were the key.
Hit them hard from the first line.
This is true for novels, and it’s even more so for short stories.
You have an extremely limited amount of space and time to hook your readers in to what you’re trying to convey, and, unfortunately, in most cases, that means the very first lines.
“Once upon a time” no longer really works.
“The barrel of the gun shook as Tony struggled to breathe…” — would be a good hook.
Whose gun? Who’s holding it? Who the hell is Tony?
Instantly the reader’s mind is locked in and is willing, for the next few moments, at least, to give your words the benefit of the doubt, to continue reading.
#3 Story Structure is Still Important
As authors, we understand the importance of story structure in novels. But short fiction still has to have a structure, as well.
There has to be a beginning, a middle and an end of the arc you’re leading the readers through, and you must satisfy each of those needs in order for them to walk away happy. Or whatever emotion you’re trying to lead them to feel.
Again, when you’re able to work with upwards of 100k words, that’s not hard to do. Constraining it into 1500–3000? That’s tough to get pinned.
Be concise with your words. Be choosy on your descriptions. Is it really important the girl had blonde hair and was built like a bombshell? If it’s relevant to the story, then describe it. Use that word count to bring the character to a fuller light.
But if it’s just a woman in the story, and the fact she’s a blonde bombshell doesn’t really enter into what’s going on in the narrative, skip it. Let the reader’s “Theater of the Mind” create what she looks like for you.
The same goes for every other part of the narrative. Does it matter the street is filled with vendors shouting their wares? Perhaps. But can you get by describing that in 100 words or fewer? Likely.
Unless it’s important to the story, skip the purple prose and dig deeper into what’s actually going on with the plot.
Have the arc in place and know where you’re leading the readers. They’ll thank you for the journey if you’ve hit the correct triggers.
#4 Deeper into the Arc
Drop your main character into the thick of the action.
If it’s a thriller, put that MC right into the trouble spot. We don’t need to know their life story from the get-go, or that his gramma used to bake cookies for him when he was sad, UNLESSS that is the relevant part of the story you’re dropping them into.
Romance? Same thing. Date’s gone wrong and she’s gotta figure out how to extricate herself.
Get it? Hook them in, again, with that first line, and make it seem like it’s everything.
Because it is.
After introducing the character and the events taking place, you can structure it, again, with the standard story arc situation.
They’re in trouble, and everything they try to do to remove themselves from it fails. Might even make things worse.
Things get hopeless.
Finally, something allows them to win the day… or not, as the case of the story demands.
That’s the most basic, elemental plot structure you can get, and it works especially well with short fiction.
#5 Hit the reader where it hurts
In short stories, the more primal the emotiveness of the characters and situations are, the better.
Readers are humans. They know what the basic emotions feel like, and you can use that to your advantage. It’s one of the greatest assets you have, and being able to tap into that primal soup of feelings can make or break a story.
Don’t just say they’re mad. Show it. Make the reader feel it, too.
#6 When in doubt, leave it out.
This, again, goes into the idea you have a limited space and a short amount of time to make everything happen.
Tropes are a “thing” because they work. They are, like emotions, primal. Readers instinctively understand the common tropes and you can make use of those to shore up the length of the story.
In fact, if you DON’T have tropes in your story, it’s more likely to not be successful.
I know, I know, everyone wants to be unique. They want to do things so radically different so we can consider them the “outsiders” of the genre.
That’s fine, but don’t expect to sell any of them, and don’t expect your readers to respond in the way you hope for. There’s a place for niche, but this all leads back to the first tip.
You have to ask yourself why.
If you want to be that outside voice, and probably have no one read a thing you write, that’s fine. Go for it, and good luck!
But if you want to actually be successful with it, you have to at least touch on the common threads. They’re common for a reason.
They work.
It’s fine to be outré with parts of your story, and be a little different. You know, giving your own twist into the gut, so to speak.
Different is good. It does have its place. But you have to give your readers enough of a common idea to work with so they have a basis of understanding what you’re trying to do.
Twisting the trope of wizards in the real world to become wizards in a science fiction universe is different and can resonate with people.
Writing a story from the perspective of a vase sitting on a shelf is probably not going to go very far, unless there’s something more to it.
Maybe the vase was witness to some horrible events and wants to tell its side of things. Maybe the vase is happy it was used on a special occasion, and is telling the teacup next to it about what happened.
That’d be a good story.
But just 1500 words describing the vase sitting on the shelf is probably not going to go very far.
#7 Read a lot of short stories.
Writers, really, should be readers first. They should have an understanding, intimately, of how story structure works, how to twist words in a certain way to make the descriptions concise and hard-hitting.
You CAN get that through trial and error, but, really, the best way to learn is by reading the works of others.
Why climb the mountain by creating your own pathway, struggling the whole time, when you can read what others have done before and get a good idea of what can work, and what doesn’t?
See, I don’t mean read only good ones. That’s important, of course, but read short stories that aren’t that great, too, so you can get a baseline of what failed.
Believe me, you can find both great and bad stories everywhere. It’s not that hard.
#8 Titles are just as important as the first words.
In fact, they are the first words, really. If your title doesn’t grab the reader’s eye, they won’t open the pages (or will skip through them in a magazine) before you have a chance to do anything.
Mull over the choices you make when creating titles for the stories, because they give the first glimpse into what the story might be about.
#9 What is your market?
This ties in a bit with the why question, but it’s still important enough to have its own category.
It’s not a bad idea to have in mind the market you’re writing to, and I don’t necessarily mean readers with this one.
Magazines, e-zines, papers, anthologies… they all have their own submission requirements, including word count, story structure, themes and more.
It’s helpful to know you’re writing for a specific market and twist your plot to fit whatever that market may be. You’ll get more “yeses” than no’s when doing this and feel that sting of the rejection letter a little less often.
#10 End Your Story With a Whack
Ernest Hemingway wrote one of the greatest short stories, and he did it in 6 words.
“For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” — Ernest Hemingway
Nothing more, nothing less. Six words that hit with a massive emotion and cut deep.
That’s the kind of thing I am talking about by ending your story with a whack. Whose shoes were they supposed to be? What happened to the baby? Was it even born?
So many things come crashing into the theater of the mind for the reader of those words, and he didn’t have to elaborate more than that.
Short stories are like that. They can leave the reader with such a deep impression in such a short time that it’s hard for them to process.
They have to mull it, to consider it, to fill in the blank spots.
#11 Edit, Edit, Edit
I’ll admit this. Editing is the bane of my existence.
I think it’s because of my blindness. Whenever I do anything on the computer, I have to lean in, squint hard, and endure a lot of pain.
So, not only do I have to edit, cut words, chipping my poor characters to bits while killing my darling words, I also go through a lot of agony.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it.
But I do it, because it’s something we all need to do. Even those who can afford an excellent editor know they have to make it at least legible before sending it off.
Oh, sure, I suppose they could send it to the editor with typos, misprints, errors in structure, and so on. And the editor will gladly accept the large cash chunk that would come with having to go through that kind of material.
They’re willing, but it’s spendy, and frankly, most short stories don’t earn enough money to warrant doling out the lump of change that comes with paying a great editor.
Learn to do some, or perhaps all, of the legwork when it comes to editing.
Just grin and bear it. We all do.
#12 Some things do NOT matter.
I’ve put out a lot of books and even more short stories. When I get in the chronic writer’s mode, I can pump out 6–7k words per day for a lot of days straight.
But that’s one of the things that doesn’t really matter.
How many words per day you can do doesn’t really matter in the long run, because it’s not about the quantity. It’s about the quality.
If you’re putting out 500 good, usable words per day, that’s fine. You could finish up a short story, of standard length, within a day or three.
The software you use also doesn’t matter.
Personally, I use Scrivener and Microsoft Word combined, using Scrivener to put everything into a coherent whole and track the end products, and Word to do a first grammar check pass.
I’ll then use ProWritingAid as a deep-check on all things before anyone else reads a word.
But that doesn’t really matter. For years, I used nothing more than a typewriter and a ream of paper I got on the cheap from Office Depot. And that was just fine.
What matters is the story, and making it a good one.
I hope these tips help you get a better baseline of what you should do with the stories you write.