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How to Write a Short Story

Short stories take a moment in time selected from a much larger narrative, compress characters and meaning into a tiny space and (hopefully) create something intense and beautiful.

Ask any writer, and they'll tell you that short stories are one of the most challenging techniques to get right. Yet strangely enough, most beginners undertake this form before any other. It can be all too easy to write a bad short story (believe me, I've penned some real stinkers), but with enough practice not only will you craft some wonderful short fiction, you'll also develop many of the techniques you need to be able to write convincing novels.

DOING A LINFORD

If novel writing is like running a marathon, then a short story is a sprint. There's less distance to travel but you've got to find that special something to get you from start to finish as dynamically as possible. Whether these successful stories are dramatic (think Edgar Allan Poe) or subtle (look at the beautifully crafted tales of Anton Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield or Raymond Carver), the secret is in portraying realistic characters and making the reader care about what happens to them - as much as they would characters in a novel.

CAKE BAKING

Baking a successful short story needs careful consideration of its ingredients. Most short stories develop from an idea, a flash of inspiration from real life or from something you've read or watched on television. One of my short stories was born while watching a TV programme about the world's worst jobs. One man was a body fisherman - somebody who dredged human bodies from the Ganges after they had been laid to rest. It was such a shocking and unusual way of life that I felt compelled to write a story about it.

Of course a short story could just as easily originate from a character, one you're experimenting with or who really piques your interest. Whatever the events of your story, they have to excite you, and have to involve realistic, rounded characters. In short fiction, try to introduce your character as close to the opening of the story as possible - if you delay, you risk losing readers. There isn't a hell of a lot of space to do this, but one way to keep in control is to keep things simple - stick to one main character throughout, either letting them narrate or maintaining a limited thirdperson outlook, keep to a fairly short time span, and try not to lose focus by introducing unnecessary characters or plot lines.

CONFLICT ZONE

Another vital ingredient of the short story is conflict. Characters must be faced with a problem at the outset. Without this 'bait' early on readers probably won't bite. Just remember, though, that conflict doesn't have to be grand - most successful short stories are attractive because they involve conflict on a very subtle and personal level.

If you create realistic characters that engage a reader's interest, then any problem you create, however small, will build up a sense of anxiety, an unbearable suspense. If people care about a character, they will always want to know what happens to them, even if it's just waiting to see if they decide to pick up the phone.

KEEPING IT TOGETHER

Short stories have to be tight or they risk becoming, well, long stories. It's often best to plot out a rough outline of what's going to happen, scene by scene, to stop your story unravelling. But even if you're not sure exactly what's going to happen, remember to constantly question your motives for including a certain description or scene. If your ideas and characters are strong enough, you should feel the plot tugging in one certain direction, with each scene suggesting the one that follows.


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